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Black Women in West Philly Talk About Women’s Equality Day

8/29/2014

What Black Women in West Philadelphia Had to Say About Women’s Equality Day

by Jasmine Burnett, National Black Network for Reproductive Justice

August 27, 2014

Follow Jasmine Burnett on Twitter: @Blkfeminst

This piece was produced in collaboration with Echoing Ida and first appeared at RH Reality Check.

Rarely, if ever, are Black women interviewed in the neighborhoods where they live and asked about a policy’s impact on their lives. As such,on the days leading up to Women’s Equality Day, which is held each year on August 26, I felt it was high time for me to begin asking Black women in my community about their lived experiences with, and connection to, the laws that secured their right to vote.

(Photo Source: Makers "Long History of Black Feminism")

When I think about Women’s Equality Day, I reflect on the power and significance of Black women exercising their right to vote. And I am reminded of the ways in which the fight for women’s equality was a “crooked room” for Black suffragettes. As they stood on the front lines of organizing for women’s voting rights, they were also fighting to end the lynching of Black men and women across the South. Today, Black feminist activists continue this intersectional work, of having to protect our bodies, lives, and families by voting against legislation that aims to take away our human rights at the same time that we’re fighting to end sexist and gender-motivated violence as well as racist, state-sanctioned violence in our communities.

Most people, including women, don’t know or care much about Women’s Equality Day, except those of us who live and breathe women’s rights work. The cause of this can be largely attributed to sexism, plain and simple. For Women’s Equality Day, there isn’t the same level of attention paid to it that is given to federally recognized holidays, and we don’t get a day off work to reflect on its significance in American history, or our position in society as women voters.

So, I took to the streets of my neighborhood in West Philadelphia, interviewing two friends andeight other Black women. In this area, 75 percent of the residents are African American. It comes as little surprise that politicians and law enforcement have a challenging history with the Black community here.

Being new to Philadelphia, and this community, I was relieved to find that the Black women I spoke with understood the complicated history with the Women’s Equality Day and that it took a combination of the 19th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for Black women to have full access to the vote. These facts illustrate the Black feminist adage about how all the women are white, all the Blacks are men, and Black women, indeed, are brave.

I found during my interviews that I was not alone in thinking that voting matters. As Briana, 25, shared, “It matters for me to have a voice, and now that we have it, we should make sure that we use it.”

“It’s important that Black women have the right to vote,” added Audrey, 55. “But, a lot of them don’t take the opportunity to vote. They come up with a lot of excuses like, ‘Why should I do this, it’s not going to matter anyway?’ I always tell people, it does matter.”

Some Black women, as Audrey explains, are traumatized to inaction at the fear of being made visible. “A lot of Black women I talk to between the ages of 19 and 30 don’t vote at all. They come up with excuses of why they shouldn’t. I often talk to young women and tell them every vote counts, and their voice matters.”

But, having the right to vote is one thing, having the opportunity to exercise that right is another matter entirely, as has been made clear with voter identification laws that disproportionately affect women in this country. “We live with this idea of a post-racial, post-sexist society,” said Charmaine, 26. “There’s still a lot of work left that we can do, especially in Pennsylvania, which is trying to change the voter laws. The monster we are up against changes every year. We need to re-evaluate and adjust our tactics.”

Happy Women's Equality Day - A History

8/26/2014

What is Women’s Equality Day?
Source: The National Women's History Project

At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.”

The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York.

The observance of Women’s Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality. Workplaces, libraries, organizations, and public facilities now participate with Women’s Equality Day programs, displays, video showings, or other activities.

Joint Resolution of Congress, 1971
Designating August 26 of each year as Women’s Equality Day

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have been treated as second-class citizens and have not been entitled the full rights and privileges, public or private, legal or institutional, which are available to male citizens of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have united to assure that these rights and privileges are available to all citizens equally regardless of sex; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have designated August 26, the anniversary date of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, as symbol of the continued fight for equal rights: and

WHEREAS, the women of United States are to be commended and supported in their organizations and activities,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that August 26th of each year is designated as Women’s Equality Day, and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote, and that day in 1970, on which a nationwide demonstration for women’s rights took place.

Rep. Jackie Speier the Equal Rights Amendment and What is Needed

8/25/2014

Equal Rights Amendment ratification long overdue
By Jackie Speier
Updated August 25, 2014
Source: SFGate

Our Constitution granted women the right to vote 94 years ago, but efforts to ban discrimination based on sex have never earned constitutional status. This gaping legal hole was summed up recently by conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: "Certainly the Constitution does not require (discrimination on the basis of sex). The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn't."

