NOCIRC of Japan Newsletter 1993, vol. 2:10,8

NO CIRC OF JAPAN NEWSLETTER
National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource
Centers
Rich Angell, Editor
311 Meiji Machi
Yanago City, Tottori Pref.
683 Japan
Telephone: 0859-34-3795

Vol.2: 10,8  March 1993


The purpose of this newsletter is to unite the people of the
world who are fighting to protect boys and girls from the crimes
of circumcision and other genital mutilation.  This is not
copyrighted material.  All readers are encouraged to make copies
of this newsletter for redistribution.  Readers are also
encouraged to send related material to the editor which might be
included in a future newsletter, and to take action as directed
by the newsletter.  There is no subscription charge, but
financial aid is welcome to help reduce the high cost of printing
and overseas mailing, phone calls, and labor.  On behalf of
children, thank you.


TARGETS, ACTION ALERTS:

While I was in California I bought a copy of the Jan/Feb "Ms."
magazine whose cover story is an article on pp40-45 entitled
"Surviving the Unbelievable:  A First-Person Account of Cult
Ritual Abuse" by Elizabeth S. Rose.  Following are some excerpts:

"I am a survivor of cult ritual abuse.  My thought patterns were
altered through brainwashing and severe psychological abuse. 
Even as an adult, I sometimes find myself trapped in the lies and
threats the cult used to indoctrinate and control me.  Ritual
abuse has been cloaked in darkness for too long.  Out society has
a history of denying and minimizing the existence of all abuse,
particularly ritual abuse.  Many people don't want to face the
fact that ritual abuse occurs in their modern, "civilized"
society.  The horror and grotesqueness of these details are too
much to accept.  People would rather believe that survivors--
particularly women survivors--are crazy.  This keeps many
survivors from coming forward.  In cults, ritual abuse can be
used for the purpose of indoctrinating new members into the cult
belief system.  Cult ritual abuse is devastating to the
individual, and it can also be lethal.  The life of a girl was an
expendable commodity.  In our cult, only female infants were
sacrificed.  Dissociation and repression of memories make
disclosure very difficult.  The victim may not have conscious
awareness that abuse took place.  If memories do emerge years
later, descriptions of the rituals are so bizarre that they are 
often discounted as untrue.  I personally witnessed the removal
of a boy's testicle as part of a ritual ceremony.  Nothing was
used to numb the pain.  He was instructed to tell anyone who
asked that he had been born with only one testicle.  Many cult
rituals focus on sexual themes.  My mother and my best friend
were both raped as part of fertility rituals.  the victim was
strapped to the altar table in front of a ritual gathering and
systematically gang-raped while the fertility rites were
chanted."

Elizabeth S. Rose is the pseudonym of a free-lance writer
currently working on a novel about ritual abuse.  She lives with
her husband in the southeastern U.S.  They have two children who
have never been exposed to cult activities.

GOOD!  I guess that means her children have never been
circumcised.  Seriously, do you see any correlation between the
above passages and circumcision?  Write your feelings to: 
Letters to the Editors, "Ms.," 230 Park Ave., New York, NY 10169


*****************************************************************
The above article also lists several books about and
organizations against ritual abuse and organizations which help
victims of ritual abuse.  Why not give them our addresses?
*****************************************************************


NETWORKING PLAN OUTLINED:

Several months ago, Vol. 1:13 (27 Oct.92), I announced an idea
about networking.  I proposed to design a networking "tree."  In
order to save time, energy, and so on, I would send my
newsletters to several activists.  Each of those activists in
turn would make and send a copy to their assigned activists, who
would then send it to their assigned activists, etc.  Several of
you, over the next few months told me it was a good idea, and
told me you'd be willing to cooperate, but that's as far as it
went.  If finally realized that the only way to do it is to call
people by phone.  So I did.  This week I called 15 of you,
(including some who were not in at the time), and got it done. 
This network is subject to change.  If anyone with access to a
copy machine and a lot of motivation would like to join in or add
someone to your mailing, or if you are receiving more than one
newsletter, or if you no longer want to receive the newsletter,
or if you no longer wish to continue passing them along, please
tell me.  Following is the network plan as of now.  The BOLD
individuals are those who receive the newsletter directly from
yours truly:

