Why I'm Pissed with N.O.W.

The New York State chapter of N.O.W. released this statement yesterday. I’m not all that happy with them. In fact, I’m pretty much pissed off with them. Read on….


Senator Kennedy Betrays Women by Not Standing For Hillary Clinton for President
January 28, 2008


Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him, hushed the fact that he was late in his support of Title IX, the ERA, and the Family and Medical Leave Act to name a few. Women have buried their anger that his support for the compromises in No Child Left Behind and the Medicare bogus drug benefit brought us the passage of these flawed bills. We have thanked him for his ardent support of many civil rights bills, BUT women are always waiting in the wings.

And now the greatest betrayal! We are repaid with his abandonment! He’s picked the new guy over us. He’s joined the list of progressive white men who can’t or won’t handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton (they will of course say they support a woman president, just not “this” one). “They” are Howard Dean and Jim Dean (Yup! That’s Howard’s brother) who run DFA (that’s the group and list from the Dean campaign that we women helped start and grow). "They" are Alternet, Progressive Democrats of America, democrats.com, Kucinich lovers and all the other groups that take women's money, say they’ll do feminist and women’s rights issues one of these days, and conveniently forget to mention women and children when they talk about poverty or human needs or America’s future.

This latest move by Kennedy, is so telling about the status of and respect for women’s rights, women’s voices, women’s equality, women’s authority and our ability – indeed, our obligation- to promote and earn and deserve and elect, unabashedly, a President that is the first woman after centuries of men who “know what’s best for us”.

Well, being that I’m not one to keep quiet when I have an opinion, I sent this response to them…

I just read your press release on the Kennedy endorsement and I have to say, I’m very disappointed in NOW. I’m a liberal Democrat, a female, and would love to see our country elect a woman president. But I’m part of the “they” that you talk about...not Hillary, not this woman who is nothing more than a Republican masquerading as a Democrat. Not this woman who began her adult life as a Goldwater Girl. Not this woman who is in favor of the war and continuing funding of it and is willing to send more men AND women to battle.

Statements like the one you released yesterday are what make so many people upset with your organization. We don’t vote for a person because of what’s between their legs, we vote for what’s between their ears. I would like to see you back down on this latest stance and help elect an individual, regardless of their gender, who will stand up for our rights as a woman and do what’s best for us.

Thank you, I’m sure you aren’t going to like what I said but I appreciate you taking the time to listen to my view.