Woohoo! Women are equal!

So the President has issued a proclamation that August 26, 2011 is Women's Equality Day. Yipee!!!

Thank you, Mr. President. All in honor of the ratification of the 19th amendment on August 26, 1920.

Mr. President, even though women have the right to vote, we are hardly equal. Just ask anybody. We never should have gotten the legal right to have safe and life-saving medical procedures such as abortion, or breast cancer screenings, or pap smears, or mental health counseling. We should always be submissive to our husband's wishes. We shouldn't have the right to safe and effective preventive health care, or even any health care. We should be barefoot and pregnant at all times, making all the sacrifice necessary to stay home to raise our children.

Hey, Mr. President. You have a beautiful, intelligent, accomplished wife. You have two beautiful young girls, who I'm sure will grow up to be amazing young women - look at their mother and father.

If you want to proclaim equality for women, then how about you protect them from all the horrendous laws being passed in the name of "protecting" others, but do squat about protecting women. How about we tighten up domestic abuse policies instead of loosening them. How about we educate our children properly. How about you actually open your mouth to declare that what is happening state by state is morally and ethically wrong.

Proclaiming women as equals does not make it so. Putting your money where your mouth is would go a damn sight further than making a meaningless proclamation.

Stand up and tell the country what's happening is wrong. Stand up and tell them that the Supreme Court gave women control over their bodies, and also the right to use birth control. Stand up and tell the country that rape is not the woman's fault. Stand up and tell the country that their husband doesn't have the right to beat the crap out of them.

Stand up, because otherwise, your daughters will end up back in 1920, when the 19th amendment was passed. They'll be persecuted for the color of their skin, they'll be unable to get health care, should they be so unlucky as to need public clinics, or perhaps even their own health insurance will prohibit them from obtaining proper health care. They'll be forced to undergo police interrogation and prosecution as a murderer if, g-d forbid, they have a miscarriage that the IRS doesn't deem as "accidental." They'll be forced to bear any child they conceive as the result of a rape.

They will be 2nd class citizens, because just saying women are equal doesn't make it so.