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

Four More Years is Not an Option

October 29, 2004

If it's Friday, it must be Wisconsin. Today I'm here to speak at a young women's rally on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus with Rep. Tammy Baldwin and Shirley Manson, Garbage lead singer (yes, Dad, it's a band), to make sure there's an enormous turnout from this key campus in a key state. To make sure young women realize what is at stake in these elections, and that they turn out in droves.

So, what are you doing today? And tomorrow? Seriously.

It's been said so often that it would sound trite if it weren't so true: this really is the election of our lives.

Chief Justice Rehnquist's serious illness and imminent retirement brings home how quickly a new president could reshape the Supreme Court's 5-4 conservative majority into a 5-4 moderate/progressive majority – OR how quickly George W. Bush could entrench his conservative agenda with a new Chief Justice like Antonin Scalia.

If you don't have plans this weekend to do something, even something modest, to help change the course of this country – then take a minute NOW to figure out what you can do. Then do it, come Hell or high water. To get you started, here are some ideas.

This really is our last chance. Just do it.

P.S. Write this number down: 1-866-OURVOTE. It's an election hotline where you can report ANY voting problems or irregularities. They'll also tell you where your precinct is located, in case you run into anyone who doesn't know where they are supposed to vote.