by James Glaser
June 4, 2004

We keep telling the rest of the world that we are now trying to bring Freedom, Liberty, Democracy, Human Rights, and Women's Rights to people in the rest of the world. When we say we are doing those things, the world assumes that we have those things.

The other day I wrote about women's rights over in Iraq and Afghanistan and how I thought any small change by our standards would be a big step for the women in those countries. Well a friend of mine wrote and told me that the Equal Rights Amendment hasn't been made into law here in the United States.

I looked it up because I thought that had been passed years ago, after all our politicians talk like women in America have it made and everything is equal for them. Surprise, Women in America do not have legal equality with men. Alice Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment back in the 1920s just after women got the right to vote.

It was first introduced to Congress in 1923, (by Republicans) but it took until 1971 for the House to approve it and 1972 for the Senate. Both Houses played games with an unconstitutional time limit for ratification. That was solved, but three more States have to approve it before it becomes law. In 1977, the women who wrote this Amendment, Alice Paul, died at the age of 92, as she waited and prayed for it to pass.

Here we have George Bush telling the people of Afghanistan and Iraq how they have to treat their women better and we can't even pass a law that says our women are just equal to the men in our country. Is that the pot calling the kettle black?

We tell other nations about having free elections and we can't seem to get mare than 50% of our people to vote. Ask black, brown and red Americans if they feel truly free here in America.

Don't tell me that the United States does not have a class system. We have over 40 million people in this country with no Health Insurance. We have tens of thousands of Children living on the streets of this country. That is right, we have American children living under bridges and in tents. I don't care what their parents are like, it is a crime that a country as rich as this one, can have children living like shit, like some of the kids in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sure it is nice and it is easy to tell the rest of the world how they should live, but before we do that we should take a good look in the mirror and see what is happening right here at home. We have lots of things to work on here, before we start telling other people what they should do.

You know what? The people in the rest of the world know all of this. They know that George is full of bullshit when he climbs on his high horse and starts telling them what they should be doing. Sure we have a great country, but lets make it really right before we start on someone else's country. We have plenty of things to work on right here at home first.