by Mayor Willie Brown

During National Women's History Month, we honor the generations of women who have served our nation as doctors and scientists, mothers and politicians, athletes and secretaries. We remember women such as Harriet Truman, who risked her life to forge racial equality as a conductor on the Underground Railroad; Eleanor Roosevelt, who politically empowered women; and Florence Griffith-Joyner, who served as a tremendous example aspiring athletes and achievers.

And while we are seeing an increasing number of women politicians, doctors, lawyers, and executives, inequality still exists. As Mayor, I have made it one of my top priorities to protect diversity and encourage tolerance and equality. In April of 1998, the Board of Supervisors made history by exacting a local ordinance modeled on the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The ordinance, implemented by the Commission on the Status of Women and the CEDAW Task Force, calls on the City and County of San Francisco to protect the human rights of women and girls by addressing discrimination and violence against them.

But we must go beyond CEDAW to ensure an end to violence for San Francisco's women and girls. We must work together as a community and build on the strong legacy of perseverance and strength that women throughout the world have developed in order to solve some of the most pressing problems facing our communities today.

Violence against women affects all socioeconomic groups, cultures, sexual orientations, and ages. According to the United Sates Department of Justice, a woman is beaten every 12 seconds, and one of three women is raped in her lifetime. Locally, the San Francisco Police Department receives 9.500 domestic violence reports and approximately 250 sexual assault reports annually.

As shocking as these statistics may seem, they do not fully reflect the scope and prevalence of sexual assault and domestic violence. Both the FBI and the Department of Justice acknowledge that these crimes are under-reported--the FBI estimates that only one in 10 survivors reports rape to the police, and the Department of Justice asserts that domestic violence is the most under-reported crime.

The Commission on the Status of Women, which fosters the socio-economic, political and educational advancement of San Francisco's women and girls, develops policies and protocols for a comprehensive city-wide response to violence against women, and works to ensure high quality, locally based sexual assault and domestic violence services. In March, the Commission will launch the first city-wide violence-against-women public awareness campaign. The campaign, which will feature billboards in English, Spanish, and Chinese, will provide information about the services available in San Francisco for survivors of domestic violence, including intervention programs, emergency and transitional shelters, sexual assault crisis hotlines, and legal assistance.

It is up to each and every San Franciscan to end the cycle of violence against women--domestic violence and sexual assault are not just women's issues, they are issues that affect our entire community. As Mayor, I have made a pledge to end violence against women, but I need the commitment of all San Franciscans to ensure that the cycle ends.

Domestic violence has traditionally been seen as a secret, something that is not easily discussed, but we all know that violence thrives in silence. Men and women need to talk about these issues in order to forge a solution and an end to the violence. If you need help, or know someone who needs somebody to talk to, please call WOMAN, Inc. at 864-4722, or San Francisco Women Against Rape at 647-RAPE (7273).

Fifty Odd Facts

1. In Kentucky, 50 percent of the people who get married for the first time are teenagers.
2. Kotex was first manufactured as bandages, during W.W.I.
3. Einstein couldn't speak fluently when he was nine. His parents
thought he might be retarded.
4. In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.
5. About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it.
6. You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day than in any other weather.
7. An average person laughs about 15 times a day.
8. Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas.
9. Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.
10. The average person is half an inch taller upon rising in the morning.
11. A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at up to 600 m.p.h.
12. Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark.
14. A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her coffee.
15. A Neanderthal's brain was bigger than yours is.
16. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
17. The average bank teller loses about $250 every year.
18. In 1980, there was only one country in the world with no telephones--Bhutan.
19. Every person has a unique tongue print.
20. Your right lung takes in more air than your left one does.
21. Women's hearts beat faster than men's.
22. Pollsters say that 40 percent of dog and cat owners carry pictures of the pets in their wallets.
23. Bubble gum contains rubber.
24. You can only smell 1/20th as well as a dog.
25. Only 55 percent of all Americans know that the sun is a star.
26. The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in Jello.
27. If you cut off a cockroach's head, it can live for weeks.
28. Most American car horns honk in the key of F.
29. The world population of chickens is about equal to people.
30. Every time Beethoven sat down to write music, he poured ice water over his head.
31. In 75 percent of American households, women manage the money and pay the bills.
32. A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana.
33. About 70 percent of Americans who go to college do it to make more money.
34. It's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands in Kansas.
35. Some toothpaste brands contain antifreeze.
36. Sigmund Freud had a morbid fear of ferns.
37. Millie the White House dog earned more than four times as much as President Bush in 1991.
38. Bird droppings are the chief export of Nauru, an island nation in the Western Pacific.
39. There are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones.
40. Most lipstick contains fish scales.
42. Mosquitoes have teeth.
43. Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray.
44. Hypnotism is banned by public schools in San Diego.
45. The three best-known western names in China: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley.
46. When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food.
47. Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.
48. Twenty-seven percent of U.S. male college students believe life is "a meaningless existential hell."
49. "Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.
50. Aztec emperor Montezuma had a nephew, Cuitlahac, whose name meant "plenty of excrement."

