OnLine With Zoe

ERA, the Possibility of Victory

The MSNBC ERA program did a terrible disservice. Aside from only mentioning one of the two strategies, the dozen omissions and ridiculous misappropriations of influence on both sides, it misidentified the opponent.

This is the MOST fundamental problem with the amendment itself. Alice Paul saw it the very day it was voted on in the subcommittee on constitutional amendments. (which the show said was OBSCURE!!).

If you study anything from chess to martial arts, the number one requirement is to know your opponent;

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.                             Sun Tzu, The Art of War

It is not to scare you.  It is not to immobilize you.  It is to empower you to build an effective strategy.  Not knowing who the actual opponent is, entirely disarms you.  Every successful campaign manager, leader, director knows this.  From Schlafly to trump. From Pope Francis to Jeff Bezos.  From good parents to starred generals. 

Phyllis, CPAC, draft, bathrooms, homosexuality, abortion; NONE of these were the opponent then and none of them are the opponent today.  Eleanor Smeal stated it clearly in July of 1982, apparently forgot.  Alice Paul stated it clearly in 1971 to Bernice Sandler on the very day Bunny testified, as Bunny repeated it to me 2012.  The whole of the insurance industry understands it clearly.   The lobby against single-payer healthcare understands it. 

Take a look at what the 27^th Amendment turned out to be, which would have been the ERA.  Take a hard look at the guile of an imposed deadline.  Look at the fact that the 27^th Amendment had NO deadline and it took 202 years, 7 months, and 10 days to pass:  1789 – 1992.    This is not a coincidence. 

Frankly, as we stand on the precipice of a 38th state ratifying, thanks to the unmentioned(!) strategy to remove the deadline, I ask that you do no dismiss me.  Do not toss my advisement.  This is your tool.  This is our tool.  This is the path to women ascending to leadership.  And WOMEN WILL SAVE THE WORLD.  I know it. YOU KNOW IT. 

The opponent is the patriarchal structure that profits from the oppression (ownership) of women.  The explicit inclusion of women in the United States Constitution will disassemble this inequity, case by case, over time.  It is not a piece of paper.  It is not 24 words. It is that the cornerstone of this country will be unable to sustain gender oppression under the law and women will have legal standing to demand rights. 

Baubles distract us.  Myths divert us.  Women supporting the patriarchy obscure the mission. 

Give yourself the winning hand, the leg up, the true possibility of victory.

KNOW the opponent, see its size, know its history, focus on its weakness. 
TAKE THEM OUT.

A Patchwork in Search of a Quilt

As the Women's March is fast approaching, I spent some time reading about the breakups, spats, legitimate arguments, the oppression olympics, the misuse of the word intersectional, the single river splintering into tributaries of self-importance.  All of it is right on time.  Entropy does not only apply to taking a car off the lot or putting a brand-new couch in the living room.  The visionary’s image is clear at inception, the founders embody it and. as it spreads out into more people's consciousnesses, it dilutes rather than reducing into something stronger. 

When I began devouring American Women’s History, it was because I was in the middle of a profound fight for women’s rights.  I wanted to know more about the ERA’s Visionary and understand the obvious entropic degradation to its, then, current status.  What I learned is still unfolding.  Thirty-six years of reading and six of which are dogged, heads-down study is still not enough to fully understand but, certainly, gives me some particular insight.  It also gives me a lot more questions than answers as answers are deeply perishable, dependent on their ineffable environment.   Maybe historians can tell us about life a hundred years ago but never can they measure heart.

The Visionary is all heart, often ignited by an epiphany; as was the case for Alice Paul, Gerda Lerner, Oscar Romero, Mohandas Gandhi and Francis of Assisi. It was not a low boil as was the case with Theresa of Avila or John of the Cross or Robert Greenleaf or Bill W.  The poet slowly peels.  The Visionary is thrown off the horse, stuck by lightening which makes it impossible to measure or ignore.  They are lit up and, regardless of its solitary revelation, must proceed. 

