ERA 1, 2, 3:
1. Support the Cause! (See that Big Green Button?)
2. Forward to other Women's Rights thought leaders.
3. Like the movement on Facebook.
On March 8, International Women's Day, Marlo Thomas wrote The Movement, a nostalgic piece in the Huffington Post about the ERA movement that came so close to ratification 30 years ago. Here she is in 1980 with fiancé Phil Donahue, Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan and other movement leaders.
But the mood of Marlo's writing last month was a downer, a sense that the ERA just was not to be in the '80s and perhaps never.
Not so fast! A new non-profit, ERAnow!, is organizing 1,000 people to donate $50 or more to jumpstart a social media campaign to do what could not be done back then. This core group will be designated the “ERA 1000" - just 20 people in each state* - will lead the effort using fresh tools, fresh ideas and fresh networking.
So click that Big Green Button and drop 50 bucks in the bucket.
If you’re one of the first 1,000 donors at the $50 level or more, you’ll be listed when we present a new picture to Marlo and Phil: One of optimism, new beginnings and a new generation’s power to create a social inevitability.
Good News! You don’t have to be young to be part of this new generation ☺
OK, so where's that Big Green Button?
1. Support the Cause! (See that Big Green Button?)
2. Forward to other Women's Rights thought leaders.
3. Like the movement on Facebook.
On March 8, International Women's Day, Marlo Thomas wrote The Movement, a nostalgic piece in the Huffington Post about the ERA movement that came so close to ratification 30 years ago. Here she is in 1980 with fiancé Phil Donahue, Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan and other movement leaders.
But the mood of Marlo's writing last month was a downer, a sense that the ERA just was not to be in the '80s and perhaps never.
Not so fast! A new non-profit, ERAnow!, is organizing 1,000 people to donate $50 or more to jumpstart a social media campaign to do what could not be done back then. This core group will be designated the “ERA 1000" - just 20 people in each state* - will lead the effort using fresh tools, fresh ideas and fresh networking.
So click that Big Green Button and drop 50 bucks in the bucket.
If you’re one of the first 1,000 donors at the $50 level or more, you’ll be listed when we present a new picture to Marlo and Phil: One of optimism, new beginnings and a new generation’s power to create a social inevitability.
Good News! You don’t have to be young to be part of this new generation ☺
OK, so where's that Big Green Button?
*The first 20 people from each state will be listed as part of the ERA 1000.
_____________________________________
Here's WHY, WHO & HOW.
WHY
The Judge who kicked over the Hornet's Nest
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia just knows that women are not guaranteed equal rights under the Constitution. Here he is in an interview in January, 2011:
"The only issue is whether it prohibits [discrimination on the basis of sex]. It doesn't. Nobody ever thought that that's what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that."... I don't even have to read the briefs, for Pete's sake."
-- "The Originalist", California Lawyer Magazine, January 2011.
Humans outraged across the US
Anyone with a mom or a sister can see the problem. " 'He was essentially saying that if the government sanctions discrimination against women, the judiciary offers no recourse.' In other words, if Congress passed a law legalizing gender discrimination, it wouldn't be unconstitutional and the Supreme Court would have no obligation to knock it down" (emphasis added)"... under Scalia's doctrine, women could be legally barred from juries, paid less by the government, receive fewer benefits in the armed forces, and be excluded from state-run schools -- all things that have happened in the past, before their rights to equal protection were enforced."
-- Huffington Post, 1/3/11
Bush guaranteed women's constitutional rights In Afghanistan.
"The citizens of Afghanistan – whether man or woman – have equal rights and duties before the law"
-- Afghanistan Constitution, January, 2004, Chap. 2, Art. 1
January 2011: Men propose 1950's Legislation!
House Resolution 3 proposed to change the definitions of rape and incest to take away health care services from survivors. The proposal would be unconstitutional under the ERA.
Create your own fundraiser!
WHO
We're ERA now, a Florida nonprofit committed to equal treatment of all American citizens. We are all volunteers, self-organized and with no staff. Every penny we raise goes to the movement. We think it's time for US women to have the same constitutional rights as Afghani women. Florida should be the first of the three remaining states to ratify the ERA, because Florida law guarantees equal rights for women, but our legislature has never ratified the same rights in the form of the federal-level Equal Rights Amendment. Does that mean they don't want their daughters to have the same rights if they move a few miles into Georgia?
We're going to homestead Florida politics, county by county. We'll do it using the latest social networking technology to convince our legislators to ratify the ERA. So we want to launch a pilot project to surround each of our 160 state legislators with certified constituents pledged to convince them of the benefit to legislators of supporting the ERA, or replacing them with someone who does.
Doesn't matter how much, Donate now!
HOW
With your support, we can form a Women's Rights Committee in every Florida Senate and House district. Each committee's members will be certified as a resident of the district and will pledge their votes to support only politicians who support women's rights and the ERA. First, we need to map Florida's 160 Senate and House districts and provide a full social network for each. $10,000 is just a start, but it lays the foundation for creating the 160 politician oversight committees we need to help our state legislators see the benefits to their careers if they support the ERA. Using the Sunlight Foundation's state legislative data, we'll show the residents of each state district how their politicians vote, what committees they serve on, etc. AND we'll identify the members of the committees crucial to the ERA's passage, and focus on those districts with a sophisticated messaging campaign.
For your moms, sisters & daughters, Donate now!