Five Years Ago in the Grapevine

MARCH 1995
*Hundreds of young people representing the YMCA, AmeriCorps, Earth Service Corps and the PRYDE program joined forces with community volunteers Mar. 11 for a massive clean-up and celebration to promote community and enjoyment of McLaren Park.

*Organizers announced May 20 for the 11th annual Visitacion Valley Street Fair.

*A draft environmental impact report published in February described a proposed Norcal and Sanitary Fill expansion and impacts it would have on the surrounding community.

*Revised plans were presented at a February meeting of the Little Hollywood Committee for 48 single family homes to be built at Hester Heights.

Historic Proportions

Match clues to answers.

1986

1. Dictator fled Haiti on Feb. 7 after 28 years in power.
2. Super Bowl XX winners on Jan. 26.
3. Deadly atom radiation released during nuclear plant accident here on Apr. 26.
4. World Series winners on Oct. 27.
5. Heavy fighting here for days in January after coup attempt.
6. Tragedy on Jan. 31 as space shuttle explodes after takeoff.
7. Light plane circles Earth in December without refueling.
8. After 20 years, he was voted out of office in the Philippines.
9. Unsuccessful summit here between U.S. and U.S.S.R.
10. More than 1,200 died from toxic cloud here on Aug. 25.
11. Winner of record sixth Masters golf title on Apr. 15.
12. U.S. planes began bombing mission here on Apr. 15.
13. Soviet spacecraft returned pictures on Mar. 6 of Halley's Comet.
14. Champs of the NBA on June 8.
15. After a facelift, a celebration July 4 for this reopening.
16. More than 175 workers perished here Sept. 16 in a gold mine fire.
17. Spain and Portugal joined this on Jan. 1.
18. Winners of the World Cup soccer title on June 29.

A. South Yemen
B. Voyager
C. South Africa
D. Cameroon
E. Iceland
F. Jack Nicklaus
G. Boston Celtics
H. Libya
I. Vega I
J. Chernobyl
K. Jean-laude Duvalier
L. Argentina
M. Chicago Bears
N. Ferdinand Marcos
O. EEC
P. New York Mets
Q. Challenger
R. Statue of Liberty

Answers: 1-K ; 2-M; 3-J; 4-P; 5-A; 6-Q; 7-B; 8-N; 9-E; 10-D; 11-F; 12-H; 13-I; 14-G; 15-R; 16-C; 17-O; 18-L.

Sez Who?

Match quotes to speakers.

1. "Well begun is half done."
2. "We boil at different degrees."
3. "Force is not a remedy."
4. "To write a diary every day is like returning to one's own vomit."
5. "There were times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails."
6. "Tragedy is if I cut my finger. Comedy is if I walk into an open sewer and die."
7. "To live outside the law, you must be honest."
8. "Science is always wrong. It never solves a problem without creating ten more."
9. "The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much sleep."

A. George Bernard Shaw
B. Spencer Tracy
C. Enoch Powell
D. Ralph Waldo Emerson
E. Mel Brooks
F. Bob Dylan
G. John Bright
H. Aristotle
I. Woody Allen

Answers: 1-H; 2-D; 3-G; 4-C; 5-B; 6-F; 7-I; 8-A; 9-F.