Following the provenance of the idea of liberating American women, there were a handful of spiritual women, mostly Quaker, inspired by the Iroquois, who coalesced a vision over a cup of tea.  Importantly, one essential question remains, liberating from what?  Simply put; invisibility, unpaid labor, non-citizenship, living a relative existence with zero agency.  They were either unrealized or holding varying degrees of realization with proportionate agony.  Let this be stated squarely, the Visionary suffers with seeing full possibility while painfully trying to pare it down to fit the, “conscience of the day,” in hopes of sharing it.

My expertise is studying and testing the heart of Miss Alice Paul.  She was struck with one single insight that never diluted in her 92 years.  She saw that American women will never realize the possibility of society’s equality without explicit, absolute equality in the US Constitution.  She was smart enough to know that the vote was a required stop on the road but never the destination. 

Miss Paul had something that no one today has, no one.  She was absolutely absolute.  Not only was she single-focused but it was irresistible.  Women, old and young, took her direction as orders.  Moreover, they wanted to be trusted with those orders.  Women who had barely spoken in their own parlors, stepped onto truck beds with flyers in hand to speak in open air about their rights, all because Miss Paul’s “violet eyes,” asked them to. 

Perhaps the first woman who posted on Facebook, in November of 2016 calling for a Women’s March, was inspired but it was never a sole vision, with a sole purpose.  Within days it was diluted, distributed, dissected, and the suffocation of entropy was in full swing.  Millions of women with their specific ideas of liberation, of resistance, of protest took the street.  2017 and 2018 held banner marches and 2019 will as well but banners will have many colors, many causes, many agendas.  Each will indicate a fissure, a separate understanding of liberation based on an interpretation and assignment of oppression.

I believe Miss Paul would advise that all of those tributaries would have a more prosperous future if one single item was won; full explicit irrevocable inclusion in the US Constitution.  Her vision assigned a wise priority.  Without that we are but a patchwork in search of a quilt.

As William Carlos Williams wrote,

so much depends
upon
the red wheel barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

 

Secrets I Long to Tell

Clearly I can keep a secret.  I was not clear on any other component though.  Oddly, what really threw me was the crew constantly asking me, “Are you prepared for her to be dead?”  At first it was shocking.  Why would we be doing all of this if she had passed?  Then it was annoying and I wanted to say, yes I hear you.  Yes, I am prepared.

The time it really threw me was when Ann Curry asked me.  The question must be real if Ann Curry is asking me on camera.  My answer to Ann was, I think you will understand more than the crew.  I am a Buddhist.  We are always aware of impermanence, of age, of death.  I do know she is a bit older than I am.  The fact was, I had no idea where she is or what she is doing. The shoot continued which could only mean that no matter the circumstances, it was not going to impede us. 

The question I kept asking was, Can I tell people?  OH NO.  No, you cannot share your photos.  You can not talk about this on social media.  You cannot say who you are looking for.  You cannot tell people if you find her.  Heck, most of the time they didn’t even tell me where we were going.  I got a text the night before.  (virgo, cap rising - steadfast, premeditated, strategic).  My mantra for all 14 days was ~ surrender.

When can I tell people?  The funny thing here is that everyone I asked, anyone I asked, had a very different answer.  The possibility of error was maddening.  The PBS USA office said, I could reveal anything five minutes after they did.  The sole caveat was that the photos I shared could not include the crew.  So that’s what I did.  Remember, I have not seen the show.  It was all like describing a gift before you open it.  In tiny increments, PBS USA revealed this and that.  I followed their lead.

Breathe.  Show and Tell.  I was hoping to meet Sonia Johnson again.  I had not seen her for 36 years.  We parted in the Springfield airport and neither of us was well.  Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I was not just saying goodbye to my sister fasters but also our standing guard.  AND goodbye to the ERA.