Women today aren't guaranteed equal pay for equal work and are subjected to restrictions on contraception and family planning services, unfair workplace conditions and laws that favor the perpetrators over victims in cases of sexual assault. The need for constitutionally guaranteed equality remains shamefully overdue. How can we have "liberty and justice for all" when a prohibition against sex discrimination is missing from our nation's blueprint?

The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced in every session of Congress from 1923 until 1972, the year it finally passed. The amendment required ratification by 38 states, but fell three states short.

The 15 states that have not ratified the ERA are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia. The Illinois Senate passed the ERA in May and the Illinois House is set to vote on it in November.

The ERA would provide women with remedies to combat discrimination in pay equity, pregnancy accommodations, contraceptive coverage and domestic violence. Currently, women face a double burden when they are victimized. They must first prove the violation happened, and then they must also prove intent to discriminate based on sex. The ERA would banish this "intent" requirement forever.

As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated, "I would like my granddaughters, when they pick up the Constitution, to see that notion - that women and men are persons of equal stature."

And so I have introduced House Joint Resolution 113 to eliminate the deadline for ERA ratification.

The ERA has had its deadline moved in the past; the 27th Amendment (congressional pay), was ratified 202 years after it passed Congress. When states tried to rescind their support for the 14th and 15th Amendments, their efforts were struck down by the courts; therefore, the 35 states that have already voted for the ERA cannot take back their support.

Equality is only three states and 24 words away. It's time for these words to be made constitutional law: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

Source: SFGate

Jackie Speier represents San Mateo County and a portion of San Francisco County in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Photo: Rep. Speier & Rep. Maloney Source: ERA Action

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An Extreme Overreach into Women’s Reproductive Health Care

8/18/2014

FACT SHEET
From the National Women's Law Center

2013 State Level Abortion Restrictions:
An Extreme Overreach into Women’s Reproductive Health Care

2013 marked the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that affirmed a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion. Yet, anti-abortion state politicians continued to relentlessly attack this right in 2013, in the hopes of overturning Roe and preventing women from obtaining abortions.

In 2013, 22 states enacted a total of 70 abortion restrictions – the second highest number of abortion restrictions to become law in a single year. These state restrictions are a dangerous overreach into women’s personal medical decisions.

READ the entire document in pdf format.

States Are Banning Abortion Outright, in an Attempt to Overturn Roe v. Wade
States Are Banning Abortion Later in Pregnancy, Ignoring an Individual Woman’s Particular Circumstances
States Are Attempting to Establish “Fetal Personhood” In Order to Ban Abortion, Without Exception, and Restrict Access to Other Reproductive Health Services
States Are Requiring Women to Undergo Medically Unnecessary, Physically Invasive Ultrasounds Before Obtaining an Abortion
States Are Attempting to Regulate Abortion Providers Out of Existence
States Are Banning Insurance Coverage of Abortion, Taking Away Benefits Women Currently Have and Jeopardizing Women’s Health
States Are Limiting Women’s Access to Non-Surgical Abortion
States Are Enacting Longer Mandatory Delay Requirements
States Are Enacting Harmful Sex Selective Abortion Bans
States are Allowing Individuals and Institutions to Refuse to Participate in Abortion

READ the entire document in pdf format.

Happy Birthday Lucy Stone!

8/14/2014

Posted by: Sam Aurilia

Happy Birthday, Lucy Stone!

Happy birthday to suffragist, orator, and abolitionist, Lucy Stone! Stone was born August 13, 1818 in Massachusetts, where, despite her father’s wishes, she would eventually become the first woman in the state to earn a college degree. While working towards her degree, Stone took up a teaching job where she fought for and won equal pay for herself and her female colleagues—a right we are still fighting for today, over one hundred years later! In what she is perhaps most recognized for, Stone continued to blaze the trail for women’s rights when she decided to keep her surname after marriage.

Stone helped launch the National Woman’s Rights Convention, and would help organize many of the following conventions. She joined Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to help create the Equal Rights Association. Stone would later split from Anthony and Stanton and form the AWSA, the American Woman Suffrage Association. She then toured the country to gain support for women’s suffrage on the state level.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton regarded Stone as“the first person by whom the heart of the American public was deeply stirred on the woman question."Lucy Stone’s legacy lives on today as we continue the fight for equality. Thank Lucy Stone for her contributions to women’s suffrage and help us continue our fight for gender equality by taking the pledge to vote!

