Pen-Pal Exchange Blossoms Into
Documentary Film
special To The Hoat
Tike two aeU of pen
pals, one in California and
the other In Israel. Have
them correspond during
elementary and junior high
school.
Then bring them all to
gether. It’s all part of an
imaginative program
.called "We Are All One
People," begun by Mrs
Regina Shapiro of Los An
geles and now the subject
of a fascinating education
al film, with the same title,
that has just been made
available for purchase and
rental.
In 1971, Mrs. Shapiro
began tutoring in a poor
Los Angeles neighborhood
Sto selected a class at the
S^urn Street Elementary
School, and began to work
When she first arrived,
the class was complaining
that they had written a
letter to President Nixon,
but had received no reply
“I suggested that if they
wanted to write to some
one. they^ should write to
children in Israel." she
says.
"When the children
wanted to know why they
should write to Israel. I
explained how Israel was
surrounded by hostile coun
tries, and as a result, child
ren their own age had to
PEN-PALS MEET Sara Batach of Beil
Shan deft i greets her pen pal. Valerie
( ales of Los Angeles, in Israel after the
two girls excnanged letters from six
years in an imaginative program called
"V\e Are All One People." begun by a
volunteer inner-city teacher in Los
Angeles named Genie Shapiro With the
help of L A. Mayor Tom Bradley, actor
Tom Bosley and others, the American
teen-agers - three bIaCK5 ana one Korean
Black-flew to Israel to see the country
and meet their Israeli correspondents
"What I found was a really friendly
country with all kinds of amazing things
to see.' Valerie said on returning home
The girls' visit is the subject of a
prize-winning documentary film. "We
Are All One People "
-sleep in- shelters every everyone who was dtscr.m
night. They were really inated against must be
m°vec* .. . Black "There was im
Describing the situation mediate affinity." she
in Israel to inner-city says
children in Los Angeies. "Shortly after I began
look a bit of explanation, tutoring. I was coming to
she recalls, because they Israel for a visit, and I told
didn't know what shelters the children I would bring
were and they thought their letters w ith me." She
said Along the way. she
hoped to lind a place to
distribute the letters to
children who actually slept
in shelters And so it was
then she heard about Beit
Shean. along Israel's
border with Jordan, and
located students at the Gil
boa School who would cor
Public Can Look For Huge Deficits
Continued from Page I
pand arms procurement Dy
» percent between 1980
and 1983, compared to an
expansion of only 60 per
cent during the highly in
flationary Vietnam War
buildup (1965-68). Since the
present buildup Involves
greater relative spending
and the economy remains
- weak and inflation-prone, a
quick recovery from the
present recession would
cause higher inflation than
we experienced during
either the Vietnam or
Korean War periods.
CEP notes that shortages
of skilled labor and produc
tive capacity could greatly
expand the cost of
Reagan’s five year defense
program if the administra
tion’s optimistic inflation
estimates are just a few
percentage points too low.
Position Eroded
The study examines the
argument that civilian
spinoffs from military
research and development
stimulate economic
growth. While it is true that
military research has led
to important discoveries in
some fields, the United
States has had little suc
cess in using these
discoveries to create and
market new products that
will provide jobs and
economic growth. Our vital
high technology industries
are being starved for
capital and scientific and
engineering talent by the
diversion of resources into
military research and
development and procure
ment. The result: Japanese
companies capture larger
and larger shares of high
technology markets.
^UnemptoymentCrtei^^
Military spending will
not solve the nation’s
severe unemployment pro
blem. Few jobs will be
created for semi-skilled
and unskilled workers who
are hardest hit by layoffs
and recessions. Most jobs
will go to technically skill
ed people who presently en
joy a relatively low
unemployment rate.
Moreover, military con
tractors are concentrated
In the sunbelt states, not in
the older industrial regions
of the northeast and
midwest where unemploy
ment is felt most severely.
Reductions in human ser
vices to finance, the
military program have
already hit the nation’s
poorest citizens. Over sixty
percent of those below the
poverty line receive almost
no assistance from social
saiety net programs.
DeGrasse concludes that
"Given our. present
economic crisis, we can ill
afford to waste precious
resources on the Pentagon.
Our economy is being held
hostage by a wasteful
defense bureaucracy that
has exaggerated the threat
we face.’’_
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_Le.MPQng.wBh her children
At first the exchange of"
letters took place only oc
casionally. Pupils on both
sides of the ocean had to
develop their communica
tion skills. Eventually,
however, the classes began
sending letters back and
forth quite regularly.
“We wrote letters simply
because it was a nice thing
to do. but after a while it
got more serious." says
Beit Shean pupil Yael
Darmona.
“In my letters from Va
lerie Cates, she would ask
general questions about life
in Israel." Sara Batash
says, “like how many peo
ple live on akibbutz. what
we do onShabbat. and what
nn family and friends are
like "
By the time the groups
were in junior high, the
Americans were at several
differenLschools But they
formed a club and met
regularly to continue the
correspondence
The Los Angeles student.
Valerie Cates, who had
written a 40 page school
paper on Israel, thought
wistfully about one day
meeting her pen pal. Sarah
Batash Mrs Shapiro then
set about to raise funds fbr
a trip to Israel to be taken
by the American students
Friends urged her to re
cord the visit on film to
keep it alive Eventually
more than $80,000 was on
hand, in donations from
Jewish groups and from
individuals such as actor
Tom Bosley, who paid the
cost of the students' trip.
The 45-minute film,
which has been seen on
nationwide TV. covers the
flight to Israel, the airport
meeting and the 17 days the
children spent with their
pen pals A 28-minute ver
sion is also available Both
ar.- in color and may be
purchased or rented from
Film Fair Communica
(ions. 10900 Ventura Blvd .
Studio City. California
91604.
Said the director of the
National Organizations Ad
visory Council for Child
ren. Stephen Menchini
We Are All One People' is
a lyric and exciting piece
that evokes a strong and
telling sense of justice and
compassion It speaks
beautifully to the global
perspective of a world that
is concerned with quality of
life " .
Are You
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