Opinion
DENVER – On Friday, after spending the week in Denver for the Democratic National Convention, we were congratulating ourselves for deciding to wait until Saturday to fly home.
We all managed to get volunteer assignments at Invesco Center for Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance speech on Thursday night, which gave us great seats for the evening activities. It also meant we had to file out of the arena along with 86,000 other supporters, walk a mile to the light rail station, catch the free mall bus, remember where we parked our rental van, locate it and drive to our condo 20 minutes away in Arvada. After sharing our experiences for the day and having a midnight snack our heads hit the pillows about 2 a.m.
We all agreed that the evening was awesome and that we definitely have a winning team for November.
By now you have all watched the speeches or seen snippets of them on the news so we will just say that being in the Pepsi Center when they were delivered and feeling the passion and enthusiasm of each of the speakers and the crowd was awe inspiring and history making and we were grateful and honored to be here.
Hillary Clinton’s speech reconfirmed to her 18 million diehard supporters the reason we were on her team to the bitter end and helped to woo over many of those who were not yet on the Obama bandwagon.
Michelle Obama – as she related the values, dedication and passion her husband feels about America and the American people, particularly those without a voice – helped us to renew our desire to work harder in our own Lake County to help elect like-minded candidates.
President Bill Clinton’s address reminded us of a better time in America when we could afford to fill our tanks and buy groceries without the need to use monies from our savings to do so. His five-minute standing ovation was a testament to his ongoing popularity with Democrats.
Sen. Dennis Kucinich whipped the crowd into a frenzy as he spoke of the need for social change in our country.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, giving perhaps his last address to a Democratic National Convention, stated that nothing could keep him away from this one. Speaking with a clear voice he assured the crowd, which honored him with numerous outbursts of applause, that he would be back in the capitol and ready to get back to work in January.
Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Biden helped all understand why Obama chose him as a running mate and wife Jill surprised us all when she mentioned a special guest and Barack Obama appeared. People who were trying to make a quick getaway came running back to their seats.
California was well represented with our share of speakers taking the podium and chair of the party, Art Torres, stating during the roll call vote, “California Passes.”
Pros of this convention included great speeches, terrific music and musicians, fun people watching, nice weather most of the time and friendly Denverites.
Cons were transportation, the worst we have every seen and had to endure every day; credentials were picked up at the Denver Center every morning followed by an eight-block walk to the shuttle buses that dropped everyone off a mile from the security check point. After arriving there bags were checked by security followed by another long walk into the Pepsi Center. We have all started the exercise program scheduled for next Monday a week early. The organization of volunteers left much to be desired but it can’t be easy to coordinate 10,000 volunteers.
Overall, it was an experience to remember and treasure for a lifetime.
Wanda Harris – along with other fellow Lake County Democrats Becky Curry, Sunol Westergren and Wendy White – attended the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week.
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- Written by: Wanda Harris
They really believe it is "God's will" that a marriage contract can only be between one man and one woman and that this has been "the definition of marriage since the dawn of time," as it's poetically put by Frank Schubert, who is co-managing the Yes on 8 campaign.
That must create an uncomfortable disconnect for Yes on 8 leader Michael Bumgarner, a retired insurance executive and devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, with a long history of marriages involving one man and several women.
Schubert heads the Sacramento political consulting firm Schubert Flint Public Affairs. One of the partners is Richard Wiebe, a former California deputy insurance commissioner.
Oh wait – insurance again? Isn't that the industry that was so prominent in opposing the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s?
Ellie Smeal, founder of the Fund for a Feminist Majority and former president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), reported this to the 1995 National NOW Conference: "The real opposition to the ERA was silent and stayed in the background." For example, during the Illinois campaign for passage of the ERA, Smeal was shown an internal General Electric memo outlining their reasons for opposing the ERA. She says, "It talked about wages, benefits, health insurance and money. At the time women were making 59 cents for every man's dollar. Someone was pocketing 41 cents. If you think the ERA was a debate about the draft or single-sex toilets, you're wrong; it was and is about money.
"Insurance companies were also major players behind the defeat of the ERA. They wanted to continue their discriminatory practices. In Florida, the 'dean' of the Senate was a partner in a law firm that represented 14 insurance companies. Guess which way the Florida Senate voted? The same was true in many other states; the number one ERA opponent in Louisiana was a state legislator who was an insurance defense attorney."
A major contributor to the Yes on 8 campaign is the Knights of Columbus, which kicked in a million dollars recently. Easy to understand, right? The K of C is a Catholic men's organization, very active in charity work, very family-oriented. And did you know the Knights' 1.7 million members include "over 1,200 full-time life insurance professionals"? They do far more than sell insurance, but it is a major function of the organization and a major reason to join. See www.kofc.org/un/insurance/index.cfm.
The ERA says this: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
The campaign against it relied on some pretty twisted arguments, including drafting women into military service. And today we have no draft. Unisex toilets were a prominent threat, although they don't seem to have caused the downfall of some European countries which have them, or of the many families which share a bathroom.
The current arguments seem equally silly. Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in May of 2004, and California in May this year. Canada approved it in 2005,the Netherlands in 2000,Spain in 2005 – you can read more about other countries' laws at www.ilga-europe.org/europe/issues/marriage_and_partnership/marriage_and_partnership_rights_for_same_sex_partners_country_by_country.
If those laws have caused problems for heterosexuals in any of those places, the stories are not showing up on Internet searches.
For insurance companies, the ERA would have meant equalizing pay for many women employees, and extending benefits to women that, in some cases, were reserved for men. Today, some companies offer a broader range of benefits to spouses than to domestic partners. At a minimum, insurance companies will have considerable expense for revising and rewriting their policies.
This isn't about California. It's about precedent for a nationwide spread.
Here's the good news: Equality can be good for business. The Boston Globe reports Provincetown's tourist business has been revitalized since Massachusetts repealed a 1913 law which banned same-sex marriages for out-of-staters.
Full disclosure: Sophie Annan Jensen has no dog in this fight. She's a straight woman who intends to stay happily unmarried. She doesn't know of any gay relatives and has no interest in her friends' sex lives. She has always supported the ERA.
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- Written by: Sophie Annan Jensen
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