Don Bell Reports

DON BELL REPORTS

A WEEKLY COMMENTARY

Year Twenty-Seven ... Number Seven ... February 15, 1980

THE DRIVE TO RESTRUCTURE THE FAMILY

The controlled communications media keep telling Americans about a threat of war in such far-away places as Iran, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. But, seldom if ever are people told by the kept press a war that has been going on for years right here in the United States; a war that is to reach its climax in 1980 if the gays and libbers have their way. We refer to the war that is being waged by the forces of Humanism against the traditional Christian American family. "Without question, the American family is in trouble," said President Jimmy Carter last July when addressing those attending his reception for the White House Conference on Families (WHCF). But Carter did not intend to defend the Christian concept of the family unit in society. Instead, he appointed a group of libbers, lesbians, pro-abortionists, social actionists, and humanists to a 41-member National Advisory Committe (NAC) to arrange state and national meetings to determine "what is a family" and what role should the federal government have in controlling and "protecting" the American family? On that 41-member committee there is one, and only one, member who is known to oppose ERA, women's liberation, federal child care, abortion and gay rights. She is Barbara Smith, general president of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormons.

The current battle might be said to have begun last November 18 when feminist leader Betty Friedan issued a proclamation that was published in the New York Times, the Milwaukee Journal, and other papers across the country. A report published by the Rockford College Institute places the event in the perspective of time. It begins: "Two weeks after the Holy Man of the Shiite fanatics became the jailer of American embassy personnel, asserting that 'America is the great Satan,' the Holy Woman of the feminist fanatics, Betty Friedan, issued her manifesto which proclaimed that the traditional concepts of the family, and of the workplace, constitute another Satan ..." Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, a founder of NOW, convener of the National Women's Political Caucus, mobilizer of the Women's Strike for Equality, etc., called for the restructuring of the institutions of home and work. Timed with her proclamation was the publishing by thirty-three women's magazines of a coordinated and intensive push for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. The total circulation of those publications is said to be about sixty million.

This ERA drive and Friedan's manifesto served as a prelude to the calling of a "National Assembly on the Future of the Family," held in New York City under the aegis of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. Friedan chaired the gathering, again calling for the "restructuring of the institutions of home and work." According to Friedan, "restructuring" means providing full legal status as a family to any couple or cluster of people that calls itself a family. NOW's definition of a family is "two or more people who share resources, share responsibility for decisions, share values and goals, and have commitments to one another over time. The family is that climate one 'comes home to' and it is this network of sharing and commitment that most accurately describes the family unit regardless of blood, legal ties, adoption, or marriage." (Unquote; emphasis added)

At this assembly of "family restructurers" the program listed 95 organizations as co-sponsors, all of whom promote ERA and women's lib, and specialize in one or more associated activities. Co-sponsors included: The Coalition of Labor Union Women, twelve organizations representing various minority groups, nine organizations claiming a religious base, eleven related to the family, seven of educational orientation, eleven from other professions, six concerned with the population growth, eleven promoting particular civic or political programs and sixteen general associations of women such as the Association of Junior Leagues, the American Association of Women's Clubs, etc., etc. The panelists included Mary Calderone, "the grand old lady of the sexual liberation movement," Benjamin Spock, radical philanthropist Stewart Mott, TV pornoproducer Norman Lear. And the forces that mobilized in behalf of this National Assembly on the Future of the Family even caused the Communist Party (USA) to change its tactics. Originally, for its own "divide to conquer" reasons, communists were told to opposite ERA. However, now it backs the ERA movement because, as the Daily World of October 18, 1979 reported: "The active forces (for ERA) now include every trade union, the Black community, the Chicano, the Puerto Rican, and the Native American communities. The struggle to ratify the ERA presently incorporates demands and unites forces that are moving toward a more conscious anti-monopoly, prounion stand, and it incorporates forces that are consistently antiracist. Clearly the ratification of ERA demands new priorities and active support."

A real disgrace -- and danger -- of this particular assembly was the fact that it was supported not just by leftist and radical individuals and the expected tax-exempt foundations, but also by twenty-two corporations that represent what is called by stock brokers "blue-chip America." Supporting Betty Friedan's Assembly were such corporations as General Motors, McDonalds, Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills, Connecticut General Life, Esmark, Celanese, etc. Perhaps the directors of these multinationals should be reminded that a prominent libber author, Willie Mae Reid, in "Which Way for the Women's Movement" wrote:

All the changes that women are demanding could be achieved if the brick wall of capitalism wasn't standing in the way.

As we said, the battle began with this assembly. Then the Carter-appointed libber-packed National Advisory Committee went to work "to stimulate national discussion of the state of American families..." Under the title "White House Conference Shapes Up As Gay Affair," Human Events of February 16, 1980, reported: "With state activists in preparation for this summer's White House Conference on Families now in full swing, the whole operation is beginning to bear an uncanny resemblance to the 1977 Conference on the International Women's Year .. Now, thanks to Jimmy Carter, the same groups who dominated the 1977 meeting have been given virtually complete organizational control of this year's White House Conference, and the results could have been predicted. As Rosemary Thomson of Illinois ... an opponent of WHCF ... told Human Events last week: 'I was a delegate to the women's conference in Houston. So I have been through this kind of thing before and know what to recognize ... At IWY, they called in the name of women's rights for ERA, abortion, gay rights, federal day-care, minimum guaranteed annual wage, national health insurance, to name a few. Now comes the White House Conference on Families, and at the regional hearings all around the country, in the name of strengthening the family, we need ERA, national health insurance, the whole ball of wax..." (unquote).

