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MLK Day reminds us all must be equal

On Friday, Biden made some noise about the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and how he said it should be considered adopted.

However, he proceeded to not pressure the archivist to publish the amendment, which makes it unlikely that anything will come of it.

The amendment was first introduced in 1923, where it languished until the 1960s. In 1972, it was finally submitted for consideration by the states, but it was given a seven-year deadline, which was eventually extended further, until 1982. Under deadline, it maxed out at 35 of the required 38 states for ratification, although it entered the news again periodically as the final three states approved as the years rolled by — the most recent of which being Virginia in 2020.

There is a bunch of ongoing legal debate about whether the deadlines were legal — as well as whether or not states were allowed to revoke their approval…more on that later.

Regardless of these discussions, we find it surprising that not only did the ERA take nearly 50 years to reach approval (if it ever did legally), but it has also failed to be resubmitted for consideration.

Here is the relevant kernel of text from the ERA, denoting its purpose: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

While it is baffling that this was something that was found controversial, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day brings into focus something we find more troubling.

Throughout the ERA’s run, six states (Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky, South Dakota and North Dakota) have rescinded their ratification — North Dakota as of 2021, with the rest ranging throughout the mid/late 1970s.

Not only did the ERA fail to take hold, but it is seemingly no longer something that, as a nation, we actively hold to not be relevant or worth trying for. The last time the ERA was attempted to be brought to a floor vote in the House was 2013 — which is further in the past than you think it is.

We like to think that America is this Enlightenment bastion, that our virtues of opportunity and equal, egalitarianism and urbanity, are these inviolate principles that have always existed and will always exist.

And, yeah. To a point.

But we must be vigilant in our efforts to live up to the ideals of our great nation — or, as the saying goes, trust but verify.

Looking back at our history, it’s kind of wild to realize how much change we have endured — and how recently.

As but one example, one hundred years ago, we were in the grip of the Prohibition. Can you imagine alcholic drinks being banned today, as a contemporary person?

As we reflect on MLK Day, the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964: 61 years ago. Per the census, the average age in Clinton County is 39.8 years old.

In the span of history, that is the blink of an eye. And in that blink of an eye, the ERA has not only failed to gain support — it has actually lost support.

Democrats and Republicans, let alone everyone in-between, agree on little these days. And yet, poll after poll, story after story and election after election all show consensus in one area: we are moving in the wrong direction.

The actual debates on taxation, foreign policy and emerging technologies are one thing. But backsliding — perceived or actual — on the rights of American citizens is something else. We pride ourselves on freedom, but efforts to enshrine that freedom in our governing document fail to reach the mark.

Make no mistake: we have come a very far way both as compared to the rest of the world in the 18th century and when reflected against our own history and we are very proud of our country for that.

There remains, however, much work to be done if we are to embody in truth the dream we believe ourselves to be.

The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence reads “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It is cynical indeed to take our cultural worship of these lines and use our God-given faculties to seek loopholes to declare that people are equal, except for…you, you and you.

We have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.

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