~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE WASH RAG published by Women Against Sexual Harassment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Available on-line ASAP at http://www.washrag.org/ or http://members.tripod.com/~WASHRAG/ along with earlier issues ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Subscribe to e-mail version of this newsletter by going to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WomenAgainstSexualHarassmentNationaland and joining the group. Recent issues are posted here immediately when completed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Issue 11, Number 1 February, 2003 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Contents South Florida Date Rape Drug Experience Electronic Harassment Local News News from our Friends National News International News Teenaged Victims of Sexual Harassment Death of Activists ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cary W. Goldstein, Attorney at Law Divorce/Custody - Palimony - Domestic Torts Licensed in California - Available Nationwide Located in Beverly Hills, California Please address inquiries to: palimony90210(bleep)hotmail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ South Florida Date Rape Drug Experience ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A man by the name of Morton Levine, 54 years old, who resides in Aventura, Florida contacted me through an on-line dating site. Since I am not at work and don't have many venues to meet people, I, as many other people do, utilize an on-line dating service to meet new people and possibly form a friendship or down-the-road, a relationship with someone. Several e-mails were exchanged between Mr. Levine and myself. Eventually, we exchanged cell phone numbers (keeping our anonymity) and after several weeks of speaking by phone, liking what I heard, trying to research who he was, I agreed to meet him in person. I would only meet him in a public place. I took my own car as well. I would never, never allow someone to pick me up at my home, let alone a stranger. Also, I made sure we met at a very crowded area with lots of people. We met in a cocktail lounge of a very exclusive restaurant at first. He was very intelligent, we shared many of the same interests and he had the ability to recite dialogue from all of m favorite foreign films (in their native language, no less), sang showtunes in my ear, conversed about his children, our favorite Mozart concertos and about the world, etc. We had a nice time and agreed to meet again. I met him at a different restaurant in my area, I took my own car, and all necessary precautions. Again, it was a fun evening, he was full of great jokes, intellectual conversation and the like. On our third get together, I drove 30 miles to where he lived in Aventura, Florida, and met him in the "lobby" at his "exclusive residence". I assumed that although I was meeting him at his residence, there was nothing wrong with meeting in the lobby. The valet took my car and we took his car to a very fine restaurant on the intracoastal. I had ordered dinner and had one glass of wine. As we were driving back so I could pick up my car and drive home, I suddenly felt very ill. I was so tired to the point of delirium and felt just horrible. I had asked him if there was a hotel nearby because I wasn't feeling well enough to drive home. He said "no"! I don't know that area and had to believe there was no where to stay. He made a suggestion to go to his Penthouse and he'd make me a cup of coffee and see if I felt better. I agreed to go because I was so ill. I asked if I could sleep on the sofa in the living room until I felt better and his response was "if you think you are going to sleep in my home and not have sex with me, I suggest you leave". He was making unwanted sexual advances towards me and that's when I knew I had to get the hell out of there! I remember being horrified and leaving his apt. immediately (he agreed to go with me to the lobby to fetch my car) although I was sick as a dog. As we were walking down the hall towards the lobby, I remember feeling so horrible and having a sick feeling I had never experienced before and knowing that there was no way I could drive myself 30 miles to home. I was rendered helpless and practically incapacitated at that point. Needless to say, I awoke the next morning next to this man, I was unclothed and totally confused. I knew something had happened, but just wanted to get the hell out of there. I drove home (barely) and I was in bed the entire next day with what appeared to be the worst hang-over I ever had (only one glass of wine, mind you). I would have never thought in one million years that a 54 year old man who was extremely successful, articulate, a father, intelligent would be capable of drugging me or anyone else for sex. It took several days until I realized that he had drugged me. I regret not going to the police at the time, but I was not thinking clearly and it took several days until I realized the full extent of what had been done to me. I wrote the internet site where he had first gotten in touch with me, but they said there was nothing they could do without proof. As an aside, several weeks later I was with friends in the same neighborhood where I had originally met Mr. Levine and there he was again, with a woman, giggling, holding hands, etc. (He must be selecting women to meet from my particular area in South Florida, as opposed to his location 30 miles south of here for a reason). He had walked right by me, glanced at me through the corner of his eye and I literally got up and confronted him about what he had done (with his new "victim" at his side). They both laughed at me and this woman probably thought I was nuts. I am sure she became a victim herself. Another scary thought is that he is