Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 21:21:06 EDT
Subject: Re: Edward W. Said: The president and the baseball player  (fwd)


I am an Arab-American born in this country. 

As a woman and a real femininist of many years, I do not approve of sexual
immorality between employer and employee at a place of business.  I do not
approve of the defendant in a sexual harrassment case lying under oath and
lying before the entire nation and still lying to this day.  Otherwise, we
women will never, never win in these cases so long as men and women say it is
okay to lie about one's sexual escapades under oath, and that regardless of
where the sexual incident occurs it is private.  That is not the law of our
land, nor should it ever be.

As an attorney, I am deeply ashamed of other attorneys who say it is okay to
lie, that the President would not be convicted of perjury, that this whole
issue was a private matter.  It matters to me; it should matter to every
woman, and it should matter to every man who cares about women and their well-
being in a place of employment.  The Oval Office is a place of business; it is
owned by all citizens of these United States.  I find it completely disgusting
that while the President is on the telephone talking to a Congressman, an
intern employed by the White House under his ultimate supervision is
performing oral sex.  Regardless of her culpability, she is less than half his
age and he is the most powerful man in the world.  For his behavior to be
regarded as private behavior would set back women's rights in this area for
many years, back to when other Presidents committed such acts, albeit in
private areas as opposed to the Oval Office.  It was a time when we did not
have laws against sexual harrassment and when men felt it was appropriate to
laugh about such things or to disregard it.

I urge you all to watch C-Span or other stations who televise hearings in the
Congress and many of the speeches at various meetings.  If you do that, what
you learn will not be news filtered through the immorality of the press and
others who care little about ethics in our country.  Even there, you will have
to sift and analyze what you hear.  But, unless you do that, you cannot know
the truth or the motivation behind decisions and acts in our country.

It is in your own best interests not to rely on newspaper reports, but to see
for yourselves firsthand what is really going on.

Betty Molchany
Attorney at Law


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