Let your voice be heard! CLICK HERE to take the pledge

90 Years On, The Fight For The Equal Rights Amendment Continues

8/12/2014

2012 We Are Woman Rally - Photo by Lisa Whetzel

| By DAVID CRARY

Drafted by a suffragist in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment has been stirring up controversy ever since. Many opponents considered it dead when a 10-year ratification push failed in 1982, yet its backers on Capitol Hill, in the Illinois statehouse and elsewhere are making clear this summer that the fight is far from over.

In Washington, congresswomen Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., are prime sponsors of two pieces of legislation aimed at getting the amendment ratified. They recently organized a pro-ERA rally, evoking images of the 1970s, outside the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Recent Supreme Court decisions have sent women's rights back to the Stone Age," said Speier, explaining the renewed interest in the ERA. The amendment would stipulate that equal rights cannot be denied or curtailed on the basis of gender.

Participants in the July 24 rally directed much of their ire at the Supreme Court's recent Hobby Lobby ruling. In a 5-4 decision, with the majority comprised of five male justices, the court allowed some private businesses to opt out of the federal health care law's requirement that contraception coverage be provided to workers at no extra charge.

"They could not have made the Hobby Lobby ruling with an ERA," Maloney said.

Meanwhile, in Illinois, battle lines are being drawn for a likely vote this fall in the state House of Representatives on whether to ratify the ERA. The state Senate approved the ratification resolution on a 39-11 vote in May, and backers hope for a similar outcome in the House after the legislature reconvenes in November.

If the amendment gets the required three-fifths support in the House, Illinois would become the 36th state to ratify the ERA. Thirty-eight states' approval is required to ratify an amendment — but the ERA's possible road to ratification today is complicated by its history.

The Illinois resolution's chief sponsor in the Democrat-controlled House, Deputy Majority Leader Lou Lang — who said he was close to securing the 71 votes needed for approval — is motivated in part by Illinois' role in the ERA drama of the 1970s. Back then, the legislature's failure to ratify the amendment was a crucial blow to the national campaign.

"Illinois was the state that killed it 40 years ago," Lang said, calling that "appalling" and noting that Illinois has an equal rights amendment in its state constitution.

One of the leading opponents of the ERA during the 1970s was conservative Illinois lawyer Phyllis Schlafly, who launched a campaign called Stop ERA and is credited with helping mobilize public opinion against the amendment in some of the states that balked at ratifying it.

Schlafly, now 89, said activists and politicians trying to revive the ERA were "beating a dead horse.

"They lost and they can't stand it," she said in a telephone interview. "They're doing it to raise money, to give people something to do, to pretend that women are being mistreated by society."

Schlafly's allies in Illinois are gearing up to fight the amendment in the House. The Illinois Family Institute contends the ERA would force women into military combat, invalidate privacy protections for bathrooms and locker rooms, undermine child support judgments and jeopardize social payments to widows.

"There is virtually no limit to the number and kind of lawsuits the ERA will spawn," the institute said.

Lang scoffs at such predictions and says the federal ERA could be a valuable tool in ensuring fair treatment for women in the workplace and in financial transactions.

Written by Alice Paul — a leader of the women's suffrage movement in the U.S. a century ago — the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced annually in Congress from 1923 to 1970, when congressional hearings began in the heyday of the modern feminist movement. In 1972, the ERA won overwhelming approval in both chambers and was forwarded to the 50 state legislatures in search of the needed 38 votes to ratify.

Congress set a deadline of 1979, at which point 35 states had ratified the ERA. The deadline was extended to 1982, but no more states came on board, and the Supreme Court upheld a ruling that the ERA was dead.

The states that did not ratify were Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia.

Aside from Illinois, there have been few signs that any of those states are on the verge of ratifying the ERA. In politically divided Virginia, the Senate voted 25-8 vote this year for ratification, but the measure died in a committee in the Republican-controlled House of Delegates.

In Congress, ERA supporters have introduced two measures in pursuit of ratification.

One — known as the "three-state strategy" — is a resolution that would nullify the 1982 deadline so that only three more states would need to ratify the ERA in addition to the 35 that did so in the 1970s.

The other measure would restart the traditional process, requiring passage of the ERA by a two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate and House, followed by ratification by legislatures in three-quarters of the 50 states.

In the Republican-controlled House, the measures are considered longshots, and neither is expected to come to a vote this year. But supporters said their cause would gain momentum if Illinois ratifies the ERA this year.

Although the ERA does have some Republican supporters, in Congress and in states such as Illinois, it has far less backing overall in GOP ranks than among Democrats. Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, suggested that ERA ratification could be among the issues raised as Democrats press their claim that the GOP is waging a "war on women."