still on this internet dating site, prowling around, more than likely looking for his next victim. I have learned that date-rape is not limited to teenage/college campus aged women, but can happen to any woman of any age at any time. I am much more careful about who I meet and always, always try to find out as much as I can about someone, continue to take extreme precautions and will never let my guard down again. If I order a drink and I have to leave the table, the drink comes with me. I always ask for a fresh glass of water when I return, just in case. You can never be cautious enough "Elise S" On January 25, America’s Most Wanted had a story about Andrew Luster, a millionaire who used the date rape drug on women and then video taped the encounters. He was convicted but escaped before sentencing These alleged situations bear too much similarity to situations I was in when I was younger for me to take them lightly. I had to stop going to bars and nightclubs and become more careful about who I associate with. I couldn’t go out with anyone I knew casually any more, I would probably only go out if someone I knew well was along. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Electronic Harassment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I recently read Dorothy Burdick’s Such Things Are Known. (Vantage Press, 1982) The copy I read came from the Dallas, Texas Public Library This was significant to me, as when I left California in 1977, I was living in Redwood City, which abuts on Woodside where Dorothy lived when the events she describe took place. The earliest date that I found in the book was May 1978, which was several years after she and her husband moved to the area. Perhaps what she experienced was what was in store for me if I had remained Dorothy heard voices. She heard them for years, she was still hearing them at the time of the publication of the book She did extensive research on the anomaly, and the references and bibliography alone are reason enough for anyone interested in this subject to try to find a copy of it to read. The last couple of chapters, full of technical jargon and government agency initials, was impossible to digest in total. I just tried to get the gist of the material. It may not have been written by Dorothy, as the style was different. Bells went off every few pages. She was stalked as was I, she had problems with sleep deprivation as did I (I survived for six years on no more than three hours of sleep a night), while she heard voices, I had strange sounds interrupting my sleep. Perhaps this is because whenever I heard voices from my pillow in the ‘60’s, I got up and tore my bed to pieces looking for some electronic device. Neither she nor I was idiot enough to think that God was talking to us. My voices went away when I got a 25 foot cord on my telephone and put it 25 feet away in the living-room when I went to bed. She was very lucky to have a supportive family, I have never had any support except what I could scrounge up on the internet in recent years. She was also lucky to have resources, as the family (living in Woodside should give you a clue) was affluent. I had some. She missed an important clue when she visited her son in Washington State, and the voices went away for the only time in the book when they climbed a remote hill to view Pullman, Washington. I believe she also probably has misunderstood the U. S. Government’s role. Yes, they probably developed the devices for use in spying and modern warfare, but I am convinced organized crime, INCLUDING THE MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS have gotten hold of them and are using them to control anyone who might rain on their parade. Dorothy’s background? Nutrition. Strange that she would write a book critical of the electronics and computer establishments, and I, with my background in electronics d computers, wrote one critical of the medical and pharmaceutical establishments. Perhaps we both accepted the brainwashing of our own discipline but are able to see through the baloney of the other’s. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between. I believe that she also missed the reason she was being harassed. I think, as I already mentioned, they did not have control of her and wanted to prevent anyone with exceptional knowledge from getting into a position to pass it on unvarnished. She was working to get a teaching position at Stanford at the time, and she lectured at Foothill Junior College. If someone told her "all fat is bad for people", she would probably have challenged that up front not kept parroting the "all fat is bad" crap, etc. And the MD’s and pharmaceutical companies have made millions on treating people for health problems they developed because they are deficient in the essential fatty acids they need for optimum health. Maybe because a whole generation of Dorothy Burdicks were "neutralized" by sleep deprivation and electronic harassment, whoever got the position she should have had was probably less qualified and intelligent, and perhaps even one of those intellectual whores who will say anything they are told to say to advance their careers. Or even, horror of horrors, a real whore who will have sex with anyone to advance their careers and actually have no knowledge of the subject except what they are told. I think our government should be criticized for its "Man in Black" approach to the problem of electronic harassment. Since it is obvious that organized crime and probably the governments of every country in the world are using the same spying technology, it seems apparent that the only victims are the citizens of this country. She tried contacting both the police and the FBI. I have been in contact with the local sheriff’s office for at least five years, they pretend, men-in-black-like, that