Editor,
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) battle began decades ago, and it is amazing that with all the laws that have been passed, there is still the urge to impart more control to government. The two advocates of the ERA who've written recent letters to the editor seemingly don't want the amendment to become law through congressional vote, but rather by a cognitively impaired president/national archivist?
Mike Myers writes this will be a blessing to all women. We know how virtuous one must feel to promote "equality," but we know that reality is not determined by feelings.
"Equality" reality will require young women to be drafted and go to combat — what Democratic senators desire. The irony is that none of their daughters will go. They don't want their daughters/granddaughters to face the consequences of warfare.
I wonder if Mr. Myers has considered the “blessing" of what being captured by, say, an Islamic Muslim might entail for a female soldier? I wonder if he and Ms. Halvorson have thought about what happens to women when Muslim terrorists invade ancient lands like Armenia or present day-lands like Syria? Or they might consider what happened to Israeli women in October 2023 or what has happened to young British girls — as young as 5 — as they've been systematically raped by Islamic Pakistani men — millions of girls we're told over period of two decades. I suppose they hold to the idyllic view that Islam is a "religion of peace." Sigh.
There isn't a Communist country in the world that hasn't touted "equal rights." The old Soviet Union guaranteed "Women in the USSR are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, public and political life." Most Soviet women "enjoyed" working in heavy construction work. An article written later by a Soviet female journalist describes some of the work women got to do equally to men as an "unbearable burden."
In case they haven't noticed, "equality" has already led to a lack of privacy for women and girls in public school restrooms, prisons, etc. Few if any girls in sports are happy about the sex integration, with men in their private spaces. The ERA will not give women better educational opportunities, already mandated by the Education Amendments of 1972. The ERA will not give women equal pay for equal work, better promotions, working conditions, already provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972.
What it will do is provide more rules, regulations and bureaucracy. The past election says that many Americans are sick of the promises and policies that take power away from us. Equality — or more accurately the new "equity" — doesn't necessarily provide a positive outcome. The women in charge of Los Angeles have experienced tremendous "equality" in their fire department, their mayor and the nameless faces who make decisions regarding water regulations and beyond, but it doesn't seem to be working too well as a "blessing" for the citizens of LA. Stage one thinking paints a bright picture. Stage two reality brings unintended outcomes. The equality that allowed the California fires is a case in point.
Ann Evans,
Vancouver
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