Political Quotes

“First, Mr. President, I would like to speak about the upcoming vote on the Equal Rights Amendment. As we all know, the story of American democracy has been a hard but inexorable march toward greater equality--equality regardless of race, equality regardless of social status, equality regardless of marital status, and equality regardless of sex. That march began at the founding of our country, when Abigail Adams reminded her husband to ``remember the ladies'' when drafting the Constitution, which fell, unfortunately, on deaf ears. It was a march that drew great numbers during the convention at Seneca Falls, NY, in 1848, and found expression in the abolitionist movement. That march took a bold step 100 years ago, when Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman drafted the original iteration of the Equal Rights Amendment and came before Congress for the first time. Let that great march toward equality take the next bold step today when the Senate votes to take up this bipartisan resolution on the ERA. This resolution is as necessary as it is timely. America can never hope to be a land of freedom and opportunity so long as half its population is treated like second-class citizens. So 100 years after the ERA first came to Congress, the work is not done. The fight has yet to be won. The march continues. And we have a chance to take this next step forward. The resolution is simple. It removes the arbitrary deadline for State ratification of the ERA that was imposed in the 1970s.…”