Today the National Organization for Women opens its 2010 National NOW Conference at a critical time for women’s rights. Hundreds of feminist leaders and activists have gathered in Boston, Mass., to share information, ideas and strategies for addressing the huge challenges before us.
On the humid South Mississippi mornings when my father drove me to elementary school, Shirley Q. Liquor often made guest appearances on our favorite radio talk show. More than a decade later, I am stunned to hear that Shirley Q. is still around. Moreover, I am shocked to learn of a scheduled performance at the Russian River Resort in Guerneville, California on June 19, 2010. This is the date known as Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day, which is the oldest nationally celebrated holiday commemorating the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Alabama voters cast their ballots for Terri Sewell on Tuesday, giving her a first-place finish in the state’s Democratic Party primary. Sewell received 37 percent of the vote and will face Shelia Smoot, who garnered 29 percent of the vote, in a July 13 runoff. NOW’s Political Action Committee proudly endorsed Sewell, a first-time candidate for public office, early in her campaign. Sewell is running for an open seat in the House of Representatives from Alabama’s 7th Congressional District.
“NOW congratulates Terri Sewell, and we look forward to continuing to work together toward a win in July and again in November,” said NOW President and NOW PAC Chair Terry O’Neill. “Early support for women candidates is critical to their success. We must continue backing women like Terri Sewell if we hope to achieve gender parity in government.”
The National Organization for Women (NOW), the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States, joins the Arizona chapter of NOW in supporting the public protest against Arizona’s controversial new immigration law, SB 1070, which makes it a state crime for a person to be undocumented. The law, as it stands, will take effect on July 29 unless the courts intervene.
“For years, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arapaio has been terrorizing this community by profiling, arresting and deporting the undocumented. This law codifies Sheriff Arapaio’s vigilante justice and gives a green light to the politics of racial division, fear and discrimination,” says NOW President Terry O’Neill.
Barring ethnic studies is the next step in Arizona’s now-sustained effort to intimidate, harass and erase those implicitly non-white ‘aggressors and non-taxpayers’ in our country. If you think this is the end of attempts to enshrine nativism as the official state motto of Arizona, you’re probably fooling yourself — and know that what happens in one state can happen in others.