An Anniversary and Something is Going On - Journal

AN ANNIVERSARY

June 30, 1982 - the day the campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment ended and ERA was lost.

For ten years women marched, lobbied, and worked to pass ERA - an amendment to guarantee women equal rights under the law.

I know exactly where I was June 30, 1982. I was in my cubby-hole office at the Washington Office of the League of Women Voters of the US. From 1979 until the end I was ERA Campaign Director for the League. June 30 I was disappointed - heart-broken - along with millions of other women in this country. Women had worked hard and hoped for better.

Have you forgotten what it was about?

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.

Here is the history of the ERA and more
The stuggle to win the ERA was a real grass roots campaign bringing women of all walks of life to action. In my new program Pushing Boundaries I revive my story of those days hoping other women will also tell their stories so that young women today will understand what motivated women in the 1970s to march and fight to have those 26 words added to the US Constitution.


SOMETHING IS GOING ON
8:30 AM: Last night before I turned off the computer I checked the PA live cam in the bird's nest to see if anything was happening. It was pitch black on the screen - no light's on and no noises. This morning I checked in - bright light all-right and TWO eggs. I keep hoping I will catch sight of the mother bird but so far she's out and about most of the time.

9:30 AM Before I started some real WORK I checked in on the nest. Surprise. The mama-bird is there, settled comfortably as she warms her eggs. The camera is only inches from her feathered body. I wish it were a color-camera - this is a blue bird's nest.

1:30 PM lonely little eggs. Mom is out.

3: 55 PM When I looked in jusy now Mom is back. But she is moving around trying to get comfortable and who can blame her - she is carefully sitting on two eggs.