By Donald A. Collins | 3 May 2023
Church and State
Despite efforts for over 50 years the attempt to pass the ERA Amendment to our Constitution Senator Ben Cardon, who just announced he would not run again. His efforts failed again but said efforts will continue, presumably led until his retirement by Cardin who is leading the charge in the U.S. Senate alongside Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to allow the ERA to move forward.
Read here.
Fifty-one years ago in the Maryland House of Delegates, when Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) voted to ratify the ERA the first time. Now, he is leading the charge in the U.S. Senate alongside Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to allow the ERA to move forward. https://t.co/YbghKZ2SpS
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 27, 2023
The choice issue has never been more clearly defined than with the profusion of GOP state anti-abortion laws following the June 24, 2022, Supreme Court’s killing of Roe Casey with the Dobbs decision.
How can an ERA amendment to our Constitution ever be passed without keeping the government at every level out of women’s uteruses?
As we have argued often, the main issue in the 2024 election will be women’s right to a safe abortion as prohibiting such a personal and private choice symbolizes the attacks on freedom and democracy that the GOP MAGA CULT wants to enact on American voters of both parties and every citizen!
Think of the GOP shopping list of unsavory choices! No equity for LBGTQ Americans, no cooperative efforts to create a bi-partisan immigration policy, no real gun control measures, no effort to break the tyranny of gerrymandering on state legislatures, no accountability for trying to push Critical Race Theory or its twin the far-right whites’ fear of replacement by minorities or people of color, and constant calls for making Christian Nationalism the religious for all Americans.
With the US Supreme Court controlled by right wing Catholic zealots, this Court may rule that the Texas judge’s decision to ban nationwide the drug which 53% of women use to have early abortions, mifepristone, was correct despite the drug’s 23 year FDA approval and its stellar safety record. Religion over science we can hope is going to cost these zealots politically in 2024.
As a vast majority of scientists tell us (as most people everywhere can see or directly experience) as climate and other environmental problems emerge, the 6th Extinction is now well underway and its rapid acceleration can be expected before 2100!
While nations, including the USA, world’s major polluter and other large nations have not met promised UN COP climate goals, many laudable private and governmental efforts are underway.
Homo sapiens, if they act decisively now, can largely save themselves from vast casualties soon.
For example, NOVA’s April 23rd documentary entitled Chasing Carbon Zero hosted by Miles O’Brian offers exciting ways to reduce the deadly assault of fossil fuels on our planet.
Read here about its many exciting ideas for overcoming the disaster of fossil fuel.
The U.S. recently set an ambitious climate change goal: to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and slash emissions in half by 2030.
NOVA: Chasing Carbon Zerohttps://t.co/8KvMVLiZ5l
— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) May 3, 2023
And many other energy innovations are available.
Could these promising solutions be happen? It’s a race against time as the continuing growth of human population now 8 billion up from 2 billion in 90 years and headed for 11 billion by 2100, makes many scientists pessimistic about avoiding massive global devastation.
My personal list of adverse factors which inhibit their success are four but you can doubtless add your own to this list:
Manic embrace of growth in all aspects of human endeavors!
Greed dominates all human pursuits!
The befuddling belief in gods which allow religions to control secular decisions and promote worldwide descension!
And finally, the fact of racism which engenders the hatred that stymies cooperation and peaceful coexistence.
My abbreviated capital letter list: GGRR or Growth, Greed, Religion, and Racism!
Breaking away from these behaviors will be mandatory to save ourselves.
The principal motivating force in overcoming these four impediments to survival could be the rising tide of demands for equality in all sectors by the world’s women motivated by their instinctive wish to save their children and grandchildren.
Symbolically effective actions here in the USA such as passing the long overdue ERA and resetting the national right of women to obtain safe abortions would send powerful messages to the world’s women that progress is possible.
The jury is out but the time to act is short!
Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC, has spent over 50 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?” and “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us”."What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?": https://t.co/fHuh0CG6JD
"We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?": https://t.co/TA4j7cp1tE
"From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013": https://t.co/lkC2t3E1A9 pic.twitter.com/bQsL2mLBcO— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) November 1, 2021
Senate GOP Blocks Equal Rights Amendment
Supreme Court maintains FDA’s approval of mifepristone, preserving access to abortion pill for now
GOP drifts farther from U.S. voters on abortion as their aims make pregnancy less safe
Chasing Carbon Zero HD NOVA (2023) Trailer
Earth currently experiencing a sixth mass extinction, according to scientists | 60 Minutes
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