there is nothing there even when I have proven using a bug detector and a frequency counter that there is something there. When a person has problems like this, and they go to law enforcement with them, there should be some place they can be referred to (other than a shrink who will just give them the stigma of being mentally ill) where they can get information on how to protect themselves, how to trace the source of the problem, how to bring charges against the perpetrators. Until this is done, the government deserves to be suspect of being the source of the problems: after all, they did develop the technology that is being used on innocent citizens. If they cannot control the technology, they have a responsibility to help its victims. Search on "Dorothy Burdick" for more information, or go to http://home.att.net/~mcra/burdf10.htm Another victim who has contacted me is Blanche Chavoustie, and she claims that she was the victim of mind control experiments dating back to her childhood, especially experiments at Cornell Medical Center in New York, Hollywood Hospital in Vancouver, B.C. and Syracuse University at Princeton. All are said to be documented. An interview with Wayne Morris on a Toronto, Canada radio station can be read at http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/radio/ckln18.htm. Because there have been so many instances of people committing horrible crimes saying that God told them to do it, it is hard to believe that nobody has put one and one together and come up with two. For example, a woman named Squeeky Frome tried to murder President Carter in San Francisco, and she said she had heard voices that told her to do it. Jimmy Carter has always supported causes that helped the downtrodden. The man who killed John Lennon said he had heard voices that told him to do it. John Lennon was a liberal voice. The Texas woman, Andrea Yates, who murdered her five small children was plagued by voices, including those that told her to kill the children. She was home-schooling her children, preventing anyone in the school system from exposing them to "mind control." John Nash, the brilliant mathematician who got the Nobel Prize for Economics heard voices that ruined his career. He was a non-conformist. Conspiracy Theory, a 1997 film starring Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts, is a scenario which has many aspects similar to Blanche Chavoustie’s experiences. On January 11, the CBS movie was Enemy of the State with Gene Hackman, about the communications industry trying to get legislation passed which is opposed by a senator who they murder. Unwitting witnesses are pursued using electronic surveillance. It is a picture of innocent victims under control by big-brother. On January 14, the ABC Evening news had a sequence about the use of medical technology to "read people’s minds." They said it was used to justify some of the bizarre experiments on mind control being carried on, often on unsuspecting victims. John Walsh had a program on December 31, 2002, about voyeurism (peeping toms) using hidden cameras on his daytime program. He advised women to be cautious, be aware of your surroundings and be careful who you trust. If Blanche Chavoustie’s experiences can be taken seriously, then that includes the psychiatric professionals. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Local News ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The October 25, 2002 Argus Leader had a story about a Webster man, David L. Wagner, found guilty of possessing child pornography. Both TV and the Argus Leader carried stories In October about Andrew Dunn, a jailer in the Brown County Jail who had sex with an inmate. The sex was consensual. He was dismissed. On November 14, 2002 KELO carried a story on the 10:00 news about a Sioux Falls woman named Dawn who was attacked by her husband. They said that one woman in three in the Sioux Falls area is a vistim of abuse and gave the rape and domestic abuse hotline as 1-877-IN-CRISIS. On February 7, 2003, KTIV in Sioux City had a story about the Orange City pedophile, Vander Esche, who was convicted of molesting boys who worked in the Pizza Ranch restaurants he founded, who lost his last appeal and will be serving the ten years to which he was sentenced. The January 31st Argus Leader carried a story about a Rapid City rapist was sentenced to life in prison after admitting to raping a woman and her 11 year old daughter. He had been previously convicted of sexually assaulting a 14 year old girl near Pine Ridge when he was on duty as a tribal reserve police officer. He was sentenced as an habitual offender. The January 21st the Argus Leader carried a story about the sexual assault prevention kits being taken door to door in Iowa City by the University of Iowa Police. On February 24th, the KSFY evening news carried a story about Charles James Benicke, who was caught raping a helpless resident at the Good Samaritan Center, a retirement home in Sioux Falls. He had been raping elderly women at the center for over a year, and admitted to having had sex with that victim over two dozen times. In addition, he admitted to sex with a dozen other female residents. On February 25th, the numbers both were lower, he was thought to have abused only two or three residents. He is being charged with assault on a victim unable to give consent. The Good Samaritan Center should be commended for its quick response in having the perpetrator arrested and charged immediately. The local mentality leads to covering up events like this to avoid publicity. A recent news broad cast from Sioux Falls gave some statistics on registered sex offenders in Minnehaha County of South Dakota, They stated that there are 500 registered sex offenders living there. Minnehaha is the most populous county in South Dakota, Sioux Falls is the