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''If you've got an ounce
of humanity in your blood, you will be
moved,'' musician Isaac Hayes said just
before he went onstage Monday
at the first major New York event for all
victims of the Yugoslav war.
The purpose was to raise awareness of the
American Red Cross' toll-free
Help Now fund-raising number,
800-435-7669, not to ask for bucks. But a
lot of heavy hitters -- from Quincy Jones
to CBS Television CEO Leslie
Moonves -- flocked to the Kit Kat Klub,
where performers included
Hayes, Deborah Gibson and Gloria Gaynor.
Speakers included Dr. Ruth
Westheimer, who said as she arrived, ''I'm
not political, but coming
out of Nazi Germany, I know what it means
to be a refugee. We must
stand up and be counted.''
But opinions differed on NATO's actions.
Moonves was to receive an
award Tuesday, and Dan Rather was to
present it. ''But he's still in
Belgrade. That's more important,'' Moonves
said. He added, ''I think
we're doing the right thing. I totally
support the president.''
But Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia,
delighted that Jason Raize of The
Lion King and publicist Robert Zarem had
planned the event, was angry
about the bombing, calling it
''imperialistic.'' ''It reminds me of the
rutting season with two male deer butting
heads,'' she said. ''It's
always the women who have to separate them
and say, 'OK, guys, it's
time to talk.' They should bring back the
legitimate inhabitants of
Kosovo.'' She plans to return to the area
and to ship medicines. (The
princess's family was exiled by the Nazis,
then by the Communists after
World War II.)
Elaine Kaufman of famed Elaine's eatery
said: ''You can't leave the
people there starving to death! We have so
much, we have plenty to give
away.'' She thinks bringing some refugees
to the USA is ''terrific.''
The war has been personalized for her. One
of her waiters is frantic
because ''his parents wouldn't leave the
house (in Kosovo). He's had no
news.''
Organizer Raize is just 23 but was
galvanized by TV coverage. ''The
faces of the people displaced from their
homes were so overwhelming.''
So he got the event moving. The Red Cross
projects spending $100
million in the crisis; it has $13 million
and hopes to raise $1 million
each week.
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