On January 21, 2012, Ryan Watson, Beverly Mayfield, and I participated in the Warrior Dash as a way of high-lighting the need for the Equal Rights Amendment in an uplifting, interesting, and positive way. Ryan and I ran while Beverly acted as team support and photographer. I have personally been appalled that not only do people tend to associate ERA with the mythological Bra-Burners, but even worse, many young people and young adults have never heard of the Equal Rights Amendment!
Why would law makers care about an Amendment that their constituents don't know about or care about?
I believe the cause for ratification of ERA has gained ground since the decision to run in the Warrior Dash was announced in June of 2011. So many people, both men and women, have watched as this 55 year old grandmother started from scratch at getting in shape to go the distance in the Warrior Dash. Ryan, Beverly, and I have had many opportunities to talk about ERA with people who previously either knew nothing about it or didn't really care.
More people care today than eight months ago—simply because they found what we were doing interesting, so they asked about our reasons and listened as we gave our explanations.
They are already asking what we are planning to do next!
People Like Sandy Oestreich of the Equal Rights Alliance, and many others, work so hard in keeping ERA before our law-makers, and do a phenomenal job in organizing the work that goes into the political processes (Sandy even had me speaking before the Legislative Delegation last year! I never would have dreamed...). But I see my part in all of this primarily as working to garner grassroots support to back up the hard work she and others are doing with Senate and Congress.
We would love to see supporters of ERA pulling teams together and participating in public events specifically in support of ERA. It doesn't matter how big or small the team. Our Warrior Dash team was only three of us, but it was amazing how interested people were in what we were doing.
Only three of us decided to become Warriors for ERA in the Central Florida Warrior Dash 2012, and I believe grassroots support for the Amendment has increased because of it.
Ratify ERA: It's the RIGHT Thing to Do!
Jocelyn Andersen
Only three states are needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and Florida should be one of them. Why?
Because women are guaranteed only one right under the United States Constitution, and that is the right to vote. This should be unacceptable to all Americans.
The 14th Amendment is often cited as giving women equal rights. It does not. It does not mention women at all but does specify that only men can vote. It is rather antiquated has been suggested that it be repealed.
American women enjoy many privileges today, but they are just that, privileges—not rights. Privileges are easily revoked while rights, on the other hand, are not.
American Women are forced to accept revocable privileges in exchange for rights because we do not enjoy the same level of protection under the United States Constitution that American men do.
Barry Goldstein stated in his Times article that 40 states have determined that gender bias against mothers exists in their family court systems. We need an Equal Rights Amendment to stop this discrimination against women and their children in our family court systems.
Florida Senate Committees have overwhelmingly passed the Equal Rights Amendment, but it is my understanding that the House has never granted even one hearing or vote. I am asking you to support this by granting hearings and by voting to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the state of Florida.
America is just three states away from ratifying an amendment that would guarantee Constitutional equality for all of its citizens, not just its male citizens.
St. Petersburg (FL) January 26, 2012: Founder-President of the National Equal Rights Amendment Alliance and former League of Women Voters member Sandy Oestreich of St. Petersburg will be honored with the "Failure is Impossible" Award for her Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) initiative on February 20, 2012.
Martin County League of Women Voters acknowledges Ms. Oestreich's enduring and pro bono effort to achieve passage of the ERA into the U.S. Constitution. Ms. Oestreich began her ERA career in the 1970s by marching in New York, Virginia and other states to bring the Equal Rights Amendment to full 38-states’ ratifications status so it could pass.
In 2001 she resumed her ERA campaign in partnership with Florida League of Voters while on their board and while in local elected office in 2001, speaking on the ERA issue regularly throughout Florida, the southeast, and in D.C. Sandy says, "We only need three (3) more states to ratify ERA for passage into the Constitution. Florida’s most influential state legislators refuse to hold hearings to vote on ERA because they say, "ERA will 'hurt' business". Not so. ERA language has raised the GDP in other countries by up to NINE PER CENT, boosts state tax revenues and cuts taxpayer expenses for food stamps, Medicaid, court costs and Public Assistance! And, ERA requires no funding."
Ms. Oestreich's non-profit corporations have grown to nearly 300,000 individual members in 326 major organizations, national and international. Her work has resulted in annual ERA ratification bill filings before the Florida legislature since 2003. She helps mentor some of the 6 other states as ERA leaders legislators file their ERA bills; they refer to the ERA www.2PassERA.org web site's documented "Facts for Legislators".
To clarify that ERA is "still viable and contemporaneous", Oestreich's ERA Inc. joined with 3 other states' ERA leaders and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) to create and file the brand-new U.S. Congressional HJRes 47 ERA bill on March 2011. This bill seeks to eliminate the time limit mentioned in the original Equal Rights Amendment's Proposing Clause that can sometimes cause unnecessary obstructions. "Substantive legal arguments exist to show that is a toothless objection. We want to discard this red herring so that ERA can pass, bringing Florida and the nation into the 21st century along with every nation since WWII", Oestreich said.
For details contact: Betty Paterson (772) 288-3283.
