Due to an unintentional woman-unfriendly joke-forwarding I just got to witness, I got to thinking about the Equal Rights Amendment (and that young Christian woman in Florida who irascibly asked about my tattoo, and whether she took my extemporaneous answer about the tattoo being about the ERA not being passed as serious or not). So this ERA thinking got me to looking around the web, and I learned a thing or two.

1. The ERA work has been going on for centuries, and the Amendment was initially introduced to congress in 1923 as the "Lucretia Mott Amendment."

2. The ERA was continually introduced every session until it passed the Congress in 1972. It does not take effect until it's been ratified by 38 (75%) of the 50 states. Thirty-five states have passed the amendment. Fifteen have not. If you're quick you may ask yourself why Illinois is colored red in the map linked above, but not in most of these maps.

I am wondering if the thing that keeps those states red in so many presidential elections is one in the same with what keeps them from giving up the car keys to women. If I had to venture a guess, I'd want to call a friend of ask the audience, but if I'd already used those lifelines, I'd say it's the fear of God. Of what God will do to a sinful nation if they abandon the customs and traditions passed down from the Israelite patriarchs (Abraham, Moses, etc).

What will it take to assuage those fears, so we can get past this? Some things take centuries or millennia to come about, but I'm not that patient. It's been 83 years.

Here's the wording:

THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

lyrics: (total coincidence -- the iTunes is on shuffle today, no lie.)

"In whatever society,
There invariably,
Will seem to be,
Just a few men,
keen to rule;
Overwhelming,
the majority,
Will assent and
allow them to do so."
-Stereolab, Outer Accelerator

colors: red, green, blue, with an army-colored tanktop

mood: i dunno.

chant/prayer/mantra: brothers and sisters only.


pax hominibus,
joel


BTW,
:| if this vote-acquisition technique holds to be true, then God the Father may continue to get His way. For a while.

:( And God the Mother will just have to wait a little while, a little while, a little while longer.