"Interest in the ERA is going to continue to bubble up at the grassroots level," O'Neill said. Asked when final ratification might come, she replied, "In years, not decades."

In Oregon, which ratified the federal ERA in 1973, there will be a measure on the November ballot to add an ERA to the state constitution. Its prospects are considered good, yet it is opposed by some women's rights advocates who say Oregon already has strong protections against gender-based discrimination. The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon is concerned that a state amendment might prompt judges to conclude that voters wanted protections against gender bias to be stronger than protections based factors such as race, religion or sexual orientation.

Leanne Littrell DiLorenzo, whose VoteERA.org group has spearheaded the campaign to pass the state amendment, noted that four former Oregon Supreme Court justices had released an open letter disagreeing with the ACLU's interpretation and asserting that the ERA would be a valuable addition to the state constitution.

Follow David Crary on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CraryAP

READ MORE about the Equal Rights Amendment

Kimberley Johnson's Message to Women Against Feminism

7/26/2014

Kimberley Johnson is the author of The Virgin Diaries and an activist for women’s rights. She will be one of the many great speakers at the We Are Woman Constitution Day Rally this year.

"Women Against Feminism. I don’t get it. So I wrote an article and I made a video. I encourage you to watch and if you have questions, please post them in the comment section."

Please see her post on Liberals Unite for more information and links to her article and sources.

It's Time to Play Offense to Protect Women's Rights

7/21/2014

By Lisa Wirthman of The Denver Post
POSTED: 07/20/2014 05:01:00 PM MDT

"It's not all about a woman's uterus. But having a uterus shouldn't prevent women from being able to participate equally in the workforce and support our families. It's time to play offense to make sure our daughters can do the same." - Lisa Wirthman

(J. Scott Applewhite, The Associated Press)

In the war on women, women have been losing. Besieged with a wave of laws restricting reproductive freedoms, defeats on fair pay legislation, and the Supreme Court's recent decision to exempt employers from providing contraceptive coverage, women have been playing defense for too long.

Thankfully, that tide is turning, and Colorado is playing a leading role in a growing women's movement to take the offensive on protecting their reproductive rights.

Growing up with increasing access to education and jobs, today's generation of women took for granted many of the freedoms our mothers and grandmothers won for us in the 1960s and 70s. The Equal Pay Act in 1963 and the Civil Rights Act in 1964 banned gender discrimination in the workplace. But laws forbidding women to prevent conception (such as in Connecticut and seven other states) still made it difficult for women to enter the workforce.

Landmark Supreme Court decisions in 1965 and 1973 dramatically changed women's economic prospects by upholding their right to use birth control and have safe and legal abortions. With the ability to control their childbearing decisions, women flooded the workforce, and began to pursue advanced degrees that opened doors to careers in medicine, law, and business.

Today, women vote in greater numbers, control some 75 percent of household purchases, and hold the majority of college degrees. Individually, we exercise our rights to control our bodies, our families, and our careers. But collectively, we lack strength when those rights are threatened.

With just 19 percent of the seats in Congress, five governorships and a third of the Supreme Court, women still lack political power. That became painfully clear when conservatives swept the mid-term elections in 2010. Since then, state legislatures have passed over 200 anti-abortion restrictions — more than the previous 10 years combined.

Inundated by the wave of attacks, and underrepresented in the political arena, women began to play defense by staging protests on the steps of statehouses across the country, and fighting to block the offensive laws in court. But the Supreme Court's recent Hobby Lobby decision reminded women that we're outnumbered in the judiciary branch as well, with all three female justices strongly dissenting from a majority opinion penned by five white men.

Ironically, it was one of those five male justices who pointed the way for women to fight back. In 2010, Justice Antonin Scalia said the Constitution doesn't guarantee equal rights for women. "If the current society wants to outlaw sex discrimination, hey, we have legislatures," he said.

Lisa Wirthman of Highlands Ranch is a monthly columnist for The Denver Post. Follow her on Twitter: @Lisa Wirthman.

Protesters Bring it to Hobby Lobby's Front Door in Albuquerque!

