Happy St. Patrick's Day 

Happy St. Patrick's Day to President Joe Biden

President Biden, (click here) who has a particular affection for Ireland, spoke virtually with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin from the White House on Wednesday.

I am Irish. The third generation in the USA. Our family, which is sizeable has done well. I would like all people in the USA to find happiness and prosperity, too. I think this is an important year. It is time we take measures to bring the Equal Rights Amendment to fruition. I would love to see that happen in my lifetime. It is hard to believe it hasn't. This has been a struggle since the 1960s. It is time the Amendment was passed to ensure equality.

March 17, 2021
By Maureen Groppe

Washington - The House (click here) voted largely along party lines Wednesday to remove the expired deadline for ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment for women, despite the Justice Department's view that such a move is not possible.

The resolution, which must also be approved by the Senate, says the amendment shall be part of the Constitution whenever it's been ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states. That happened last year.

But the 222 to 204House vote came decades after the seven-year ratification deadline set by Congress as well as a three-year extension approved when the amendment was coming close to passage in the 1970s....

"With President Biden and Vice President Harris at the helm, this will finally be the year we ratify the ERA to the Constitution,” said California Rep. Jackie Speier, co-chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and author of the resolution....

There is a lot of work to be done this year. It requires all 50 Democratic Senators and most probably the President of the Senate Kamal Harris to all the change that needs to be carried out.

Justice Reform

Voting Rights

Immigration 

Climate Crisis 

The Equal Rights Act

It is a big agenda, but, it is big because of the obstruction/oppression of the Republicans in the Senate. These issues have stagnated for decades and the country looks pieced together because of it.

President Obama was brilliant and made the best of a very hostile Mitch McConnell. I don't know how in good conscience any Democratic legislator can look the other way at more obstruction when reform and new laws need to go into effect. 

We have been given a second chance to get this done. Under President Obama, we saw the Affordable Care Act to become law. It took a year and in the final 60 vote majority of the Senate, not one Republican voted to secure the needed changes for the country. Not one. Even after a year of debate and back and forth. In the end, it was the commerce of the bill that passed it by 51 votes.

It is time for the US House and US Senate to do what is right for the country. The Republicans are unable and unwilling to do what is necessary. We have decades to prove it.

We have learned how bizarre the Republican Party has become with leadership that carried out an insurrection and a US Senate unable and unwilling to carry out the impeachment from the US House, not once but twice. The Democrats will not be ridiculed for carrying out the promises they made over those decades. They need to have confidence and faith to realize the magnificent outcome of the legislative agenda now facing them. They will be heroes.

I was thrilled when I heard President Biden is rethinking the Senate filibuster. He was a proud Senator for a long time and President of the Senate for eight years. He knows the obstruction all to well. I am hoping he will provide the way forward for the US Senate Democrats, the country has never needed them more.

It is time. It is long over due.