THE ERA IS BACK! ARNP SANDY OESTREICH CHAMPIONS RIGHTS FOR NURSES, ALL AMERICAN WOMEN AND MEN

Sandy Oestreich, ARNP, nurse practitioner; President of Florida’s Equal Rights Alliance, committed solely to Florida’s ratification of the ERA; member of USF Advisory Board, Women’s Studies Dept.; former elected official; coauthor, Pharmacology in Nursing; biographied in Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975; with a feminist husband, and 2 daughters

What female nurse wouldn’t want a safe working place, salary and advancement opportunities equal to males colleagues? Or, to have security in her senior years via an equitable pension and equitable Social Security? Or, to have fair judicial treatment for sex discrimination? To have rights to full personhood and self-determination in all spheres of American society? What male nurse wouldn’t want fair rights in his child custody challenges? The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution could eventually advance all sex equality issues and undergird ignored laws on the books like the Pay Equity Act of the 60’s.

One of Florida’s nurses has re-ignited Florida’s ERA ratification campaign FOR YOU, and is working her heart out with thousands of like-minded citizens.

Sandy Oestreich’s RN license reads Jeanne, as Sandy has been her nickname since her teens. She has been married ‘forever’, and has two daughters. One is Director of Transportation for a New York School District. The other is a neurologist in Alabama. When Sandy is not working her long day, every-day stint pro bono for Florida’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, she is ‘rooting about in the garden’, windsurfing, or riding along on her husband’s motorcycle.

She lived in 13 states before New York, moving frequently because her dad was a Coast Guardsman. She graduated from high school at 16, married, and became a nurse through an Associate Degree program. She loved it, but wished she had more control over how her patients fared. So she certified as a Nurse Practitioner in 1977. Since then she has practiced in HMOs, clinics, and once traveled 78 miles a day to volunteer as NP in Pasco County for indigent senior citizens.

While teaching nursing at Adelphi University and doing doctoral work, she began coauthoring Pharmacology in Nursing, a one-of-a-kind text at the time, with international distribution. Sandy changed nursing’s thrust at the University to a more clinically-proficient one, starting with the sophomore classes. By 1988, she was living in Florida near St. Petersburg, and initiating work to expand the county’s library system, and to return Bayfront Medical Center to its original non-religious, full-service status. That success made St. Petersburg the only one of two US cities to accomplish that. Later being elected to her town’s Commission, she became Vice Mayor and Chair of the three-town Fire Department, and a member of the Police Board. A bona fide Change Agent, she.

Now, Sandy has found her life’s challenge: to change the US Constitution so it includes women, potentially bringing women’s wages to equal males, and bestowing the full stature of personhood and full rights. She has a vision of equal treatment for ALL Americans, but she says, “Let’s get it right for women” since equality has already been codified for race, religion and national origin. “No, those problems are also still with us, just that at least THEY have a contract with the nation in the Constitution so there’s fairness before the courts.” With the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the US Constitution, equal treatment of the sexes would include sex discrimination cases being reviewed by the courts with a process called Strict Scrutiny with more just outcomes, rather than the current Intermediate Scrutiny.

Once Sandy discovered that the ERA had barely missed passing by 1982, leaving just 3 states orphaned, she vowed to get the Constitution fixed. In 2001, her opportunity arrived—the national ERA Campaign Network was looking for someone to spearhead the renewed ERA effort in Florida. They may have just been looking to keep the ERA alive, but, typically, Sandy tore into action.

“For the first two years, it was really hard. Nobody knew the ERA was ‘back’; most thought it had actually passed! I spoke everywhere”, she says joking,” –Ladies Rooms and elevators”. But it worked, worked so well that Florida’s Equal Rights Alliance that she founded had to incorporate. Then she was appointed Vice President of the national ERA Education Fund, a tax-deductible 501(c)(3). The Alliance’s amazing growth has enabled two bills to ratify Florida since 2003, with growing numbers of legislators cosponsoring them (recently 49 cosponsors). There are 295 000 committed supporters in nearly 400 major organizations—FLORIDA NURSES ASSOCIATION IS ONE! And FNA has set ERA as one of its legislative priorities, assigning it to our professional lobbyist. –Thank you, FNA! Sandy and her ERA Action Teams do the remaining grassroots unpaid lobbying in Tallahassee during Session, and in the Home Districts at other times.

The public clearly wants the ERA written into the US Constitution, as 88% told the ERA Campaign Network’s Survey. All 67 of Florida’s County Commissions have endorsed ERA in writing, as have 7 Florida newspapers, and 58 regional Florida ERA Action Teams. “All we NEED is Florida legislators’ votes!” she says.