7/13/2014

By: Jacqueline Nantier-Hopewell

Dr. Sylvia Ramos, Chair of the ERA Task Force, the Albuquerque NOW (National Organization for Women), takes it to Hobby Lobby in Albuquerque, NM. Dr. Ramos said "We had a very successful action at Hobby Lobby that had people from several local groups: Move-On, Albuquerque-NOW ERA Task Force, Freedom From Religion Foundation, WORD (Women Organized to Resist and Defend), Veterans against War, Peace and Justice Center, Un-Occupy (name of NM Occupy- since these were native lands), Young Women United, Humanist Society, Progressive Women... Even Martha Burk came out. Move-On plans it as an ongoing 1st Monday of month event. Hopefully, it will bring people out to polls in November.
Much energy here!"

We Are Woman Coalition applauds Dr. Ramos and all the grassroots groups getting out their rally shoes and speaking truth to power!

Women are taking it to Hobby Lobby all over the country! If your grassroots groups is picketing Hobby Lobby send us your photos and info so we can give you some applause!!

Corporate Personhood: Women's Rights and Voter Rights

7/06/2014

July 6, 2014 by Jenni Siri

Citizens United activists. Voter’s rights activists. Women’s rights activists.

What do these three groups have in common? Corporate Personhood. Thanks to a couple of rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).

Shown above are the 5 Supreme Court Justices that ruled in favor of Citizens United and Hobby Lobby. These are the same Justices who gutted the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder on June 25, 2013

What does corporate personhood have to do with voting and voter rights?

In January of 2010 the Supreme Court ruled on Citizens United vs. FEC in favor of Citizens United with a 5-4 split. This gave corporations the same free speech rights as living, breathing human beings. It allows corporations to contribute unlimited and undisclosed amounts of money to influence the outcomes of elections. We have seen the effects of this countless times. One small example is how the Koch brothers contributed outrageous amounts of money to ensure that their favorite candidates get elected.

Author Paul Blumenthal writes:

“In total, the Koch political empire marshaled $400 million in the 2012 election cycle toward groups and efforts that spent money directly in the electoral arena. Not every group that received money from the empire reported spending on elections, but the vast majority of that money went to groups that spent tens of millions on electoral ads — which must be reported to the Federal Election Commission — and even more on issue ads that targeted candidates but didn’t advocate their electoral victory or defeat — which is not reported. Koch players included Americans for Prosperity, the American Future Fund and 60 Plus Association.”

The Citizens United decision has allowed corporations to have a far greater influence in our elections than individual human beings. Many believe that this is turning our Democracy into a Plutocracy or an Oligarchy.

Move to Amend and Free Speech for People have been determined and active leaders in the effort of proposing a Constitutional Amendment addressing corporate personhood.

A few of the proposed Amendments are:

From Free Speech for People:

S.J.Res. 18, introduced in the Senate by Senator Jon Tester (D-MT), and the identical H.J.Res. 21, by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), also known as the People’s Rights Amendment, make it clear that corporations do not have constitutional rights, as if they were people. H.J.Res. 21 has bi-partisan support in the House from Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), along with many other co-sponsors. The text of these bills is below.

There are some that do not feel that S.J.Res. 19 and H.J.Res 20 go far enough and prefer H.J.R. 29.

Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News writes:

"Congress should take its lead from the people, who have already made it very clear in both red and blue states that a constitutional amendment is needed, and that campaign finance reform is only scratching the surface. Such an amendment has already been introduced in Congress by Representative Rick Nolan (DFL-Minn.) in February of 2013. Udall and his co-sponsors should take their cues from HJR-29, or the “We the People Amendment,” if they’re serious about representing the people’s interests. Anything else is an election-year bone not to be taken seriously."

What does corporate personhood have to do with women’s issues?

On June 30th, 2014 in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, five male Justices ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby in yet another 5-4 split. Family owned businesses, even if they are huge corporations, are now allowed to pick and choose which birth control options their female employees will have access to via their company health insurance plans. This is an issue of corporate personhood because SCOTUS bestowed upon corporations the same religious liberties that have always been reserved for people. Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, corporations now have the religious right to deny contraceptive care to their employees. Corporations do not pray or sit in pews so why should they have freedom of religion rights?

John Bonifaz, President of Free Speech for People, put out this statement following the Hobby Lobby ruling:

“As we argued in our amicus brief we submitted before the Supreme Court in January, corporations are not people and should not have the right to impose the religious beliefs of their owners on their employees. We have no doubt that this is only the beginning of a slew of future cases where corporations challenge other public interest laws using the Hobby Lobby ruling as their precedent.”