Finally, Day 14.  There she was.  – you will have to watch to get the whole story as I traveled to 5 states, recapitulated my summer of 1982, and met up with my Mentor.

PBS, We'll Meet Again
Tuesday, January, 8,  9/8c

Women’s History Month Comes to Long Beach

Maybe it would be better to call it Women’s Month.  Maybe the word, “History” makes it sound like a snooze fest.  The fact is, history is us.  History is our provenance, both good and bad.  And as we spend time on Ancestry dot com, freak out over the loss of family photos and take pride in our roots; we know history is our personal treasure chest.

Years ago, I made a commitment to raise women from invisibility.  I had no idea how bad a situation was but soon found out.  I began by always looking for the women.  In every photo, in every museum, in every event, in every city, and in government.  I discovered that if you look hard enough the answer was filled with information. 

When I visited the Louvre, there were 3 paintings in exhibit by women.  At the Musee D’Orsay there were none.  At the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, they were able to run a data search, there were 423 works in all and 26 are by women.  SIX PERCENT!

In politics, women have never risen above 20%.  The U.N. publishes the list of 195 countries in the order of women in leadership.  In the last two years, the US has fallen from #75 to #100.  Mind you, that means 99 countries are ahead of the USA in women in leadership.

And how does Long Beach fit into this algorithm? 

Let me offer a few observations:

• I found only two women’s names at the foot of The Lonely Sailor on the Bluff.
• Where is Dolores Huerta Park?
• Where is Coretta Scott King Blvd?
• How many statues of women are there in the city?
• How many women are artists or subjects in the mural project, POW WOW?
• What is the city doing for Women’s History Month?

I prefer to offer solutions rather than simply state a problem. 

This year, I am presenting my one woman program, Tea With Alice and Me.  March 30, 7:30 PM, at the Beverly O’Neill Theater.  That evening, you will take a trip with me.  We will follow the incendiary thread of TEA in the (r)evolution of the American Women’s Movement; 1774 – 2018.  In fact, in the last section, there will be photos of some actions right here in Long Beach.

Primarily, this is about a woman most people have never heard of, Miss Alice Paul.  Did you know that before March 3, 1913 - NO ONE had marched to the White House.  Not a protest, not a demonstration, not a parade.  Miss Paul was the first.  She was the first to bring Nonviolent Direct Action to the United States.  Long Beach activists can learn much from Miss Paul.  She has been my inspiration, my North Star, my main muse.  Audience members will see themselves; Pickets, Parades, Banners, - all begun by Miss Alice Paul. 

So far, Long Beach has done just a sliver of a minimum for Women's History Month.  I hope this performance is just the beginning.  I hope that in learning about the VOTE, Equality, and nonviolent direct action, the city will find a rich camaraderie.  Together we can celebrate Women’s History Month by making history and raising women out of invisibility.   That would be a true revolution.

Beverly O’Neill Theater  
March 30, 7:30 PM 
parking included
Tea Reception
Cash wine bar

Tickets available on Eventbrite

 

CEDAW & International Women’s Day Redux @City Council

People asked me if I would speak on LEU. No, there are over 100 people who do that. Besides, this is one of 32 days in the USA calendar year that is legislatively assigned to raising women out of invisibility.

 

Tomorrow is International Women’s Day. Millions of women and girls all over the world will be celebrating, protesting, demonstrating, gathering to bring attention to:

• Educating girls
  
• Protecting women & girls from rape and sexual assault
  
  
• Raising women to positions in leadership

 

It is two years ago tonight I spoke to you about CEDAW; The UN Conventions on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. That night you voted unanimously to “study it.” I am interested in that study.

 

In those two years, The United Sates has fall from #75 in the world in Women in Leadership to #100. In those two years, 25 countries have advanced to surpass the USA in women in Leadership. (total of 194 countries)

 

Two years ago, I invited you to get ahead of the curve. Tonight I am just asking you to get on the curve. #metoo #timesup As of today, there are 34 CEDAW Cites, 11 are in California. There are many reports you can inspect and amend.