RONALD F. GOLDMAN--George Johannesen Jr., D.C. McKnight, Billy
Boyd, Dr. Edward Linkner, Dr. James Snyder.
WAYNE GRIFFITHS--Jeannine Parvati Baker, Jim Bigelow, Dr. David
Chamberlain, Dr. James DeMeo, Dr. Dean Edell, Ron Fisher, Donna
Macris, Dr. James Prescott and others.
BETTIE MALOFIE--14 ETHIC members all across Canada.
JOHN MARK--Billy Boyd (Calif.address), Ted Pong, Dr. George
Denniston, J.C. Jensen, Jim Schaefer.
HARRY MEISLAHN--Paul Boynton, Rex Cutisio, Jim Peron, Dr. Warren
Farrell.
LARRY MURPHY--Two or three activists in South Africa.
ELIZABETH NOBLE--(to be mailed once/month)--Tony Lesce, Steve
Scott, Adam Soothe, Dwayne Vosquil, James Whipple.
JOHN SAWKEY--Tom Anderson, Allen MacDonald, and others in Canada
(except ETHIC people).
JOHN SHANAHAN--John Fleming, Tony Ford, Kevin Newton, and others
in Australia and NZ.
DAN SKOMP--Rex Bullington, John Erickson, Tom Kruzen, Rosemary
Romberg, Dr. Paul Fleiss, Mark Yanagida and others.
WARREN SMITH--D.C. Todd Gestaldo, Mark holland, Douglas
MacArthur, Roger Saquet, Jeff and Mary Hurley and others.
RUSSELL ZANGGER--Hundreds of people all across the U.S. and
Canada.
**I'm looking for a volunteer in Europe to pass it on to Dr.
Michel Odent, Association Contre la Mutilation des Enfants.  Dr.
Frederic LeBoyer, and others.  Please notify me if you are
willing to do so or if you know someone who might.  I need a
volunteer to pass it on to Northport CIRC whose address is noted
below.  Also, it would be great if Tim Sally would include one of
the newsletters in his awesome Action Alerts.  If you are
receiving the newsletter second- or third-hand, please let me
know so I can get a feel for the effectiveness of the system.


FRIENDLY SOURCES:

*    Our friend John Fleming of Australia writes, 21 Feb., "There
is a new FM radio show here every Sunday evening, run by a female
doctor who is very ANTI-circ.  She has already slammed it, but
how about writing and telling her about foreskin restoration?  I
have sent her local and NOCIRC data.  Address:  Dr. 'Feelgood,'
Pillowtalk Program, c/o FOX FM, Box 1019, St. Kilda, VIC.3182.

*    In Vol.2:9 (1 Mar.) I announced Dr. Dean Edell's address in
Fairfax, CA.  That was a mistake.  I have been advised that the
proper address is KGO-TV, 900 Front Street, San Francisco, CA
94111.

*    The correct abbreviation for Ronald F. Goldman's
Circumcision Resource Center is not CIRC as previously noted in
my newsletter, by CRC.

*    Another "Organ"ization:  Northport Circumcision Information
Research Center, P.O. Box 21, Greenlawn, NY 11740-0021.  No
further information at this time.


NEWS, MISCELLANEOUS:

*    Judging by several responses, my situation in Japan needs to
be clarified.  In Vol. 2:6 (8 Feb.) I announced that things
weren't going so well and that I will be leaving soon.  First, I
doubt at this point that I will be fired before June.  Second, I
have every intention of staying in Japan after I leave my current
job.  The question is, Where in Japan?  Don't worry, folks,
NOCIRC-Japan is here to stay indefinitely.  If all goes as
planned, I will go back to the U.S. for two or three weeks in
July and then come back to start my new job.  One last thing: 
you may have noticed that I took the fax number out of the
heading.  That's because the fax machine is not mine, but the
school's, and receiving faxes sometimes causes a little friction
(it doesn't take much) between my boss and me.  For those of you
who already have my FAX number, please go ahead and use it, but
only when there is urgent news.

*    In Vol. 2:8 (22 Feb.) I stated, "(Hillary Clinton) hand-
wrote a letter to Marilyn Milos, so she is fully aware of the
(circumcision) issue."  Here is Tim Sally's response:  "We don't
know that for a fact.  The card Marilyn received was a
handwritten offset printed postcard with a general
acknowledgement, which is what all of us received.  I mention
this 'cause I don't think folks should become complacent,
thinking Hillary is on our side yet.  We still need to lobby
her..."

*    In Vol. 2:3 (18 Jan.) I announced that singers Bobby Brown
and his wife Whitney Houston were expecting in March.  According
to The Daily Yomiuri, they just had their baby.  It's a good
thing it's a girl, for nobody sent me their address so we could
warn them about the truth of circumcision.  Let's be more alert
for opportunities like these.


PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

This circumcision horror story comes from our friend Dan Skomp of
Keaau, Hawaii:

"I personally had my perfectly normal, functional, significant
and beautiful foreskin amputated at age 9 years, during a
"routine" tonsillectomy.  I was not forewarned that my penis
would be involved in the surgery.  I did know, and consent to the
tonsillectomy, as it was supposed to limit my severe and painful
earaches.  It did not limit my earaches.  I awoke in the hospital
with a huge bloody dressing to my penis.  I was horrified,
humiliated, and felt anger, sorrow and deep personal loss.  I now
feel that I was raped, or at least sexually abused.  I was unable
to wear underwear for the whole summer.  Any cloth or touch to
the tender glans was painfully sensitive.  I was left with ugly
skin tags, skin bridges and emotional scars which remain with me
nearly 30 years later.  To this day I am apprehensive if anyone
sees, touches, or becomes intimate with my penis.  I have had a
lifetime of inability to form a stable sexual relationship..."

**If you have any experience you'd like to share, please send it
to the editor.
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