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This
is About the Mission To encourage informed and enlightened women and girls (men, also) to help raise the consciousness of other women so that they, too, will TAKE ACTION through their VOTE on November 2 to remove from office George W. Bush and his right wing conservative supporters in the U.S. Congress, and elect John Kerry for President along with other pro-choice candidates for Congress, thereby, greatly increasing the possibility of Equality, Justice and Freedom for all women and girls. WAKE-UP
WOMEN and GIRLS, This is what I know and believe. All human beings
deserve the freedom and opportunity to be all they can be. Men and boys have
that freedom now. WHY don’t women and girls? For women and girls, this
freedom goes beyond self-fulfillment in all aspects of our lives, our very
lives depend on it. The single most
important and defining difference between the sexes is that women (and some
girls) can give birth to human life. It is this difference that many men (but
not all*), in the position of power at all levels from personal relationships
to the national government, have exploited over the centuries to control and
oppress women and girls. Men, today, continue to express their attitudes of superiority and disrespect when they objectify and use women and girls , resulting in all types of violence , control, and degradation of women. Men’s control of the economic power structure exerts a tremendous force that perpetuates women being exploited and oppressed. During the 18th and 19th centuries, women were treated harshly.
By women being unrecognized
by gender in the Declaration of Independence, signed July 4, 1776 and the
Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1788, and with society’s
concurrence at the time, men were given all the rights and powers to govern,
while women were denied those rights, including the right to vote. Herstory
has indicated that men thought women had inferior brains and , therefore,
not qualified to vote. (I imagine that men had additional ulterior motives.) Thanks to
many, many thousands of dedicated, intelligent, courageous and steadfast women
who endured unimaginable hardships and challenges in prior centuries, women
slowly began to gain rights already enjoyed by men. In
1920 women finally won the right to vote, the one fundamental right that influenced
most all other rights. ( 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the U.S.) During World War II, while men were fighting, (also recognizing the many women served in the Armed Forces) , many women replaced men in factories to manufacture the equipment and supplies needed by our armed forces. Women were not surprised by their abilities and their sense of enjoyment and fulfillment for a job well done. For women, there was no turning back . They wanted to participate in society and life as fully as their abilities and talents would allow them. But those rights would be hard to acquire. Let’s look at the facts, as recently as the early 1960’s, in the United States.
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade decided in favor of a woman’s right to choose whether or not to continue a pregnancy. The Court reserved to the States the right to impose some restrictions. The Court recognized that freedom of reproductive choice is fundamental to women’s lives and their ability to participate fully and equally in society. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackman called Roe v. Wade “a step that had to be taken as we go down the road toward the full emancipation of women.” The conservative religious right activists have continually chipped away at women’s freedom of reproductive choice, locally and nationally, through:
Today, only 13 percent of all the counties in the U. S. provide abortion services. The U.S. Supreme Court is only ONE vote away from repealing Roe v. Wade. The next appointment will seal women’s fate — one way or another — until an Equal Rights Amendment, affirming women’s reproductive FREEDOM of CHOICE as a basic human right, is enacted. *When referring to men throughout this site, I gratefully acknowledge that there are many, many evolved and caring men who want for women the Equality, Justice and Freedom that they enjoy. PRESIDENT
BUSH HAS WAGED WAR Bush, his administration and the conservative, religious right-wing extremists in Congress are dedicated to abolishing a woman’s right to choose , eliminating contraceptives, doing away with sex education in the schools , abolishing Family Planning clinics , packing the courts with anti-choice, anti-abortion judges, and anything else that would promote and adhere to their strict religious ideology. (What country does this remind you of?) To this end, they have enacted hundreds of rules, regulations, mandates, and laws. Some of the recent most egregious are:
We all agree that there are innumerable laws and regulations that control what a woman can and cannot do, personally, with HER body. How many laws can you list that control what a man can and cannot do, personally, with HIS body??? Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, states the obvious when she writes in her book in 1920 , that “Women cannot be truly free until they have complete control of their bodies.” ARE
YOU ANGRY? ARE YOU OUTRAGED?? I PLEDGE TO
TAKE THE FOLLOWING ACTION I will engage as many women (also men) friends, family members, co-workers, and organizations in the process of GOTV(get out the vote). This may involve assisting individuals in registering to vote. I will urge each person to enlist as many of their friends, etc. to get fully involved. This website may be helpful as a beginning. Luckily, a recent program designed by NOW will accomplish the above in an easy and organized way. It’s called: This is a program that will help turn one vote into 10 votes and 10 votes into 100 votes and so on and so on…. Plan your own program or follow the design of 10forchange.org and let’s GET OUT THE VOTE and elect John Kerry , along with pro-choice candidates for Congress, in November. Remember, our very lives depend on their getting elected.
• Feminist Organizations
10
For Change California National Organization for Women
Center
for Reproductive Rights The Feminist Majority Foundation NARAL
Pro-Choice America The
National Organization for Women
Planned
Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. SaveROE.com
• Government
Federal United States House of Representatives Supreme Court of the United States Unites States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Legislative Information Service of The Library of Congress
State For Your State's Official Website:
• United States History Binghamton
University N.Y.
National Women’s History Project
National Women’s History Museum
• Others Emory School of Law MacMillan Law Library Findlaw:
Cases and Code
Newspapers
I am a long time political activist, mother of two daughters and grandmother of three teenage granddaughters. I have been living in San Diego for the past six years and before that I lived in Boulder, CO for 14 years. You may contact me at mwhxera@aol.com. — Martha Wright Hix |
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