Your Silence Will Not Protect You

Below the Belt: A Biweekly Column by NOW President Kim Gandy

January 24, 2006

If ever there was a time for a filibuster...

We all remember the "deal" that 14 senators (7 from each party) made to save the filibuster from the "nuclear option" threatened by Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee. There was a dear price exacted—three terrible anti-women judges were elevated to federal Courts of Appeal—but the reason given was that we needed to preserve the filibuster for a bad nominee to the Supreme Court.

That time has come. The Alito confirmation process continues this week, with debate opening January 25, and unless we can convince pro-women Senators to take a meaningful stand against Alito, we will live with the fallout for decades to come.

With Alito on the Court in the critical seat of the moderate Justice O'Connor, women could lose the right to make their own reproductive decisions in a safe, non-coerced, and private way. Gays and lesbians could lose the critical right to privacy that allows consenting adults to make their own decisions about sex and sexuality. People of color could lose the last shred of support for affirmative action programs, which are essential to leveling the playing field and giving all people a fair chance to compete for jobs and educational opportunities. Immigrants could become even more marginalized and subject to unfair and arbitrary governmental regulations, exclusion, and harassment. Women and men alike could lose their right to take protected family and medical leave, to care for a new child or an ill family member without losing their jobs.

We know the dangers. And we know that our Senators know the dangers. So it's time to call on them to stand up for us, and to use every weapon in their arsenal—including the filibuster. Simply voting "no" on Alito's confirmation is a meaningless gesture (you're not sure why? Find out here!). So senators can make all the speeches they want, but unless they take a stand for our rights by supporting a filibuster (which, after all, only requires the nominee to get 60 out of 100 votes), their "no" vote will count for nothing. (As my high school chemistry teacher used to say: if you're not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate.)

Last week, in between meetings with Senators and staff, I wrote a letter to every member of the Senate who has held himself or herself out as a supporter of women's rights. In that letter, I said: "Your commitment to women's rights is hollow if you will not fight to preserve them. . . . We believe that this nomination and its threat to privacy and autonomy and decency and respect for all of us is cause for a declaration of 'extraordinary circumstances' and a Senate filibuster."

It's time for us foot-soldiers of democracy to swing into action (or really, to swing faster, since I know how hard you all are working!). It never hurts to repeat a good message—after all, psychologists tell us that the surest way to get someone to learn something is repetition, repetition, repetition. So keep up the calling! Call your senator's offices and urge your friends and colleagues to call! Send emails! Some good messages and talking points are also available.

Let's tell them again that our lives, hopes, and futures depend on their courage. They cannot hide silently in the face of such a disaster.

Let's let the Senators know what we in the feminist movement have known for years:

YOUR SILENCE WILL NOT PROTECT YOU.
-Audre Lorde

For equality and justice,
Kim

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