She and her Teams relocated as usual to Tallahassee for the 2007 legislative Session. Starting at the top floor of the Capitol, they split up. One group took the House side and the other, the Senate. They lobbied all 160 offices with their new materials. This year’s was meant to ‘immunize’ legislators against Special Interests who are strong, monied Stop-ERA lobbyists from out of state. Every year they promote a new objection that circulates, such as: Social Security will stop, women will be drafted, women will be treated like men “which no woman wants’; unisex bathrooms—all because of the ERA. But is neutral on all that.

And they are successful. Legislators have caved in Nevada, Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri during just the last 12 months. Illinois was all set, when ONE legislator voted NO a couple of years ago! Remember, ERA only needs 3 states’ ratifications for adoption into the US Constitution! There are several states with ratification bills. Florida is at the forefront! Those 35 states that did ratify their ERA by 1982 do not get ERA coverage in the Constitution until THREE MORE OF US RATIFY IT!

Many Florida legislators only respond that they are “afraid ERA will create ‘unintended circumstances.” You can see what Sandy and the Equal Rights Alliance are up against. She says, “We need to redouble our efforts to fend off paid lobbyist Special Interest Groups. After all the work we’ve and others have done for 6 years, 18/7, it would be horrid if Florida’s legislators succumbed to them and voted NO when ERA finally gets heard.” “We WILL ratify, either now or later. Legislators know that they will see me in their offices, in the Capitol in a wheelchair and on oxygen, if need be, but we WILL do it!”

Let’s answer some questions about the ERA:

It has the same language since 1943: Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. “’Sex’ meaning ‘gender”-- that’s the sex you ARE, not the sex you DO”, says Sandy, grinning.

Respected legal scholars tell us that ERA is still alive. That’s because all the 35 states that did ratify in the 70s CANNOT rescind. And because a 203 year old (unrelated) Amendment was passed in 1992, thus setting a precedent for restarting the Equal Rights Amendment, too. There are other substantive legal arguments that lead the Congressional Research Service and other attorneys to conclude renewing the ERA work is doable.

Sandy and her Teams and ERA Bill sponsors Sen. Gwen Margolis (Miami) and Rep. Joyce Cusack (Deland) and the Alliance’s 21-member Board heartily invite you to pitch in for the good of you, your children, your family (men have discrimination issues, too!), their children, theirs and theirs…

“There are lots of easy, quick, no-cost ways you can make a REAL difference, to speed up Florida’s ratification. Calling your Florida State Senator and Representative legislators is one way—YOU are their VIP, their employer! Use your power to urge their votes for the ERA next March.” Sandy and her Teams invite you to ask her to present a Power Point talk at one of your meetings throughout Florida.

Meanwhile, FNA suggests emailing Sandy and her staff at [email protected], and visiting www.RatifyERAflorida.net for comprehensive and complete background, Florida-wide and national news. Go to Propel ERA button for a list of no-brainer important ERA suggestions, she says. “No dues, no meetings, just 2 phone calls. ERA couldn’t be easier. Right?” asks Sandy. “We’ve been working 6 years, nonstop for YOU. Now’s the time for you to do your bit. Please call. (Get Florida legislators’ numbers from Supervisor of Elections or ask Sandy.) CALL now and say you are their CONSTITUENT.

“Changing the US Constitution, that’s what we’re doing. Nurses can do it. Pitch in with us or donate any amount now: ERA, 305 173 Ave., St Petersburg FL 33708. Make history for the nation and for your family and theirs and theirs, along with us.”

Federal and state lawmakers have launched a new drive to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, reviving a feminist goal that faltered a quarter-century ago when the measure did not gain the approval of three-quarters of the state legislatures.

The amendment, which came three states short of enactment in 1982, has been introduced in five state legislatures since January. Yesterday, House and Senate Democrats reintroduced the measure under a new name -- the Women's Equality Amendment -- and vowed to bring it to a vote in both chambers by the end of the session.

The renewed push to pass the ERA, which passed the House and Senate overwhelmingly in 1972 and was ratified by 35 states before skidding to a halt, highlights liberals' renewed sense of power since November's midterm elections. From Capitol Hill to Arkansas, legislators said they are seizing a political opportunity to enshrine women's rights in the Constitution.

"Elections have consequences, and isn't it true those consequences are good right now?" Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) asked a mostly female crowd yesterday at a news conference, as the audience cheered. "We are turning this country around, bit by bit, to put it in a more progressive direction."