Indeed, it is already starting to happen. As Rachel Maddow pointed out in her July 2nd segment, Hobby Lobby case already opening floodgates to discrimination:

“There's another surprise still coming from the Supreme Court ruling on Monday. Since the ruling, religious groups have already started petitioning the government to say that [if] your boss's religious beliefs can excuse him from following the law when it comes to health insurance regulations and Obamacare, IF that's settled by the court - well then these groups want their religious beliefs to excuse them from having to follow the law on ... not just contraception, not just health law rules, but on non discrimination. They now, because of this ruling, want a religious exemption from laws that say you can't fire someone for being gay.”

Further reading: Will Hobby Lobby open the religious exemption floodgates?

The Corporate Veil and Corporate Personhood

In the Hobby Lobby case the Supreme Court gave corporations freedom of religion rights.
In the Citizens United case they gave corporations freedom of speech rights.

The reality is that corporations are NOT individual human beings. They don’t breath, reproduce or vote. In fact, businesses generally incorporate in order to protect the personal assets of their owners and shareholders. The corporate veil shields the individuals who form the corporation from any potential financially liabilities incurred by the nonliving corporation.

According to BusinessDictionary.com a corporate veil is:

“A legal concept that separates the personality of a corporation from the personalities of its shareholders, and protects them from being personally liable for the company's debts and other obligations.”

How are corporations not people when it comes to liability, but they suddenly become people when it has to do with freedom of religion rights and free speech rights? Both the 1st Amendment and The Religious Freedom Restoration Act were meant to protect individual people, not incorporated businesses.

One would expect the five men on the court to understand that they have created an oxymoron.

Corporations Are NOT People

Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass will be signing onto the joint resolution: S.J.Res.18 which was authored by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. It proposes a Constitutional Amendment “ … to clarify the authority of Congress and the States to regulate corporations, limited liability companies or other corporate entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state.”

In a statement Sen. Markey said:

“From Citizens United to Hobby Lobby, Supreme Court majorities continue to extend our basic Constitutional rights — the inalienable rights held by individuals — to corporations. Corporations are not people, period.”

Further Reading:

Download Graphic

Senator Mike Lee and Recreational Sex

7/03/2014

Think Progress reported that during an appearance on Sirus XM’s The Wilkow Majority, show host Andrew Wilkow argued that the real question in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., was about “whether or not a person who runs a business should be forced to provide something that is largely for recreational behavior, if it goes against their religious beliefs.”

Lee answered, “Yeah, that’s right, that’s right,” before he said that “this administration is using the often coercive power of the federal government to force people into their way of being and their way of existing, their way of believing and thinking and acting.”

READ MORE

Excerpts from Liberal Unite
Author: Kimberley Johnson

Kimberley will be a speaker at the We Are Woman Constitutional Day Rally in Washington D.C. on September 13th, 2014. Visit the Rally Hub for more information.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)

Losing My Religion for Equality by Jimmy Carter

6/02/2014

This is a piece that former President Jimmy Carter wrote in 2009. We wanted to use this quote in a meme which led to re-discovering this article. We are posting it for those who have not read it yet.

Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.

By Jimmy Carter
July 15, 2009

I HAVE been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries.

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met.

In some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, punished for permitting the exposure of an arm or ankle, deprived of education, prohibited from driving a car or competing with men for a job. If a woman is raped, she is often most severely punished as the guilty party in the crime.

The same discriminatory thinking lies behind the continuing gender gap in pay and why there are still so few women in office in the West. The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.

It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and outdated attitudes and practices - as we are seeing in Iran where women are at the forefront of the battle for democracy and freedom.

I understand, however, why many political leaders can be reluctant about stepping into this minefield. Religion, and tradition, are powerful and sensitive areas to challenge. But my fellow Elders and I, who come from many faiths and backgrounds, no longer need to worry about winning votes or avoiding controversy - and we are deeply committed to challenging injustice wherever we see it.

The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela, who offer their influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity. We have decided to draw particular attention to the responsibility of religious and traditional leaders in ensuring equality and human rights and have recently published a statement that declares: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable."

We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasise the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world's major faiths share.

The carefully selected verses found in the Holy Scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.

Illustration: Dyson

I am also familiar with vivid descriptions in the same Scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn't until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted Holy Scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.

The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views.

OBSERVER
Jimmy Carter was president of the United States from 1977 to 1981.

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The Story I’ve Never Told… Until Now

5/27/2014

By: Anonymous Miss Revolutionary

My mother, my brother, and I all left home when we were sixteen-years-old. The one thing we all had in common? The same woman – my mother’s mom− raised us all. Because I wasn't around when my mother was a teenager, I couldn't exactly tell you what the reasons were why my mother left. Whatever it was did cause a big divide in our family, so I can only go by certain stories I think I know. I do however, know why I left, and so does my brother. My life was not easy, and the people who should have been my biggest protectors are the ones who ultimately caused me the most pain. This is my story.