 

I am interested in that report you voted on. I hope you take up my interest. It would be nice to see one of the four councilwomen take this up. Maybe it would be even more interesting if one of the men did. Either way,

 

Happy International Women’s Day.

I am a sanctuary person, you are safe with me.

I have not talked about it much. It is not something I felt like amplifying. It would not help me or anyone. So from November 8 through last week, my light was flickering. I suppose I don’t like talking about things which have no whisper of a solution.

February 1st, I dragged myself to hear Rev. Dr. Barber. I have written about him, watched him, love him; never heard him in person.

Occasionally, the spirit just takes over, makes the healthy decision which is a clear demonstration that it is still in there. It is still oiled and ready to go. It may be asleep but not dead.  And so I got on the freeway and hoped.

Going in, I felt that there was nothing I could do about the changed direction of government, about the demolition of human rights, about the backlash.  I felt that at age 68, the equality, the equity, the balance I had invested everything in was vanishing.  It was an unmanageable loss.  It was so much larger than the loss of Sec. Clinton.  In fact it was a growing deadly virus that was unleashed and unpredictable.

You would think after all these years of meditation and study, that the fundamentals of Buddhist practice would have kept me afloat.  It is exactly that seeming failure that made recovery feel impossible.  I wanted to reassemble.  I wanted to get new lamps, fill them with new oil and begin anew as it seemed the old had disappeared, fallen to the trash heap, never to recover and serve again. 

And so it began.  He brought his axe and pick.  He dug in. 

As I told the Long Beach City Council, ~

Last week I had the immeasurable good fortune to hear Rev Dr. William Barber speak.
He was here from North Carolina to receive an honorary doctorate from Occidental College.
He is one of the founders of Moral Mondays, The Forward Together Movement and Repairers of the Breach.

He lives and breathes on the acute intersection of social justice and examined Christianity.
He told us many things that night.
He even got me to sing and clap.     He is irresistible. 

First he captured my mind with his deep understanding of how this moment in history predictably unfurled.
Then he nourished my soul with a call to care for the poor, disenfranchised and marginalized.

But most importantly, he lifted me from a spiritual dark despair by explaining that ~
This is not democrats vs GOP
This is not rich vs poor
This is not thugs vs righteous people

This is a crisis
This is a moral crisis
This is a moral crisis that has been born over centuries and lives in systemic racism, classism and sexism.

Today we are called to mind the light.
Today we are called to be the light.
This is the ultimate call to be a moral society, a moral people, beginning by being a moral person.

This is the moment when we demand morality from ourselves and let that morality pour forward as a beacon to light the way for others to find safety with us.  

Being a sanctuary city is the very least we can do.
To be a Sanctuary City does not just mean protection of those at risk.
To be a Sanctuary City is not just a public statement that we can proudly bear. 

To offer sanctuary to all who love freedom and liberty,
Opens our hearts,
Restores our souls,
It lifts our intentions and prayers above the law
And begins to repair our broken spirit. 

Let us be a sanctuary city.
Let us be a sanctuary to one another.
Let us be a sanctuary to ourselves.

To start, I am a sanctuary person, you are safe with me.

The Quieting of the American Conscience

Conscience by Vincent van Gogh

18 hours later and, with the rising sun, the fog on the windows of the mind is clearing.  I always knew Donald was like that.  It always showed.  Move along, there is nothing new here. 

Conscious women, can I say feminist women, saw it when he divorced Ivana or Marla or dismissed Melania or man-handled Ivanka.  We saw it on the Apprentice.  We saw it with his sons and the slaughter of big game in Africa.  We saw it with his disregard for Trump workers.  With his succession of bankruptcies.  With his opulence.  With his hair, tan and oddly long ties.  With behavior that would send a second grader to the principal’s office and a sophomore to detention.  We have always seen it. 