I am outraged that Kansas would repeal laws to protect women from aggravated assault at the hands of husbands and boyfriends. Women have fought so long and hard to make what progress we have only to hear that now we are not worth the money it takes to protects us from violence?
In case any of you have not heard, the Shawnee County District Attorney decided last month that he would no longer prosecute domestic violence cases in the city of Topeka. Outraged at the power play by the D.A.—not the threat to the safety of women—the Topeka City Council voted to reduce felony domestic violence cases to “misdemeanor domestic abuse.” They promptly released eighteen offenders without pressing any charges.
This was an issue of power and money between the Topeka City Council and the Shawnee County District Attorney. Women there are considered nothing more than pawns to be sacrificed on the altars of power and money.
We need three things. First we need an Equal Rights Amendment. What happened in Topeka can happen again and again in one city after another until women are reduced to the shape we were in 50 years ago. Don’t say it can’t happen. It just happened in Kansas! An Equal Rights Amendment is the only thing that cannot be changed by a City Council or a simple congressional vote.
Second, Women need to be declared victims of hate crimes. Hate Crime is a legal category used to describe bias motivated violence. Violence against women, especially when perpetrated by a spouse or boyfriend, should be categorized as a hate crime. In most domestic violence cases, women are assaulted because they are women. That makes domestic violence a hate crime.
Hate crime laws enhance penalties associated with conduct that is already criminal under other laws. Conversely, domestic violence laws, by virtue of the language itself, often have the effect of minimizing the severity of criminal conduct in the minds of the prosecutors—as the Shawnee D.A. just demonstrated!
But whether or not the crime was committed because of a generalized sense of male privilege or entitlement or because of a religiously motivated hatred of women due to deeply held complementarian beliefs, what happened in Topeka underscores the need for women to be declared victims of hate crimes as well as the need for an Equal Rights Amendment which would do far more to protect women than local laws which, as demonstrated in Topeka, are easily repealed.
Third, the term “domestic violence” needs to be purged from our legal vocabularies. There is nothing domestic about violence, and such language used to describe violence against women minimizes the severity of the violence in the minds of those who hear such watered down verbiage. A crowbar does less damage when it’s wielded by a husband or boyfriend and smashes into the face of a woman? Aggravated assault is aggravated assault!
Over the past several decades, there has been an appalling apathy concerning getting the Equal Rights Amendment ratified. I hope what happened in Topeka will serve as a wake-up call to us all.
I hope you will all subscribe to this newsletter and forward it to others (sign-up form the will have a permanent place in the side-bar of this blog). We really need to get together on this to stop this backward slide and get things moving forward again!
On January 21, 2012, I will be running in the Warrior Dash, which is a 3.2 mile race from hell. I will be running in support of ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment - ERA.
Why is a 55 year old grandmother of nine planning to compete in a mud-crawling, fire-leaping, extreme run from hell?
Well, I’ll tell you.
I will be sludging through the murky waters of “Alligator Alley” in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, which simply reads: Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex….
Do I think I might win? Not likely, but I will happily dash down river in the “Rio Run” in support of Florida families who are cheated of over $4000 per year in income because many Florida wives and mothers still make only 72 cents on the dollar as compared to men.
Do I think I will finish? You bet. I will trudge through waste deep water and over the logs in the "Dead-Weight Drifter" in support of all American children who are sentenced to the custody of abusive fathers and given limited contact with, or even denied contact with, loving mothers because of gender bias in the family courts (not saying that only fathers are abusive, but it is a fact that the majority of protective parents are mothers. 40 states have already identified gender-bias as a problem in family courts and are working to rectify it, but only an Equal Rights Amendment can really do that!)
As the daughter of a decorated veteran, I appreciate our military and will finish this race in support of U.S. Service-Women who protect and defend the U.S. Constitution, a document that does not protect and defend them.
I will gladly venture into unknown murky waters in the “Slithering Swamp” in support of every girl and boy who is living in an under-privileged home because their mothers do not receive fair salaries or career advancement opportunities simply because they are women.
I will joyously speed through hundreds of tires in “Knee High Hell” in support of the many retirement age women who must continue working or live in poverty because they were unable to pay enough into pension plans and social security due to equal pay laws not being enforced.
I will ecstatically scale my way through the thick palmettos in the “Palmetto Prison” in support of fair salaries and career advancement opportunities for women.
I will delightedly hustle up and over giant straw bales in “Hay Fever” in support of necessary protection from violence against women.
I will cheerfully maneuver over the cargo nets in the “Cargo Climb” in support of a Constitutional Amendment which will secure the birthright of equal treatment for male and female alike. Laws, state ERAs, and the 14th Amendment are no guarantee.
I will enthusiastically fight my way through the water and gale force winds in the “Treacherous Typhoon” in support of mobilizing, organizing, and publicizing the swelling need for an Equal Rights Amendment which is already in place in every nation created since WWII!
I will zealously sprint to the summit on “Hell’s Hill” in support of propelling society forward by unleashing the talent and energies of ALL people, working together for a civilized society.