My story starts from the second my mom got sick with cervical cancer at twenty-eight and very soon after, passed away. I was just four years old. How can any young girl (or boy) at that age lose any parent, especially her mother, and not grow up to have some emotional issues? When she got sick my brother, and I went to live with my mom's parents, my aunt (mom's sister) and her daughter who is my cousin.

While my mom was sick and in the hospital, the adoption process for my brother and me began. I was also very sick at that time having been born with serious kidney problems. I had to have surgery to correct those issues and my grandparents were the only ones who were able to provide that for me. Not to mention, they simply were the only ones who had the means to raise us anyway. My brother and I had different fathers and neither one of them were capable of doing that job. There was no way my mom would let us live with them anyway. They were not good men. She wanted to know that when she “left,” her babies would be safe and provided for. My biological dad was a hothead (to say the least). Combined with my health issues, I lived a very protected childhood. For both my brother and I, our fathers were not a part of our lives growing up.

Deep Memories

I had to stay home a lot, and I wasn't allowed to do much. I was only allowed to go to certain friends’ houses to play. I was the youngest of the three kids in my house growing up, but sometimes nothing made sense. I know they were older but they were always so much more free than me. We lived in a small neighborhood. All the kids were friends and played together no matter their ages. But there were times when I wasn't allowed to play, even if my sister and brother were there and it was with a whole flock of kids. I wasn't sick anymore and the surgery was a success. I was healthy. I didn't understand. I did learn later in life part of the reason was they were afraid my dad would try to kidnap me. Yet even as I grew older and some things changed, many things remained the same, and other things got even worse.

My grandmother grew up in a different time during the 30s and 40s when women were taught to be a certain way, what she believed was “a proper lady”. If you weren't a proper lady you were frowned upon. Her and my grandfather in total had 4 children. My Aunt, who was their biological child, helped raise us. Another biological daughter was stillborn. I don't think my grandmother wanted to take a chance of going through that pain again so they adopted my mother and a son, my uncle. I believe that the loss of her second child, and possibly something that happened in her past caused her to treat her two adoptive children differently. The same pattern seemed to happen when my brother and I came along, but especially after she got sick with cancer. At that point, she was very cruel, and angry.

In the same house that we shared with our cousin, the treatment we received was very different. It was very evident even to others who didn't live with us. We heard many stories over the years that it was the same way for my mom and my uncle. Nothing we did was good enough and we were always the source of my grandmother’s rage. Now I admit, I wasn't a perfect kid and definitely did things to be punished for, but the punishment often didn't fit the crime, if ever. They were usually designed to humiliate me more than teach me a lesson. Some of her disciplinary tactics would be cutting my hair to make me look like a boy, or making me wear long johns to school so the kids would laugh at me. Sometimes I was hit. Not beaten, but hit−enough to make me scared. When I got to the age where boys became an interest, I was told almost daily I was just like my mother and “she was a whore.” Who says that to their grandchild about their own child? Especially one who died at such a young age leaving me behind? It was often the smaller things she would get the angriest over, and if I tried to stick up for myself that made everything even worse. Over time, I just learned to shut up and take it. I stayed as quiet as I could to not draw attention to myself so I wouldn't get in trouble. My aunt and my sister were no better. They, too, said evil cruel things to me. My grandfather had no voice. It was clear who was the boss, and those women ran the house!

Tragic Formations

Once when I was around 11 or 12 years old we had a snowstorm, so I went outside to shovel a pathway to our front door. When she saw what I had done, all my grandmother said was I hadn't even done a decent job, and why didn't I do things like that more often? I needed to help out more. Or, one time I was doing homework and she didn't like my penmanship. “It wasn't proper,” she said. So she grounded me for a month. “Maybe you will learn how to write properly in that time.” she said. If my chores weren't done to her satisfaction, not only was I made to redo them, I was told for the next week that I was lazy. If something was broken, or came up missing in our house, I was the one who was always blamed and punished for it whether I did it, or not. And let me just say, it was never me!

She would literally make things up to yell at me about and be angry about. Her favorite thing to do would be to follow me around the house and then after I would leave a room put something on the floor like a brush, hair tie, or tissue (anything really). Something pretty noticeable you wouldn't miss. Then she would come get me and ask why I didn't pick it up and take care of it. Then all I heard was how I was a horrible little girl and worthless. I spent as much time at after school activities and at my friends’ houses on the weekends so I didn't have to be there. And this kind of thing went on even after I moved out at 16 until I was an adult, until she passed away.