I think the pain of this explosive revelation that Farenthold facilitated and Access Hollywood with Billy Bush withheld, lies in the slow boil of it all.  How did everyone NOT see it from the start?  That is the immorality of it all.  What has happened to the quieting of the American Conscience? 

What has happened in the pulpit where cash is grabbed and, in some cases, little boys and girls.  What has happened in textbooks in the tacit removal of the mistreatment of the indigenous people, African people, Chinese people, women in total – too many to list.  And we celebrate these atrocities naming them Columbus day or Thanksgiving day.  And, of course, Women’s Equality day which is a titular lie. 

We have sent the Elders into substandard silos of dismissal.  We have used white-out on our Story-Tellers.  We have hidden the suffering and poor who remind us of the calling to generosity and lie in stark contrast under blue tarps with their only loved one, their dog.  We arrest indiscriminately and it appears that the overcrowding of prisons is being solved with outright assassinations on the street.  We medicate people into dysfunction.  We surround cemeteries with fences to promote the worst illusion of all, immortality.

And now we will simplify this boiling pot.  We will tar and feather.  We will drag through the street.  We will make ourselves righteous by vilifying in short and long term public shaming.  When after all it was you and me. 

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul to waste.

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name

I shouted out,
Who killed the Kennedys?
When after all
It was you and me

Let me please introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
And I laid traps for troubadours
Who get killed before they reached Bombay

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name
But what's confusing you
Is just the nature of my game

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
'Cause I'm in need of some restraint

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste,

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name

It isn’t that I believe in the devil.
I believe in Art.
Thank you Keith and Mick

Fair Wages & The City Council

Good Evening Mr. Mayor, Ms ViceMayor, Councilmembers, City Administrators and Citizens,

Over the last year I have been to nine meetings about wages and did not speak.  I finally found my voice at the Temple Israel meeting because this is not an economic crisis, this is not a social crisis, this is a spiritual crisis.

If we rise above our chairs, we can see there are 3 types of speakers lining up before you; professionals, the poor and the not-poor.

The professionals give statistics, identify findings and educate.  They tell us about other cities and the effects of $15 on a worker’s life and an owner’s business.   

The poor ask for relief.  Not for Cost-of-Living which would be much higher, just a promise of relief in small increments.   

The not-poor ask to steady payroll so profits can remain, so business can grow, so customers won’t go to nearby cities where un-livable wages remain.

The one group that is never discussed is the half circle I see before me. 
The half circle of you; the gate way.  The elected voters. 
You are the ones who receive the pleas and weigh the stories
You are the ones who measure the possible outcomes

You think it is political and social.
But I would like to rise and point out, it is spiritual.
It is your ethical thread, your risk, your compass – collective and individual.

As a serious seeker, a social ethicist, an initiated Buddhist monk, let me offer you an insight;

You earned votes and sit in a half circle,
You are a gateway of deciders
   and the fact is -
you are called to this holy position, this sacred trust.
I believe you know what to do.
I trust you. 

2016 Platform Hearing Testimony

Zoe Nicholson
@onlinewithzoe
http://ERAOnceandForAll.com

2016 Democratic Party Platform Hearing
US Constitution

It is unimaginable that I have been writing to the US Congress about the Equal Rights Amendment for 36 years.  It is really nothing compared to the primary author, Alice Paul, who lobbied to her dying day at age 92.  She lobbied for the ERA for 54 years.  And, now, we are on a new precipice of electing a President who is not going to be included in the US Constitution which means she is not required to serve jury duty, pay taxes or allowed to run for president.  Obviously, she had better address this astounding discrepancy January 22, 2017.

As you can see from the extended footnote below¹  I am well aware that my party, the Democratic Party, has been including a call for both the ERA & CEDAW for many years. 

The point is not to INCLUDE it.  The point is to ENACT it.

Now that it is well documented that 94% of Americans believe women should be included in the US Constitution, the questions are

1. How many Americans believe Women are already included in the Constitution?
2. What is the course of action needed to ratify the Amendment?

