Heidi Beirich, Director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), noted that the United States has always been “deeply racist, deeply anti-Semitic.” Beirich observed, “We have a history of all that kind of bigotry. It’s part of our DNA.”
The guided tours of Independence Hall and Carpenters’ Hall (the meeting place for the First Continental Congress) offered plenty of information on the Founding Fathers. Without a doubt, they were a contentious lot—each convinced that their point of view had the greatest validity.
Madeleine Albright’s most arresting comment was the analogy, “Women in a country are like the canary in the coal mine.”
This March 4th, CARE will be joining forces with the top-selling juggernaut book, Half the Sky. Written by the Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the authors have been vocal about the need to turn “oppression into opportunity for women worldwide.”
As we move into a new decade, I can’t help looking over my shoulder at all the things I would like to leave behind.
Khan’s contention is that poverty is a human rights issue, and therefore defending those rights must be at the core of efforts to end poverty.
As the average American tries to make sense of the constantly shifting health plan and attendant debates, one issue remains crystal clear. Women’s reproductive rights are being used as a football and bargaining chip in the fight to secure a long awaited health care bill.
Inevitably, during the Q & A, inquiries were posed about the latest polls and the Sarah Palin factor. Gandy replied that “polls will shift” when people find out more about Palin’s record. On an ironic note, Gandy opined, “I love it that the Republicans have discovered sexism. Before that…it was whining.”
The July 4th weekend is over, and I am still reflecting on where women are in the political and cultural landscape of America. Abigail Adams didn’t get to sign the Declaration of Independence, Betsy Ross sewed the flag, and how many people even know who Deborah Samson Gannett was?
"The Jump Rope Line" by Marcia G. Yerman is included in the Seal Press anthology Dancing at the Shame Prom.
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