Monday 4th of July 2005 when will freedom ring for all?

If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.

Abigail Adams American Revolutionary

It is the fourth of July 2005 in Roanoke Virginia. It has been 418 years since Virginia Dare was born in the Roanoke Island Colony. It took 189 years for the Colonies to become free from the rulership of England. It took 333 years for women to be allowed the right to vote. The original settlers came to the Americas seeking freedom of religion and the right to self-determination. It is my heartfelt prayer that this dream may become a reality in our time.


While we have made strides in the United States to empower all individual citizens, there is still much work to be done. Religious tolerance is really a questionable right in the United States as the Far Right Fundamentalist believe that it is their way or the high way for spiritual practices in the United States. As Sandra Day O'Connor retires from the Supreme Court we are all in danger that the rights women have fought so hard for will be stripped away by the right-wing agenda of the presidency. While we are blessed by Condoleezza Rice and more and more symbolic women in power, we are still threatened by a media group think that is leading us back to slavery to laws that take away a woman's power over her body and her life.


If we are going to honor the women warriors who made it possible for us to be at the point where we are now we must speak our truth and we must walk our truth.



Households headed by women are the largest segment of the population living in poverty. Women are more likely to be poor than men. Even though the equal pay law was passed in the 1960s. The gender gap still exists but is starting to decline which gives us hope but does not assure economic freedom for women. http://www.legalmomentum.org/womeninpoverty.pdf



The first woman doctor Elizabeth Blackwell had to fight to become a doctor. The percentages of women doctors has been growing during our current generation and more than half are women.



There is no gender gap between males and females who have four or more years of college and this is the segment of our population that has the least probability of falling into poverty. This means that mothers and fathers who wishes their daughters to escape the cycle of poverty must do everything possible to make sure that higher education is the goal from the time that child is born.


If we want to eliminate poverty in America and discrimination against women the only option is higher education and the development of professional skills that will assure that women have the rights guaranteed by the constitution. It is hard to pursue happiness when you are impoverished.


Ask what your country can do for you and then you will be able to ask what you can do for your country. If the men and women who govern America on all levels do not make higher education a focus for all men and women, we will continue to have a two classes in our society -- the poor and the non-poor.