I believe that a free and fair and just society requires that everyone be given an equal opportunity to succeed.
I know from my own experience and from the many people that I have met and talked with through my years of work that I have gotten advantages that have not been available to everyone in our society.
My parents both grew up on farms in western New York during the Depression. My Mom’s family was relatively poor, whereas my Dad’s family had both a farm income and a steady income as my grandfather worked for the gas company that is now National Fuel Gas. Both of my grandmothers were trained as teachers, and my Mom was the first person in either of the families to attend college (she completed two years, but left to allow her sister to attend and complete her college degree).
My parents believed that an education was essential for me, my four sisters, and two brothers to be gainfully employed and live a good life. With their help and support, we all had the opportunity to graduate high school. We all attended college with mixtures of scholarships, loans, federal and state financial assistance, state-supported tuition, and earnings.
I know not everyone has had those same opportunities or supports. And many have had to accomplish – or try to accomplish – the same with much less than was available to me, including obstacles based upon the color of their skin; their sex, gender, or sexual orientation; whether they are pregnant or wish to be pregnant; their religion; their age; their physical characteristics; or their ethnicity or country of origin.
Much has changed for the better in my lifetime with state and federal statutes protecting individuals and our collective rights and freedoms.
Much more is changing again, however, that threatens our rights and freedoms.
The Supreme Court overturned crucial provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, allowing for discriminatory gerrymandering and ever more restrictions on the right to vote. The Supreme Court has found that private corporations have the same rights – or more rights – than we do as individuals and have permitted discriminatory practices, e.g., restricting insurance coverages and limiting employee health care access or permitting unlimited corporate money in politics while limiting public disclosure. The Supreme Court, after more than fifty years, overturned a women’s right to protect their bodies and control their reproductive choices and handed those rights to state governments. This latter decision has resulted in girls’ and women’s deaths, doctors making medical decisions contrary to their patients’ health and safety, and girls and women having to travel to other states to obtain needed medical care.
It is within the power of this Supreme Court and state and federal lawmakers – and the stated intent of members in the majority of the Supreme Court and lawmakers – to further roll back and restrict rights that we have taken for granted, such as the right to marry the person we love, use contraceptives, or, most recently, use in vitro fertilization to start and expand our families.
We have a unique opportunity to protect against the loss of our rights and freedoms.
This November, we can support and pass the Equal Rights Amendment to the New York State Constitution. With adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment to our Constitution, we can keep this Supreme Court and federal and state lawmakers from infringing on the rights and freedoms of every New Yorker.
No matter our sex, gender, race, age, disability status, whether we are pregnant or wish to be pregnant, or cultural background, we all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. The New York State Equal Rights Amendment will help ensure that will happen. Please vote YES!
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