Students rally for pro- family movement inHouston In November of this year, more than 30 students raised $25 and travelled over nine hours to attend the Pro-Family Rally in Ho uston. The rally pretested the International Womem' s Year (IWY) which had been funded $5 million by the government for a national convention in Houston and the 50 state convent ions throughout the year leading to it . The purpose of the IWY was to discover what women across America wanted concerning equal rights. The anti-feminists charged that they had been excluded from most of the state convent ions, where the 'delegates were elected and, therefore, the opinion of all women was not represented at the national convention. The belief of the anti-fem ini sts was that the Equal Rights Amendment would not better society, but that it wou ld instead increase federal domination of American life in its demands for federal funding for unemployed housew ives , childcare centers and abortion clinics . It is also considered as a threat to t he family because of its support of lesbianism and homosexuality. The leader of the Pro-Family Rally was Lottie Beth Hobbs, who was also one of the featured speakers of the women's classes during " Facing the Issues. " Held at the Astroarena, the convention was attended by men, women and ch ildren from all over the United States. They filled the 8,500 seats and stood in the aisles so that an estimated 11,000 were packed in the area , One of the main results of the rally was over '12 million signed petitions stating basic beliefs described as "pro-I ife, profamily, anti-feminist and antihomosexual " which were sent to the president. Phyllis Schlafly, national chairwoman of Stop ERA, felt that the rally was a success : " I think what we have accomplished is that we can get more people here on their own who are opposed to what the IWY is doing than they can get here at taxpayer's expense to support what they are doing." Following the rally, representatives from the var ious ant i -feminist organization held a luncheon for congressmen of all the states , Packets of IWY material printed with government funds and distributed at the conferences were prepared and given to the congressmen , based on the belief that they were unaware of the contents of the brochures . In February, Harding students were inv ited to a meeti ng where three women who attended the luncheon reported on the results and gave an update on the progress of the ant i-femini st movement. Arkansas was represented by al l six of its congressmen at the luncheon, and accord ing to the women, wore looks of surpri se at the IWY propaganda , The awakening of many Harding students concerning the ERA issue has led to active participation in the Association of W's (Women Who Want to be Women). The college students, because of their wide range of homestates, have been encouraged to write to their congressmen express ing th e ir convict ions. On the national scene Fighting for her beliefs on the national scene this year was Anita Bryant. She persists, through legal fights to keep her contract with Florida Orange Jui ce and a pie in her face at a news conference, to express her anti-homosexual and pro-family views . Her initial campaign , based in Miami , was called Save Our Children but has si nce been changed to " The National Commission to Protect America' s Children ," She is presently writing a book to be entitled The Survival of Our Nation's Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality, Involvement: What it is all about " I don't want to get involved," has been thl' much too frequent cry of our generation. While noninvolvement may provide selfprotection , an individual who seeks for nothing beyond what i s within hi s casual grasp deprives himself of the blessing of self-fulfillment. Sacrifice i s a necessary prerequisite of involvement. Kevan Jeffords , project leader of the Knight-PhiDeltadevot ional sw ith the Browns, says that as a nursing major, he finds it diff icult to work in the time. " But I got involved with the Browns because I didn't want all of my time to go to nursing . I think you can make t ime for whatever you want to do. " Kevan bel ieves the benefits of involvement has been mutual. " It has helped the club to grow closer. It has helped me personall y in learning to relate to children ." On the other hand, the Browns enjoyed it as well, " The kids really look forward to it. They plan around those Thursday nights that we have set for the devotionals ," Ingrid Melson , who attended the Pro-Family rally in Houston , described it as " the best event I had ever attended in my life ," Invo lvement in the pro-family movement has kept Ingrid in touch with reality . " It's so important. People just don 't realize what the Equal Rights Amendment stands for, The connotations of its principles reaches to complete control of our schools, churches and even our personal and family life," Involvement • Sl
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