The amendment consists of 52 words and has one key line: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." That sentence would subject legal claims of gender discrimination to the same strict scrutiny given by courts to allegations of racial discrimination.

Although more states are considering ratifying the ERA now than at any other time in the past 25 years, activists still face serious hurdles. Every statewide officeholder in Arkansas endorsed the amendment this year, but the bill stalled in committee last week after Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly came to Little Rock to testify against the measure.

In the 1970s, Schlafly and others argued that the ERA would lead to women being drafted by the military and to public unisex bathrooms. Today, she warns lawmakers that its passage would compel courts to approve same-sex marriages and deny Social Security benefits for housewives and widows.

"It's very retro. It had 10 years of debate, very passionate debate for 10 years, and it was defeated," Schlafly said in an interview yesterday. "Anytime you get a fair forum where both sides are heard, we win."

The ERA, originally introduced in Congress in 1923, gained popularity in the mid-1960s. In March 1972, it cleared the first of two hurdles: passing both chambers of Congress by the required two-thirds vote.

Thirty state legislatures ratified it the next year. Congress extended by three years its seven-year deadline for ratification, but the decade passed without approval by the required 38 states. ERA backers have since introduced the resolution in every Congress, but only now do they believe they have a realistic chance of success.

Legal scholars debate whether the 35 state votes to ratify the amendment are still valid.

In 1997, three professors argued in the William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law that the ERA remained viable because in 1992 the Madison Amendment -- which affects congressional pay raises -- became the 27th constitutional amendment 203 years after it first won congressional approval. Under that precedent, advocates say, the ERA should become part of the Constitution once three-quarters of the states ratify it, no matter how long that takes.

Even backers of the amendment such as Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) expect a legal battle on that question. They are reintroducing the amendment in Congress and hope to start the ratification process again from scratch.

Idella Moore, executive officer of Atlanta-based 4ERA, said she and other supporters are trying to convince Americans that it makes sense to adopt the amendment, even though people have not focused on the issue for years.

"It's a hell of a challenge," Moore said. "We're trying to reposition it back into the mainstream."

ERA backers have enjoyed limited success so far -- Florida's House speaker has yet to assign the bill to committee, and the Arkansas House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs deadlocked 10 to 10. But the drive has sparked a new national discussion on women's rights.

"I think we've made a lot of people think about this and say, 'Yes, this is the right thing to do,' " said Arkansas state Rep. Lindsley Smith (D), who sponsored the ERA and has vowed to bring it up again when the legislature reconvenes in 2009. "The question I get most frequently is 'Lindsley, I thought this already was in the Constitution.' "

Jay Barth, a professor of politics at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., said the recent debate shows both the advances the women's movement has made in the South and its limitations.

"Gender equity has definitely become a no-brainer aspect of Democratic Party ideology, even in Southern states. Thirty years ago, that was not the case," Barth said. But he added that when it came to ratifying the amendment this year, "it certainly wasn't a priority for Democratic Party officials."

Opponents warn that enacting the amendment could produce unintended consequences. Arkansas state Rep. Dan Greenberg (R) said he opposes the measure because courts in two states have ruled that equal-rights amendments in state constitutions justify state funding for abortion.

"The more general language you have in a constitutional amendment, the more unpredictable the policy impact will be," Greenberg said.

Caroline Fredrickson, who directs the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that "it's hard to predict" how courts would interpret the amendment. But she said it is more likely the ERA would allow women to sue for higher pay and other benefits.

"It has really hampered women's ability to get fair treatment in the workplace and other aspects of their lives," she said.

It remains unclear whether the amendment -- which has 194 House co-sponsors and 10 Senate co-sponsors and no longer includes a deadline for ratification -- can get a two-thirds vote in Congress. Nadler, who chairs the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights, and civil liberties, said the bill will receive its first hearing in more than two decades and "is going to be one of the items at the top of the agenda."

In many ways, yesterday's news conference on Capitol Hill underscored how much has changed since Congress last voted on the ERA. As Digital Sisters Inc. chief executive Shireen Mitchell announced that her online site is working to marshal support for the bill, Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal quipped: "The last time around, we didn't have Digital Sisters."

Staff researcher Rena Kirsch contributed to this report.

The constitutional amendment was first introduced 25 years ago at the state capitol. Today state leaders and legislators kicked off an equal rights rally by reintroducing the resolution.

If passed, it would be sent to Washington, DC, where it would join 35 other states that have already adopted the amendment.

Representative Lindsley Smith is the primary sponsor. She says she's doing it for all women--but one in particular who died just last year.