Strategy ONE

• Introduce it early (Sen. Kennedy used to on March 22.)
• Hold Hearings in the Committee before it gets sent down the pipeline of subcommittees
• Bring the bill to the floor(s)
• Send to the states for ratification
• Push it through state legislations for a super-majority

Strategy TWO

• Introduce bill to delete section 3 of the 1972 ERA applying an artificial deadline
• Pass bill
• Ratify in 3 of the remaining 15 unratified states

Obviously this entire plan rests on these two cornerstones:

• DO MORE THAN ENDORSE THE ERA IN THE 2016 PLATFORM
• TURN CONGRESS BLUE and ELECT the Democratic nominee for President.

As Mrs Burn told her son Harry, August 18, 1920

Dear Son:
Hurrah and vote for suffrage! Don't keep them in doubt! I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs Cattt put the "rat" in ratification.
Your mother

In your Service,

Zoe Nicholson

Founder ERA Once and For All
June 17, 2016

   ^1.2012 Democratic Party Platform

Moving America Forward
Protecting Rights and Freedoms

Civil Rights. We believe in an America where everybody gets a fair shot and everybody plays by the same set of rules. At the core of the Democratic Party is the principle that no one should face discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability status. Democrats support our civil rights statutes and we have stepped up enforcement of laws that prohibit discrimination in the workplace and other settings. We are committed to protecting all communities from violence. We are committed to ending racial, ethnic, and religious profiling and requiring federal, state, and local enforcement agencies to take steps to eliminate the practice, and we continue to support enforcement of Title VI. We are committed to equal opportunity for all Americans and to making sure that every American is treated equally under the law.

"Because of ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' each time I went off to war, no one was at the armory to say goodbye. No one was waiting at the airport when I returned. My partner, George Di Salvo, and I started a family five years ago by adopting two wonderful boys. But I kept their existence secret, because that's what the law required. Not anymore, however. Thanks to the unyielding efforts of President Obama, I can serve my country openly and proudly with my family by my side."—Dr. Vito Imbasciani, Colonel, California National Guard, Medical Service Corps

We are committed to ensuring full equality for women: we reaffirm our support for the Equal Rights Amendment, recommit to enforcing Title IX, support the Paycheck Fairness Act, and will urge ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. We know that putting America back to work is Job One, and we are committed to ensuring that Americans do not face employment discrimination. We support the Employment Non- Discrimination Act because people should not be fired based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

President Obama and the Democratic Party are committed to ensuring all Americans are treated fairly. This administration hosted the first-ever White House Conference on Bullying Prevention and we must continue our work to prevent vicious bullying of young people and support LGBT youth. The President's record, from ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in full cooperation with our military leadership, to passing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, to ensuring same-sex couples can visit each other in the hospital, reflects Democrats' belief that all Americans deserve the same chance to pursue happiness, earn a living, be safe in their communities, serve their country, and take care of the ones they love. The Administration has said that the word ‘family' in immigration includes LGBT relationships in order to protect bi-national families threatened with deportation.

Women. President Obama—the son of a single mother and the father of two daughters—understands that women aren't a special interest group. They are more than half of this country, and issues that affect women also affect families. That is why the first bill he signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which helps women fight back when they are paid less than men, and why we continue to fight to overcome Republican opposition and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to help stop gender discrimination in pay before it starts. And that is why the Justice Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, led by President Obama's appointees, have investigated and prosecuted numerous violations of the nation's civil rights laws, and obtained more than $140 million in relief for victims of gender discrimination. We Democrats will continue to support efforts to ensure that workers can combat gender discrimination in the workplace and to protect women against pregnancy discrimination. And that's why we support passing the Healthy Families Act, broadening the Family and Medical Leave Act, and partnering with states to move toward paid leave.

