Equality

With your indulgence, I'm using my blog-space today with some thoughts that aren't NC-specific, but ones that I hope will be shared with all citizens. Today is the 40th anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King's death. I remember the grief, shock and fear I felt that day when I first heard the news. Funny; forty years have past and that grief is still as strong today as it was then, but in the meantime, it has been tempered with words and actions.

Still, I long for A Voice that will unite people once again for justice, equality and human dignity. Perhaps, we are the ones we've been waiting for.

I don't know what it says about our Country that Women's Equality Day passes with such little fanfare. Today, however, marks the anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment and the end of the long battle to secure Women the right to vote. As we observe Women's Equality Day today and look back nearly 40 years ago when Bella Abzug established it, let's look not only at how far our society has come, but let's look at the work we still have to do.

We just achieved unprecedented success on our anti-bullying bill! The House Education Committee voted down by a wide margin the egregious Hilton Amendement seeking to remove not only LGBT youth but also other always-bullied groups from protection through our anti-bullying bill. The unamended bill then passed the committee, taking us one step closer to protecting our young people.

This is a huge victory for Equality North Carolina and we couldn't have done it without our online activists--thank you! Special thanks go to our legislative allies and especially to Representative Rick Glazier for his courageous sponsorship.

It first came into my consciousness when I heard Cindy Sheehan being interviewed on C-SPAN about her disgust with "George." It hit me right between the eyes: what's with all this deference to rank and status in a country that's supposed to be the model of democracy. Especially when the object of the deference was a chicken-shit deserter in the Vietnam War.

Then recently, when I listened in to some of the audio clips Kirk has been posting from meetings in Raleigh, the whole deal got even goofier. All I heard was Madame Secretary this and Attorney General that and Representative hooey and Senator phooey. It made me sick, a creepy game of niceties, masking over a culture of privilege and class.

From here on out, I'm swearing off deference as a matter of practice. If I particularly admire someone and wish to honor him or her, I'll not hesitate to use the some flowery term. "Congressman Kissell" comes to mind.