(Rep. Lindsley Smith, (D) Fayetteville) "Her family, when they were going through her things, they found an E-R-A bracelet. And the family got together and

the sons and the daughters and they said what are we going to do with this. They said we're going to give it to Lindsley Smith because she's going to ratify

the Equal Rights Amendment. And so I have that bracelet and I'm going to be wearing that bracelet on the day that this passes."

Smith says she will introduce the legislation in a House committee next week.

Copyright 2007 katv, LLC

(Permission granted, Commentoon. Subscribe at womensenews.com.)

Alliance Board member and Prime Sponsor of the ERA bill, Florida’s former Representative Arthenia Joyner was elected to the Florida Senate, where she will cosponsor SB 272, filed by Senator Gwen Margolis. ERA House bill filing is imminent.

Here in Florida, our Equal Rights Alliance’s own Board member, Alex Sink, was elected statewide to the position of Chief Financial Officer.

Florida’s U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has been chosen to serve on the eminent House Appropriations Committee. New Florida U.S. Rep., Kathy Castor, will now serve uniquely on THREE of the most prestigious committees: House Rules; Speaker Pelosi’s Steering and Policy; and on the House Armed Services Committee!

We also proudly note that a Woman ! is planning to run for U.S. President: “I’m IN it to WIN it”, says NY Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"A feminist is one who believes all people should be treated equally regardless of sex. Many men are feminists, too. Think Alan Alda, Illinois Representative Lou Lang, former Florida Senators Les Miller and Rod Smith,” said Sandy Oestreich of North Redington Beach, FL. She is one of the 2,200 women whose biographies appear in the new groundbreaking book, Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975. (Barbara Love, University of Illinois Press) .

The release of the book , Feminists Who Changed America 1963 – 1975, prompted 5 celebratory events in New York City, November 12 & 13, 2006. The book’s 500 pages took almost 10 years to write, was edited by Barbara Love, assisted by 16 project editors and supported by The Veteran Feminists of America. This brilliant undertaking uniquely guarantees that the history of these people will never be lost, as was the case for so many that preceded this electronic and digital age.

Two hundred-thirty feminists gathered at Columbia University and Barnard College in Manhattan to celebrate launching of the book; it’s their own histories. Mostly women, they had waded in to make way for women’s self-determination in every sphere, to reconstruct the very landscape of America’s workforce. They de-sexed criteria for want-ads, insurance, credit cards, mortgages and payrolls. They are the firsts who broke through barriers in universities, professions, politics, and sports. They are the pioneers in making sex-discrimination illegal, teaching about women’s health, working to end domestic violence and sexual violence. They are the founders of consciousness-raising, women’s studies courses, health clinics and rape crisis centers. This is the very group who brought the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) out of Congress to the states, got it ratified in 35, and vows to press on until the ERA reaches the 38 states necessary for the US Constitution.

Eyes shining, Sandy said she is awed to be included in the book and the two day premier celebration. “It was a thrill to be present among the Greats of Feminism, most I’d never met.” For example: Gloria Steinem, Muriel Fox, Sheila Tobias, Karen DeCrow, Jacqui Ceballos, Heather Booth, and Kate Millett.

The Gala included a panel, Past Victories, Future Challenges; a reception given by Judith Shapiro, President of Barnard College; and a concert by singer-songwriter Margie Adam. Sandy Oestreich, Florida’s Equal Rights Alliance*, and Dr. Jennifer Macleod, national ERA Campaign Network, gave rousing accounts of the current resurgence of the ERA and the renewed state and campaigns to see it ratified and in the U.S. Constitution. “Who will march with us in the NEW revolution?”

“ERA! ERA! ERA! ERA! ERA! shouted the crowd. Just as it would have 30 years ago.

Gubernatorial candidate, Florida Senator Rod Smith (D-Alachua) has issued his Endorsement of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) legislation, and subsequently issued a Proclamation for Women's Equality Day, August 26, 2005.

"I have been unwavering in my commitment to the ERA and have repeatedly co-sponsored, argued for and voted in favor of Senator Margolis' resolution which would provide for its ratification by the Legislature of Florida.

As an adjunct professor in Constitutional Law, I am well-equipped to counter the litany of misunderstandings, mischaracterizations and, in some instances, untruths, leveled at this very important measure.

Successful passage of the ERA would be a high watermark in our history as a nation. As your Governor I wouldn't be 'in' the fight; I'd be leading it."
Senator Rod Smith, Bill Co-sponsor

The Alliance is proud of Sen. Smith's commitment to the ratification of the ERA, and is optimistic that other gubernatorial candidates will likewise support ERA. - Equal Rights Alliance Board