IDELLA MOORE, head of 4ERA (www.4ERA.org) writes:

Kerry's co-sponsoring an ERA ratification resolution in the Senate year after year is nice, but we're talking about a basic human right here. When the majority of the population of a country is denied equality under the law, then it is a human rights issue. The U.S. is violating our human rights! Neither candidate loses sleep over this--it's easier to point the finger at other countries--and of course keeps the media attention away from our own failings and helps to keep women ignorant of their own status in this country. And women fall for it hook, line and sinker.

There are loads of organizations who profess to support the ERA, but I can tell you from here at the front lines, we don't get any actual support. We use our own money and scrape by (barely) to keep the campaign moving forward. Yet there are 150 national organizations who "support" the ERA!! So why should John Kerry actively support something that most women's organizations don't actively support themselves?

And I think that AFTER the election is TOO late.

Thanks for passing this around. As you can probably tell I'm frustrated that the power of women has become so dispersed over so many issues that we have no power to influence anything anymore. This presidential campaign has made this crystal clear. My organization 4ERA (www.4ERA.org) is seeking to regroup women and men across the country and get them to get their eyes back on the prize--equal rights. Amazingly to me, I returned to this country a few years ago (after a self imposed exile following the failure of the ERA in 1982) to find women have become so distracted with small skirmishes that "THEY" have us right where they want us--scattered and weak. Idella