Regarding the Equal Rights Amendment in Minnesota
Thinking back, I suppose that it was in late 1976 that I had public speaking class, sophomore year in high school. I liked that one about as much as the majority of kids do – I’m pretty sure that speaking in front of groups remains the #1 human phobia – but I wanted A’s in everything and did my best. At the time I was still a staunch Nixon Republican, and my “argumentative” speech was against passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, nationally, which was a much higher-profile issue then. At one point I even referenced something from Phyllis Schlafly in “support” of my arguments.
Regarding the preceding confession, I quote from “The Black Cat,” by Edgar Allan Poe:
I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity.
As mitigation, I note that within perhaps two years of that, definitely within three, my views on women’s rights, and everything else political, had undergone a 180 degree shift. And that’s where they remain.
Wikipedia has an adequate summary of what has happened over the decades. ERA Minnesota is among those working on the issue here. From their website:
ERA Minnesota’s mission is two fold:
1. To get an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) placed on the Minnesota Ballot — so that the voters can decide Yes or No to add an ERA to our state constitution.
2. Memorializing Congress to lift the deadline to support final ERA ratification to the U.S. Constitution. As of 1/15/2020 we have all of the required 38 states to ratify.
From a section of the same Wikipedia article, wild-eyed left bastions like Indiana, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming have items like the ERA in their state constitutions. And Minnesota doesn’t?! Now that’s shameful.
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