Not Every Woman Supports Women's Rights

August 29, 2008

Statement of NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy on the Selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's Vice Presidential Pick

Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and get them to vote, ultimately, against their own self-interest.

Gov. Palin may be the second woman vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket, but she is not the right woman. Sadly, she is a woman who opposes women's rights, just like John McCain.

The fact that Palin is a mother of five who has a 4-month-old baby, a woman who is juggling work and family responsibilities, will speak to many women. But will Palin speak FOR women? Based on her record and her stated positions, the answer is clearly No.

In a gubernatorial debate, Palin stated emphatically that her opposition to abortion was so great, so total, that even if her teenage daughter was impregnated by a rapist, she would "choose life" -- meaning apparently that she would not permit her daughter to have an abortion.

Palin also had to withdraw her appointment of a top public safety commissioner who had been reprimanded for sexual harassment, although Palin had been warned about his background through letters by the sexual harassment complainant.

What McCain does not understand is that women supported Hillary Clinton not just because she was a woman, but because she was a champion on their issues. They will surely not find Sarah Palin to be an advocate for women.

Sen. Joe Biden is the VP candidate who appeals to women, with his authorship and championing of landmark domestic violence legislation, support for pay equity, and advocacy for women around the world.

Finally, as the chair of NOW's Political Action Committee, I am frequently asked whether NOW supports women candidates just because they are women. This gives me an opportunity to once again answer that question with an emphatic 'No.' We recognize the importance of having women's rights supporters at every level but, like Sarah Palin, not every woman supports 

A Menu of Choices…Not just for Restaurants

Food
Alcohol
Cigarettes
Spouse
Friends.
Not relatives!
Religion
Career
Morals
Geography
Vehicle
Education
Children
Pets
Exercise

In life, we are constantly making choices. Some choices we agonize over and some choices we instinctually make without thought. We base our choices on nature AND nurture. Some choices are biological and some are taught. Wars are fought over choices that two individuals make, two countries make, two religious groups make. These wars ignite when either of the two do not respect the other’s prerogative to live with their choices. There are many of us, even in this country of “liberty” who feel that those who do not make the same choices as we do are ignorant, stupid, going to hell, not saved, “up tight”, out of touch, immoral, bigoted, anti-Semitic, homophobic, liberal, exhibitionist, introvert, conservative…and so on.

None of us is more right than the other. We need to accept other individuals’ choices, not attempt to forcefully impose our choices on others. Not live in fear as a result of being uneducated and uninformed about another’s life choices. Appreciate the differences. Or as the French so perfectly put it…”viva la difference”…embrace the difference.

These two poems by Robert Frost embrace this laisez-faire philosophy and just happen to be my favorite poems..they say it all to me!

The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I would be doing a grave injustice if at the commencement of the DNC Convention, I did not include this part of the platform that speaks to choices. I base my choices on information and education. I look at facts and of course emotion! What I personally would do for myself…is just that..it is personal and it would be my choice as is every other individual able to make choices to fit their lifestyle and beliefs. I neither condemn nor approve their choices…they too are personal!

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.
The Democratic Party also strongly supports access to comprehensive affordable family planning services and age-appropriate sex education which empower people to make informed choices and live healthy lives. We also recognize that such health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions.

The Democratic Party also strongly supports a woman’s decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre- and post-natal health care, parenting skills, income support, and caring adoption programs.

Don’t Break Out the Champagne Just Yet
Below the Belt: A Biweekly Column by NOW President Kim Gandy
August 21, 2008

Deal: Clinton's Name Will Be Placed in Nomination at Dems Convention

There is a Goddess!

Deal: Clinton's Name Will Be Placed in Nomination at Dems Convention
Email
Share August 14, 2008 11:09 AM

ABC News' Kate Snow reports: A deal has been brokered between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that will allow Clinton's name to be placed in nomination at next week's Democratic nominating convention, sources close to the Clinton camp told ABC News.....Read More

Rhetorical Questions by James Fallows

Once again, I look for information that will help ME decide for whom to vote. I still haven't decided, but the more informed I am, the better to make an educated decision. I found this interesting article in the Atlantic Monthly online. Here is an exerpt.

---

Who will win the presidential debates? What does each candidate’s use of words say about how he would govern as president? Can Obama’s rhetorical skills lift him to the heights of Lincoln, FDR, and Reagan—or will his speechmaking do him in? After watching all 47 (!) of the primary season’s debates, our correspondent has the answers—and some harsh criticism for the moderators.

Rhetorical Questions

by James Fallows

(Final paragraph to this article.....)
The argument that Obama would be another Pétain-like Carter, offering his noble qualities only to be overwhelmed by ignoble reality, is the deepest fear about him, or at least the one that most resonates with me. The greatest hope is that before his brief time in the U.S. Senate, he absorbed more practical skills and sensibilities than Carter did in Georgia. Michael Janeway, who as dean of the Medill Journalism School at Northwestern knew the Chicago establishment figures who nurtured Obama’s rise in the 1990s, speaks of “the Chicago way”—“getting all the parties together and taking responsibility for finding a solution.” Under the Chicago way, the fact that Obama’s most important speeches are short on eight-point action plans is a strength rather than a weakness: it’s a sign that serious business will be done.

Peggy Noonan compared this approach to that of the Kennedy administration. “JFK and his people came into the White House,” she said in an e-mail, “with a faith they could be practical, pragmatic, worldly, that with these attributes they could manage what came over history’s transom. I see Obama as like this: things will come over the transom and he’ll approach them as a thoughtful sophisticate. He’ll think.”

For better and worse, if Obama wins, a thinking president is what we’ll have.

A King for four years…Does Age Matter?

Let me begin by saying I do not support Senator McCain, nor do I support Senator Obama and I really do not want another would be "King" for four years. So this is neither an endorsement nor a condemnation of either candidate…merely observations.

The confession is that I am a member of AARP and the question is does that make me less competent or less entitled to a job than someone who is younger?

Age is an integral part of everything in Politics--from Paris Hilton’s answer to Senator McCain (see video clip a the bottom of the blog) to the press’s ongoing bias for Senator Obama because of his “energy” and “young approach”

All other political party platforms aside, and assuming Senator McCain is in good mental and physical health, does age make him less qualified?

Sadly, I hear on the news my children’s generation thinking it is time for the Boomer Generation to step aside—after all, we have had our turn—right? I don’t think so. Most Boomers that I know are active, energetic, intelligent and vital people who still have a great deal to offer. Unfortunately, even many Boomers who would like to retire (not in a rocker, but maybe as a rocker) cannot afford to do so in today’s economy.

In conclusion, I really do not know for whom to vote…perhaps I could write in Betty Boop?

See more funny videos at Funny or Die