Even more leftist than Carter's official National Advisory Committee is an organization which was spawned by Betty Friedan's "National Assembly." Called the "Coalition for the White House Conference on Families." Not a government organized group, it enjoys an especially close relationship to the official NAC because it is composed of such organizations as Planned Parenthood, National Gay Task Force, American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors & Therapists, the National Council of Churches, Zero Population Growth and the National Alliance of Optional Parenthood. This coalition has been given much of the organizational responsibility for the White House Conference.

But there was opposition. Having been shut out or ignored at the Houston conference in 1977, a Pro-Family Coalition on the WHCF was formed to coordinate efforts of the multitude of Christian and grassroots organizations across the country who are anti-abortion, anti-ERA, and who support traditional Christian American family morals. This coalition scored some remarkable early victories. In Virginia, first State to elect any conference delegates, pro-family forces elected 22 of the 24 delegates on the ballot. In Oklahoma the pro-family groups won all eight of the "elective" positions; in South Dakota, 2 out of 4. But the libbers were aghast and, as with ERA ratification, they were able to have the rules changed in the middle of the game. Original rules were stacked in favor of the gays and libbers. In choosing State delegates to attend the National Conference, the State Governor was to appoint 30%, 40% would be selected "to reflect the diverse interests of the State," and only the 30% remaining would actually be elected by the public. They called this "peer election." But when the pro-life coalition began winning that 30% election, NAC chairman Jim Tucker suddenly decided that "peer election" really meant "random selections," a trick of semantics which meant that the same old gang that ran the 1977 Women's Conference at Houston, would also run the 1980 White House Conference. As the Human Events article affirmed, it's a "taxpayer rip-off, an intellectual fraud and a perversion ... With friends like this, the family doesn't need any enemies."

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THE WORLD OF DAVID ROCKEFELLER
We found the following interesting, thought we'd
pass it on. It's a review of a television program
by Cecil Smith, appeared in the Los Angeles Times
of February 8, 1980.

On "Bill Moyers' Journal" tonight, Moyers searches for a metaphor to properly designate the world of high finance and David Rockefeller's place in it. At one point while pacing in St. Peter's Square in Rome, he decides that the world financial establishment, which crosses all political, religious, cultural and rational frontiers, is like the church itself -- a Universal Church of Money, in which Rockefeller, if not the Pope, would be at least a ranking cardinal.

Later, Moyer decides that perhaps a better metaphor of the Rockefeller position is the crown. The international banker is "like a sovereign of old," conducting his affairs with ceremony and elegance. Still later in the program, he decides that what Rockefeller is, really, is the most conspicuous member of the world's ruling class.

Whatever label one uses, Moyer's report on "The World of David Rockefeller" ... is a fascinating 90-minute journey, in which the affable banker allows Moyers and producer/cameraman Dave Grubin to accompany him on a journey aboard a private jet to the World Bank and Monetary Fund convention in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, with stops at Ireland, France, Italy and Germany for Rockefeller house calls.

The notion of Rockefeller royalty is obvious. Wherever he goes, the international banker is met by heads of state, by presidents and prime ministers, as well as financial leaders. A telephone call on the plane that we overhear includes Rockefeller's report of a dinner with King Hussein. He has a chat with Moyers about his friendship with the deposed Shah of Iran.

This is an intimate portrait of a man of vast power and resources, whose discussions of bank loans deal in billions to nations. The Belgrade convention draws some 6,000 financial chiefs from almost every nation; it is the first time the World Bank conclave has been held in a Communist country. Rockefeller not only is a towering figure among the world financial leaders but is closeted at one point with President Tito. There are intimate moments -- Rockefeller buying wool socks at Shannon airport and discussing bargains there. ("I know we have inflation," Moyers says, "when a Rockefeller seeks bargains!") At a three-star restaurant in France where the Rockefeller party is served a sumptuous meal, the proprietor tells Moyers his next VIP guest will be a queen. She will not get the treatment Rockefeller got, however -- "his crown is much more secure."

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Rosemary Thomson of Illinois gave this update of ways in which WHCF steering committees are rigging state meetings to prevent the election of pro-family delegates to the National White House Conference of Families:

New York. 15 days prior notice of the election of delegates was required but ignored. Information regarding the election was denied the pro-family people. Nominations from the floor were denied and only previously chosen candidates were allowed to be voted on.
Mississippi. Contrary to guidelines, citizens wishing to attend the State conference first had to be elected at regional meetings. Only the delegates thus elected could vote for the 30% of State delegates who might attend the National WHCF. Also, at least one humanist must be on workshop panels where family concerns were discussed.
Illinois. Illinois Women's Agenda to Ratify ERA is privy to advance information, since IWA's coordinator is a member of the WHCF National Advisory Committee. IWA is a project of the Midwest Women's Center, whose ass't chairman is the executive director of Playboy Foundation.
Kansas. The WHCF steering committee votd to appoint all delegates, ignored the guideline requiring that at least 30% of each State delegation was to be elected.
Wisconsin. Facilitators for WHCF workshops must take two days of training at the Institute of Cultural Affairs, a worldwide "Sensitivity Training" organization with "emphasis on methods which enable local residents to plan and implement socio-economic change..." This organization is a spin-off from the Ecumenical Institute which trained laymen to promote world government in their churches.
Washington, D.C. The National WHCF Advisory Commission met on January 25th behind closed doors to decide how Virginia's pro-family delegation (which includes even a black female minister) might be disqualified.

Those who are too busy to take an interest in preserving the traditional family unit of society had better find an answer to a question their children may ask: "What was more important than freedom?" They'll want to know.

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