I will eagerly leap over the warrior fires of the “Warrior Roast” to enhance the dignity of all humankind by proclaiming equality of women and men under the law in perpetuity.
And I will humbly scramble beneath barbed wire in “Muddy Mayhem” in support of every American citizen who does not have equality under the Constitution based on his or her sex. Both sexes should be mentioned in the U.S. Constitution which represents the citizens’ contract with the United States of America.
The U.S. must finally declare that regardless of one's sex, human beings are equal under the law
Women's Rights + Men’s Rights = Equal Rights = Human Rights
What can you do?
Link to this post. Forward this post to your friends. Share this post on your facebook site. Sign the Petition in the sidebar of this blog.
Join the team, “Team ERA!” and support the Equal Rights Amendment by either by running in the race with me or by wearing the “Team ERA!” tee shirt and attending the race as a spectator. If you cannot do either, then buy a shirt and wear it to let others know that you support ERA. Shirt info is in the sidebar of this blog.
Get copies of this blog in brochure form Mail it to State Representatives, Congressmen, and Senators Add a short note letting them know that Ratifying ERA is important to you
Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment It’s the RIGHT Thing to Do!
**Many thanks to Sandy Oestreich, President of the Equal Rights Alliance, for allowing me to quote from her site.
My Son's Radio Interview with Hal Row on 1290 whky about the Holocaust:
Hal Row: Why is it important that we know so much about the Holocaust?
James Andersen: It is one of the most important events of the 20th century. It is one that has shaped our world, and a lot of people don’t realize that. It is important to understand how it happened, how the world allowed it to happen, and to raise awareness to ensure that genocide doesn’t happen, that we as a people can stop it from taking place. You know we have had several genocides in the past since the holocaust. It is lack of understanding, lack of knowing our history, and apathetic attitudes towards it that allowed it to happen. So by raising Holocaust awareness, we can teach our children to take a stand against this type of atrocity in the future.
Hal Row: We’re talking about the Holocaust. What are we talking about, a working definition?
James Andersen: The massacre and genocide of approximately 6 million Jews—state sponsored, systematic—that’s the key words, genocide of approximately 6 million European Jews between 1933 and 1945…
Every discussion about the Holocaust needs to begin with anti Semitism and understanding what motivated these people (the Nazi’s and their collaborators) to do this…
A lot of the killing was done by auxiliary police in Poland, Chekoslavakia, Lithuania. Prisoners of war from the Soviet army from the Ukraine were guards at the camps. When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, they had the locals conduct a census to locate Jews. Local farmers would help, so these were the enemies of the Nazi’s helping to hunt down and identify Jews…
There are different ways to become collaborators…the US and Cuba, and the rest of the world would deny entry to refugee Jews. People who were trying to flee Nazi Germany had nowhere to go, because no one wanted them in their countries…That type of inaction of course, our almost out of sight out of mind attitude, that was a big role. That was what allowed Nazi Germany to carry this as far as they did…
Bev and I had a wonderful time resorting at St. Pete Beach with Sandy Oestreich, President and Founder of the large national organization, the EQUAL RIGHTS ALLIANCE.
Bev, Me, Sandy
Sandy offered me the position of Central Florida Outreach Director of ERA Florida which I gladly accepted. My hope is that equality will cease from being a fearful & divisive factor among women and serve to unite us as there is absolutely nothing to fear from equality but very much to fear from inequality.
Bev & Sandy
The Equal Rights Amendment has nothing to do with either abortion or same sex marriage. It does not regulate those things, in fact, states which have ratified the equal rights amendment have lower numbers of abortions than states which have not. On the other hand, both men and women suffer from inequality under the law from everything from unfair pay and job promotions to oppressive child support and custody rulings. A recent survey concluded that even men are discriminated against when it comes to job promotions and pay raises if they do not support traditional roles concerning men and women.
Sandy & myself (Sandy is the one in the pool)
Sandy (in the pool) & me
The Equal Rights Amendment simply states: "Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Quote from Sandy Oestreich:
"Click on http://www.ratifyeraflorida.net/ to see the video there of President Obama signing the Fair Pay Act and coming close to endorsing the ERA!Do know, though, that only the ERA would undergird that Law. Without ERA, that new Law can be ignored just like the 1964 Equal Pay Act was.Because it was ignored, business has been able to under pay women so that today's Florida working women are paid on average only 72 cents to a man's dollar for the same job!That puts 3 in 7 elderly women into poverty because they never put enough into Social Security nor into their pension earnings. It also robs working families of $4205 per year!Stinks, doesn't it?" End quote.
Some women's groups have chosen to merge their support of the Equal Rights Amendment with other issues such as abortion and same sex marriage (which ERA does not regulate or effect one way or another), but Sandy has chosen to take the high road with the Equal Rights Alliance and focus only on getting the amendment ratified. Kudos to Sandy!
In a few weeks Sandy and I will be attending state legislative sessions together and speaking up in favor of ratifying ERA in Florida. ERA is not a dead issue. Please feel free to contact me regardless of which state you live in if you are interested in becoming involved with the ongoing effort of gaining constitutional equality for all Americans.