My school grades were always a problem too. I was not a good student I admit that. Don't get me wrong, I understand how important getting an education is, but I had a hard time learning. What's worse is I was afraid to speak up and ask for help. When I did try to verbalize that I didn't understand, I was told I was lazy and just didn't want to do the work. This type of punishment was even performed by some of my teachers. Once I get something I get it, however if I don't understand it even to this day, I will just ignore it because I am afraid to ask for help. Because of that I have held myself back in many areas of my life, and no matter how well I did in one subject it was always,“why didn't you do better in this?” I can't even begin to tell you how many times I was told “why aren't you like so-and-so?” I was always compared to other people and told I was not good enough. I needed to be better. No matter what I did I was never told “good job,” or“we're proud of you.” All the while I was trying, but too afraid to ask for help for fear of something negative happening in return. I literally lived in fear when I was young and in many ways I still do.

I have tons of friends but I don't bond with people easily. I tend to not necessarily be shy, but definitely standoffish, and am always on the defensive with people. Even though I know that is not their intention I always feel like I am in trouble.

My brother was also my mother's son. He should have been my ultimate protector. He wasn't. He mocked me, he ignored me, he made fun of me, he used me, and he abused me−−in more ways than one. He was a slick operator. Using my young naiveté to manipulate me at almost every turn in order to keep me silent. Honestly, when he left at sixteen I can't tell you the great sense of relief I felt that he was gone. I'll never forget the first time "it" happened. We were both so young, our mother had just passed away−−how did he know about that kind of stuff? “It's what brothers and sisters do,” he said. “Mom would want us to,” and then he covered us with a blanket and undressed us. “But if you tell, I will tell on you, and you will be the one to get in trouble.” "It" happened a handful more times growing up especially when he hit puberty. It was always the same manipulative trick. And then, once we were older he may have had some dirt on me so it became not only “if you tell you will be the one to get in trouble,” it was and “I will tell about this, this, and this.”

Still to this day I am picky about who I let physically touch me. If I allow you to give me a hug, male or female, please know you are very special.

As I said, like my mother and brother before me, we all left home at sixteen. When I left by this time I had met my dad and that is where I ended up going to live. At that point he had another wife and my two younger brothers. Things weren't better there, but they weren't worse. I was ignored there, and forgotten. Quite honestly, by that time, I actually preferred that to constant emotional and mental abuse. I didn't leave because I thought the grass would be greener or anything like that. It wasn't about following the rules, as my grandmother would have people believe. The life was being sucked out of me. I wanted to die and didn't have anyone to talk to. I was a teenager I didn't know what to do. They should have been teaching me how to be a strong young woman. They should have been teaching me about life. Unfortunately no one was guiding me.Instead they were oppressing me.

Realization

As an adult, for all the anger and bitterness I could have and hold towards people, I have become the better person. I do sometimes find myself falling into the emotional traps of my past and holding back, but I am now making a much more conscious effort to step outside of my comfort zone. As much as my grandmother hurt me I have forgiven her because I don't know what made her so angry.

I can't say that I have ever actively sought out any kind of professional help in my life. Or, that I ever found anything like yoga, meditation, or even religion to help me deal with the emotions I have had bottled up. Through most of this I have dealt with it all on my own, and there is a constant daily battle in my head. I have been very lucky to have an amazing circle of friends around me. Some are my childhood friends, and some I have met over the years through activism for women, and social media. When I was in school it was my sports and the refuge of my friends homes on the weekends that I really believe kept me alive back then.

I married my husband when I was 24. We married 3 weeks to the day after we met, and here we are over 12 years later. I would be lying if I didn't say that if I had not met him and married him when I did my life would definitely be different right now. I don't know where I would be. He lets me cry when I need to cry, be grumpy when I need to be grumpy, be OCD when I need to be OCD and he helps me when I need help. He doesn't judge me he just loves me and lets me be me. Most importantly he has given me the stability that I need to feel safe.

As much as my grandmother hurt me I have forgiven her because I don't know what made her so angry. Honestly after everything she did to try and break my spirit, I loved her. And if I hold on to that hurt I will become the same as her. I don't want to be that way.

I have an amazing relationship with my aunt now. She has been my rock. With my brother, obviously it's more complicated. I am happily married to an amazing husband who treats me the way every woman should be treated. I do have moments of weakness, but who doesn't? And for as messed up as I could be I am not broken, I am very strong. I am a survivor!