The Equal Rights Amendment

Virginia recently ratified the ERA, which was first submitted to the states for ratification in March of 1972.  Virginia's vote meant that 38 states have now ratified it, giving the ERA the 3/4 vote of the 50 state legislatures which it needs for adoption.

However, the are two huge problems with this. First the deadline for ratification expired in 1982. And second, five states have rescinded their ratification.

Thus, the ERA has not been adopted, and will not be. The wisdom of this amendment is seriously open to question. It seems like a make work project for clever lawyers, as many issues could be presented as unconstitutional discrimination against women, should the ERA become law.

The ERA feeds into the national obsession with "rights". In no other country of the world is there such an obsession with rights as in the United States. We are consumed with the concept of rights, rather than with the nobler concepts of duty, honor, integrity, and personal character.