R S V P : Elders Hasn’t Lost Thunder

There was nothing resembling a cloud over recently fired U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders on Wednesday night in the ballroom of the Regent Beverly Wilshire.

“Everyone in this room will continue to be your thunder,” Carol Burnett assured Elders, referring to a remark Elders made while still in office:

“I don’t mind being a lightning rod as long as you’ll be the thunder behind me.”

The members of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles were gathered to celebrate the organization’s 30 years of providing reproductive health care to the community. The honoree was Elders, whose outspoken opinions led to her dismissal from office.

“It will be a great day when telling the truth gets you hired, not fired,” said PPLA board member Mary-Jane Wagle, who said she was thrilled that her three daughters had the chance to meet Elders.

Burnett, also the mother of three daughters, admitted she had to skip daughter Jody’s 28th birthday to attend the event, but noted, “When I told her I couldn’t be at her dinner tonight, she said, “That’s OK, Mom, because I know I was planned.”

Elders thundered through an impassioned speech, exhorting, “If we are ever going to stand up and fight, this is the year to do it.”

She demanded freedom of choice to produce “healthy, educated, motivated children with hope” and stated with characteristic bluntness, “We’ve got to get the politicians out of women’s uteruses.”

Before Elders’ speech, PPLA board President Diane Cooke and her husband, John, joined the evening’s co-chairwomen Tam Dickerson, Geri Hurley and Judy Jones to welcome guests to a cocktail hour. Then came dinner--salad, chicken baked in pastry with fruit with ice cream--at tables decorated with centerpieces designed so each guest could take home a small vase containing pink or white lilies and tulips.

“Yes, people are nervous, as might be expected,” said Cooke, of Planned Parenthood’s position as a lightning rod for anti-abortion violence. “But we are all committed to continue with our mission, as for many women this is the only health care they receive.”

Gil and Suki Garcetti, Jackie Goldberg, Judy Chu, Georgia and David Mercer, and Stan and Melba Sanders were among those joining such board members as Bishop Oliver Garver, the Rev. James Lawson, Judy Reichman-Cates and her husband, Gil, and Toni Zellerbach Haber.

A videotape outlining the organization’s achievements and goals was produced by board member Peggy Elliott Goldwyn, using the talents of director Haskell Wexler.

For added thunder, entertainment was provided by the Crenshaw High School elite choir, who, under the direction of Ira Stevenson, belted out life-enhancing spirituals.