county seat. I believe that Sioux Falls has 110,000-120,000 residents, but there are numerous small towns as well as rural residents in the county, I would roughly estimate the population of the county to be between 150,000 and 200,000. That means that there is one registered sex offender for every 300-400 residents. But if you take into consideration that practically all sex offenders are male, and assume half the population is male, that means that one man in 150 to 200 is a registered sex offender. If you assume as I do that half the sex offenders have either not been caught or not been prosecuted, or caught and prosecuted but found innocent as in the recent case in Harrisburg, it seems that there may be one sex offender in every 75 to 100 male residents in Minnehaha County. If you reduced the population of males to those over 15, the rate would be even higher. I can’t help but wonder if the rate is as high elsewhere or if this is just a local trend. If so, then at least South Dakota is first in something. This is so overwhelming, that a person has to wonder how the boosters of the state can keep portraying it as a Conservative Paradise. On the positive side, Judith Meierhenry was appointed as the first woman on the South Dakota Supreme Court, a real milestone. Her husband is a former SD State Attorney General, but we have to believe and hope that she is well qualified and will serve honorably. The South Dakota Board of Regents have banned sex between teachers and students. It is surprising that was necessary. I guess I would have thought that was already the case. Considering the previous remarks, I guess it needed to be clarified. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ News from our Friends ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Miles Foundation sends us information about legislation with regard to spouse abuse of military dependents., in particular, the information that The Armed Forces Domestic Security Act, presented to the President on November 21, 2002, provides that civilian orders of protection shall have the same force and effect on a military installation as such order has within the jurisdiction of the court that issued the order. Milesfdn(bleep)aol.com Willapa Chapter DAWN, Domestic Abuse Womens' Net, has a Web site, http://www.willapadawn.org and is already working to help small businesses, storefront and home-based, get a start or if established, to grow. The Welfare Warriors of Milwaukee report on Fight Back Caroling before Christmas. For more information go to http://www.execpc.com/wmvoice/carols.htm. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ National News ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An item that missed the last newsletter, on August 8, 2002, the ABC Evening News had an item about spouse abuse in the military being very bad, about twice the domestic violence of the civilian population. They gave the statistics of one spouse in three being abused -- hey, that is the same rate as in Sioux Falls, imagine that. The CBS Evening News on December 3, 2002, carried a story about an airline pilot for Dallas based Southwest Airlines, Jeffrey Blackwell, stalking and threatening female passengers. He used passenger lists to get personal information. He harassed passengers all across the country, from California to Pennsylvania. 97% were Southwest Airlines passengers. He threatened them with violence and rape. He was restricted to traveling in New Mexico where he was indited and Maryland where he lives. A report by the National Institute on Media and the Family, featured in an Argus Leader article on December 20, 2002, found that video games are showing an increase in violence against women. They are supposed to be sold only to adults, but according to the article, children have no trouble buying them. On January 12, Law and Order Criminal Intent portrayed a case where harassment was used to try to get a woman to quit her job because her supervisor was involved in criminal activity she was trying to stop. He had her car vandalized so it would fail, and when it did, he murdered her. According to an Argus Leader article of January 13, children are getting more violent towards their teachers and their classmates in schools. They cited numerous situations which the schools have had to deal with. Some experts say that schools have always had troubled children to deal with and that most schools are safe places for children. Federal statistics are not available, but a few state and local statistics show that violence by children is rising. On February 7, 2003, Law and Order Special Victims Unit was about internet child pornography. It is a huge disappointment that the Democratic Senate failed to pass the CEDAW. One would have hoped that it would have at least come up for a vote before the election in order to embarrass the Republicans who voted against it, but the truth may be that it would have also embarrassed the Democrats because of the Democrats who would have voted against it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ International News ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The CBS Evening News on October 24, 2002, carried the information that women were for the first time allowed to vote and run for office in Bahrain, a Persian Gulf country. While some women did run for office, none were elected. On November 1, 2002, Dateline on NBC had a story about a serial killer in the Vancouver, BC area, who murdered over 50 women, all prostitutes, before local authorities arrested a pig farmer. The November 5, 2002 Argus Leader had a story about a mother in Swaziland suing the king of Swaziland, King Mswati III, because he had taken one of her daughters as a wife. He had chosen three women he had seen at a festival and had them taken to a secret location. Many consider it to be an honor to have a daughter chosen, but Lindiwe Dlamini decided to sue when her daughter, Zena Zoraya Mahlangu was taken. It is causing a national crisis. KDLT News on December 6, 2002 had a story about the trains in Manila running with the first car for women only because female passengers complained of so much harassment by male passengers. So they decided to segregate women from men on the trains. While this kind of response makes life easier for the female passengers, it cannot change the behavior of the men. What is next? Segregated schools? Segregated Churches? Abayas? Burkas? Please, people, if you want women’s status to improve, change the men’s behavior. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Teenaged Victims of Sexual Harassment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ from www.StopFamilyViolence.org The Women's Resource Center (WRC) in Lawrence, Massachusetts is facing a contempt of court sanction for refusing to turn over a rape victim's confidential counseling records to the accused rapist's attorney. Unless the court's sanction is overturned, beginning January 31, the WRC will be forced to pay a fine of $500 per day until the records are released - an expense the center cannot afford. Wendy Murphy, visiting scholar at Harvard Law School and pro bono Attorney for the WRC is working on an appeal. "We're seeing a terrible trend of privacy rights violations all across the country," Murphy says. "The communication between a rape victim and rape crisis counselor is supposed to be confidential in every state, but more and more we're seeing defense attorneys and even judges who are whittling away that right. For the sake of victims all across this country, I hope with this appeal, the court will make it clear that no one should ever allow such grotesque invasions of privacy of private people and organizations that have done nothing wrong." If you haven't already signed the "go to jail" petition, please do so NOW at> http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org (scroll down to bottom for the link). According to WOMENSENEWS,-Two managers of a Utah McDonald's forced an 18-year-old girl to jog naked in front of them as punishment for allegedly stealing a child's coin purse, according to a lawsuit the teen-ager filed in federal court. The coin purse was never found and the call was later found to be a hoax. On January 23, ABC Primetime discussed young girls lured into making pornographic movies. The main career they followed was of a woman from Utah. At the end, she said she was making $100,000,00 a year, and won the "Oscar" for best porn actress. When you realize that in many if not most businesses, women are expected to provide sex to get and keep jobs and to get promotions and pay raises, it is not surprising that many women decide to go into prostitution or making pornographic films. In fact, I find them more intelligent and honest than the millions of women who provide sex to employers in exchange for favors, often in minimum wage or lower positions. Why provide sex for a few bucks an hour when you can get hundreds or thousands for doing it? As one news magazine said of young men selling drugs instead of working at McDonalds, it seems almost un-American for a girl to provide sex to an employer at minimum wage instead of earning hundreds or thousands of dollars to do the same thing as a prostitute or porn star. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Death of Activists ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By Peggy Simpson WEnews correspondent The death of Sheila Wellstone, one of the most influential Senate spouses, meant the loss of a leader who brought about historic changes for Battered women and welfare mothers in the United States. More stories about the contributions of her husband, Paul Wellstone, Democrat from Minnesota, and Patsy Mink who represented Hawaii, have been written by persons more authoritative than myself. It is a tragedy for the poor and helpless, who are already under-represented, to lose these advocates. One wants to believe that their deaths were accidents, the Wellstone accident is still under investigation. My own experience would lead me to believe otherwise. Anyone who dares to defy the wealthy and the powerful is taking their own lives in their hands. Ask John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and John Junior, just to mention a few, not to mention John Lennon, Martin Luther King, the liberal talk show host in Denver whose name I have forgotten (please note that conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh ply their evil trade without interruption) and numerous others. Those who want a helpless population to manipulate are ingenious in their methods. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WE’RE ON THE WEB http://www.washrag.org/ and at http://members.tripod.com/~WASHRAG/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This on-line version of THE WASHRAG is being sent to you free. A print version can be obtained by subscribing. In the US, send $10.00 to Women Against Sexual Harassment, P. O. Box 164, Canton, SD 57013-0164. Outside the US, send $20.00 to join. For a sample issue, send a #10 sized SASE. For a Publisher98 print module, e-mail washragezine(bleep)yahoo.com E-mail comments can be sent to washragezine(bleep)yahoo.com. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WomenAgainstSexualHarassmentNational to sign up for a free e-mail subscription to the W.A.S.H. Rag If you do not wish to receive further copies of this newsletter, unsubscribe at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WomenAgainstSexualHarassmentNational ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ copyright 2003 Tesseract Publications, P. O. Box 164 Canton, SD 57013-0164 (605) 987-5070.