The second We the People Summit on November 4 continued the theme of learning the heritage of the social justice movements, finding out what is going on now in Arizona, and in the third summit, focusing on direct action to put Arizona on a better course toward equality, democracy, and social justice for all. Certain central themes unfortunately must be addressed in every summit e.g. racism, sexism, and participatory democracy because the problems in those areas cut so deep. Critical thinking and successful communication especially with those who don’t agree with you is equally important to be able to succeed in your social justice message.
The focus this summit was to increase the turnout of millennials. From the workshops I attended, that seemed to have succeeded. The NOW table was very busy and brisk with button sales. The NOW workshop: ERA: A Woman’s Place is in the Constitution had about 55 attendees who heard from Senator Pat Spearman of Nevada how she could barely keep a straight face as the testimony against the ERA in their hearings included a woman who said that now that 415 different sexes had been identified, anyone could marry anything so a woman could marry the Eiffel Tower. Looney tune there. The other main argument was that it was just a symbol and we didn’t need it – like the other symbols we don’t need e.g. the flag, the wedding ring, the Christian cross or Star of David or crescent. Another looney tune was a guy who said that passing it would mean the number of representatives in Congress would have to increase by thousands. The number of representatives is set by law according to the population. Women were defined as people under the 14th Amendment back in the early 1900s. So it would have zero impact on that. Arizona Representative Pamela Powers-Hannley also told the audience about the surreptitious actions taken by the Democratic caucus last legislative session to get a vote on the ERA on the floor when the leadership refused to assign it to committee or let it be heard. That request for a suspension of the rules and a floor vote took the leadership by surprise and they hastily called for a vote to adjourn the session. The Democrats then repeated the action in the Senate where they voted completely on party lines not to waive the rules and hear the bill.
But we’ll be back in 2018. An AZ ERA Task Force has formed and we intend to make it a big issue especially because of the sexual harassment expose that also ignited in the House. We ask all of you to contact your state senator and two representatives and tell them to sponsor and support the ERA in the 2018 session. We also ask you to contact your two Senators Flake and McCain and ask them to co-sponsor S.J. Res.5 that would eliminate the time limit on the ERA and to contact your Congressional representative to co-sponsor H.J.Res 53 to do the same.
~ by Dianne Post
