Color Me Amazed

Rejoice and Retrench

On 27 January 2020, Virginia became the 38^th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment first introduced in Congress in December of 1923. On 17 January 2025, President Joseph R. Biden (three days before leaving office) proclaimed the proposal the “law of the land.” That would make it the 28^th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Credit. Breathe Together Yoga

The deadline for ratification included in the 1971 legislation sending the proposal to the states for action has muddied the water ever since. The pandemic certainly took most everyone’s eye off the ball.

Well, We the People are at a stupendous moment. We are told (belatedly) that people with girl parts have rights under law equal to those protecting almost everyone else. Is it just another freedom for the Roberts Court to consider, contort, and/or deny? Is it an affront to all things patriarchal so outrageous as to inspire a dumpster fire of anger, denial, and reflexive repression? Is it a legal platform upon which RBG would have built a mighty fortress?

Whatever else it is or is not, will or will not be, it is this—a moment of personal reflection.

Memories Are Made of This

On 31 March 1968, in a speech entitled “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” and given at the National Cathedral, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said ““the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I submit a bend is welcome. An arrival is not guaranteed.

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On 31 July 1971, Vanguard Records released Joan Baez’s twelfth studio album. It was entitled “Blessed Are…” and included a song entitled “Lincoln Freed Me Today (The Slave). Joan wrote the lyrics, which follow, entire. I draw your specific attention to the 6^th, 10^th, and last two lines. They are a simple wonder of insight into the human character, then and now, skin color and gender aside.

Been a slave most all my life
So's my kids, and so's my wife
I've been working on the Colonel's farm
Ain't been mistreated, ain't done no harm
I'll be a slave to my grave
No need of me being free

Recollect when I was just fourteen
Freedom used to be my biggest dream
I'm older now, lot wiser too
If I was free what would I do
The Colonel's been right good to me
He's taken care of my family

The Colonel rode the buggy in from town
Hitched the horse and called us all around
Said he couldn't keep us here no more
I saw a tear as he walked toward the door
Oh Dear God, what did he say?
Now I am free to go my way

Intergenerational Promises

The bible contains the story of a woman named Ruth, the great grandmother of King David. She is put forth as an example of fidelity. She tells her mother-in-law, Naomi, she will companion her to and through an uncertain future. She famously vows “where you go I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried."

I submit women of character and faith owe honor and allegiance to the lives, hopes, efforts, and accomplishments of those of the same gender and ilk preceding this Moment of Accomplishment. It is up to us in the here and now to protect, defend, nourish, and amplify the rights embodied in the 28^th Amendment, as it wanders on little cat feet of redeeming grace onto the stage of public awareness, comment, and action.

Miles to Go Along the Road of Choice

The notion of an Equal Rights Amendment Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman caused to be introduced to Congress in 1923 and Marth Edna Wright caused in 1971 to be proposed to the states for ratification is a tribute to the wonder and strength of the thirst for justice and freedom. The fact that this right is gender-specific only underscores how long it takes for MLK’s arc of justice to arrive for its inevitable challenge before the bar of the Roberts Court.

Two poems by Robert Frost spring to mind as applicable in this solemn moment.

1. As to distance and effort: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

"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."

2. As to choice in the matter: The Road Not Taken

“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"

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"

And that has made all the difference."

Blessed Are…

Those who have brought us to the possibilities of equal rights for women. And those who now must work to keep them.

And Yet This Petty Pace

The women who would not vote for the rights and freedoms on which Kamala Harris ran for high office in Election 2024 are still among us. They are enablers and administrators of Project 2025. The patriarchy will continue to encourage, support, and reward their preference for submission and subservience.

Those of us walking the other road do not hate or pity those choosing their Stepford Wife path. It would be lovely to be extended the same regard and forbearance. Let us agree to let each other live our preferences.

I do not agree with the Bard. Kings hire fools to speak truth to power in the crude vernacular in open court. Life well may be a waking dream. How one lives it signifies something very important.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene V, lines 17–28

The Price of Freedom

Thomas Jefferson was a great word smith. In addition to the soaring rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence, he gifted us with observation that “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

In my 82-year lifetime women have made dramatic progress toward equality in fact, even against the constraints and challenges of legal resistance, resentment, and retaliation. Progress is nice. Let us work toward full and solid accomplishment of the principle.

· Nine female justices on the Supreme Court, as RBG suggested, sounds like a nice proof of concept to me.

· And a female as our Head of State would bring us more in line with the courage and good sense of many other nations.

The 28^th Amendment grants women certain precious freedoms. It will take vigilance at every level of law and governance to keep them full and strong.

Do not just survive Project 2025.

Prevail.

Be strategic. If you have the resources and temperament and access, treat a Stepford Wife to a Girls Day at your spa. At less financially advantageous levels, share a cup of coffee or tea or, better yet, an adult beverage. Keep your enemies closer than your friends.

As the child’s song recommends—“Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other gold.”

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