We understand that economic issues are women's issues, and the challenges of supporting and raising a family are often primarily a woman's responsibility. That's why putting Americans back to work is Job One. That's why the Affordable Care Act especially helps women by guaranteeing they and their families won't become uninsured when they lose their jobs. That's why this administration strengthened Medicare and Medicaid for millions of women and families. And that's why the Affordable Care Act is ending health insurance discrimination against women, and provides women with free access to preventive care, including prenatal screenings, mammograms, cervical cancer screening, breast-feeding supports, and contraception.

"I know firsthand the injustice of gender discrimination in pay: for years I was paid less than my male colleagues, and it took an anonymous note from a colleague to tip me off to the fact that I was being denied equal pay for equal work. I also know firsthand that President Obama takes these issues seriously: the first bill that he signed into law was focused on making sure that other women don't face the same injustice. While the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act won't change my story, I couldn't be prouder of the legislation that bears my name, and I know who is standing up for women and families."—Lilly Ledbetter

We understand that women's rights are civil rights. That's why we reaffirm our support for the ERA, recommit to enforcing Title IX, and will urge ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. That's why we are committed to ending violence against women, why Vice President Joe Biden originally wrote and championed the Violence Against Women Act during his time in the Senate, and why we support reauthorizing and strengthening it now.

The President and the Democratic Party believe that women have a right to control their reproductive choices. Democrats support access to affordable family planning services, and President Obama and Democrats will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers. The Affordable Care Act ensures that women have access to contraception in their health insurance plans, and the President has respected the principle of religious liberty. Democrats support evidence-based and age-appropriate sex education.

Calling Long Beach to be a CEDAW CITY

 

Good evening Mayor Garcia, Vice Mayor Lowenthal Council members, administrators, Citizens of Long Beach;  In particular, thank you Councilwoman Price for calling Long Beach to become a CEDAW CITY

I have been active in the American Women’s Movement for 50 years.  In 1982, I sat on a folding chair in the Illinois State House rotunda and publicly fasted on water for 37 days for the Equal Rights Amendment,which you know never passed and to this day women are not included in the US Constitution.I am a scholar and consultant on the ERA.

Thank you for allowing me to speak on March 1, one of 32 days in the US calendar year which is legislatively assigned to raise women out of invisibility.

 

---

 

• Women hold up more than half the sky
• Women carry water from shore to home, all over the world.
• Across the globe Women bear, feed, clothe and educate the young,
• Care for the sick, aging and dying

and Yet

• We are disposable, discarded, stoned, tortured, gutted of our sexuality and denied education
• We are forced to marry at age 12
• We die in early childbirth
• We are denied reproductive autonomy
• We are raped as a weapon of war
• We are denied mobility up the corporate ladder to driving a car

The US ranks #75 in women in leadership in the world, Behind the likes of China, Nepal, Rwanda

When you have an opportunity like this to protect women, you must throw your arms around it:

• Grab it
• Carry it
• Teach it
• Be it
• DO IT
• BEHAVE as if it is passed

It is the work of only the most advanced privileged people who have this astounding opportunity.  Because you are chambered leaders, you have the chance to bypass the uncivilized behavior of the U.S. Congress, To rise and join the cities and countries that have seen the joy in the morning of valuing women.

I am here to ask you,
To lift the women of Long Beach to hear this global heart beat and be a CEDAW CITY.
Your Mother wants you to do this.
The Grandmothers of all Directions want you to do this.
Stand with me at the clear light of day and say,
that you have protected their daughters worldwide and be a CEDAW CITY.

---

 

AGENDA 16 -0201            The legislation which passed unanimously ~

Recommendation to adopt resolution in support of The Convention of the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and request City Manager to identify a current City Commission such as the Human Relations Commission that will partner with California State

University, Long Beach to complete a gender analysis study of Long Beach. After the gender analysis study is completed the selected City Commission should examine policy reforms as outlined by study and consistent with CEDAW in order to make recommendations to the City Council for implementation of any policy reforms or additional programming that is consistent with goals of CEDAW.