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Women’s Rights in Arizona: March & #ERA (video)

January 20, 2017 by Pamela Powers Hannley

Today, January 20, 2016, President Barack Obama became our former president.

Today, Donald Trump entered the office of president with the worst approval rating ever– 40%.

For many months, different groups have been planning post-inauguration protests, teach-ins, marches, and other activism to greet the new president. (After all, many groups were alienated by him during his campaign, and we’re motivated.)

On Saturday, January 21– here in Tucson and nationwide–women (and others) will be marching in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington. (Background below.) The Tucson event will start at 10 a.m. at Armory Park, and attendees will march to the main library downtown for booths, speeches and festivities. (Details here.)

The theme of the nationwide march is: “Become the soul of the nation.” This is taken from a quote by Coretta Scott King, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.” – Coretta Scott King

We can’t continue to be depressed and bitter about the election. It’s time to push against the forces that want to keep us down. What better way to start the new year and the newest phase of the struggle than to march in solidarity, build community, and fight for equal rights?

To that end, I submitted a bill to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) on January 12.

#PowersForThePeople Team #CyclingForChange in the AZ Legislature at #Cyclovia

April 11, 2016 by Pamela Powers Hannley

Congressman Ron Barber and Pamela Powers Hannley at Cyclovia

Although Cyclovia got a little soggy this year, the #PowersForThePeople #CyclingForChange team was undeterred. Six of us decorated our bikes with “Cycling for Change in the Arizona Legislature” and “Powers for the People” signage and rode in Cyclovia. While the guys rode the route, I talked with voters at the Himmel Park hub and collected signatures.

My husband Jim and I saw many friends at Cyclovia. What a great community event it is. Itnot only promotes gathering and communication, it also promotes exercise and health.

One of the people I ran into was Congressman Ron Barber. (He and his wife Nancy have two of the coolest bikes in Tucson.) Barber has been very supportive of my campaign, and we talked at length about strategy and progress as we dodged the raindrops.

Winners and Losers

March 11, 2016March 11, 2016 by Michael Bryan

Cross-posted from RestoreReason.com.

Donald Trump likes to talk about winners and losers, mostly that he’s a winner and that pretty much everybody else is a loser. It seems his definition of a winner is someone who is bold, strong, and of course, successful in business. Of course there are many who question whether he really is the “yuuuuge” business success he claims, but at the very least, he has made himself appear successful.

Of course, we know that things are not always how they first appear. Trump may appear to be strong, decisive and ready to “Make America Great Again” but he truly has not offered one viable solution to do that. Take K-12 education for example. The only plan he has voiced is to rid us of Common Core (something he wouldn’t have the power to do.) Given his focus on business, I’m guessing “The Donald’s” plan for education involves making our students commodities to be traded on the open market; where for-profit schools compete for the spoils and students are turned into winners and losers.

Feminism, Socialism, Hillary, & Bernie

October 21, 2015October 21, 2015 by Pamela Powers Hannley

World leaders when the men are photoshopped out of the picture. — An Islamic leader infamously had German Chancellor Angela Merkel Photoshopped out of a group photo of world leaders because she was not wearing a veil. Here is a group photo with male world leaders Photoshopped out of the picture. This is the problem.

While many American progressives swoon over Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders’ laundry list of economic reforms– like free college education, taxing the rich, and redistributing the wealth– others support the progressive woman candidate, who has been leading in the polls for months.

Baby Boomer feminists like myself have been fighting for equality and punching through the glass ceiling of sexism our entire working lives. Hillary Clinton is one of us. She is poised to punch through the thickest glass ceiling in the world– the US presidency.

1960s

In the 1960s, when I was in the eighth grade, I told my guidance counselor that I wanted to go to college. He asked why– since girls really didn’t need to go to college. He finally acquiesced and ask, “So, do you want to be a teacher or a nurse? Those are the only professions for which women need a college degree.”

1970s

In the 1970s, I sued an employer for wage discrimination and won, but…

Who Knew? Countries that Make Stuff Are Better Off than Countries that Play the Market

July 18, 2014 by Pamela Powers Hannley

Those Germans. First they win the World Cup, and now they’re ranked #1 in trade. Germany has a trade surplus of $257 billion (a sign of a truly robust economy.) In contrast, the US is DEAD LAST on the list of 193 countries in the CIA World Factbook, with a trade deficit of $361 billion.

Who knew that a highly unionized country with a solid manufacturing base, a strong middle class, and a woman head of state could do so well? Aren’t we constantly being told that our overpaid, privileged union workers must accept pay and benefit cuts in order to compete with other countries for world markets? Obviously, what the corporate people and their Republican minions in the Congress have been telling us is hogwash.

In a syndicated editorial published in today’s Arizona Daily Star, Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect, compares the policies and financial health of countries in the top and bottom tiers. Meyerson writes…

The composition of the top and bottom 20 nations on the list provides an even more illuminating picture. Three kinds of nations dominate the top 20: oil exporters (Saudi Arabia ranks third), East Asian manufacturers-for-export (China ranks second) and Northern European industrial and social democracies (not just Germany but also Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway — the last, swimming in North Sea oil, an energy exporter as well).

The most striking aspect of the bottom 20, by contrast, is the prevalence of English-speaking nations. Not only does the United States finish 193rd, but Britain comes in at 192, Canada at 189, Australia at 186 and New Zealand at 173.

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