(What do you think? - promoted by Charley on the MTA)
Our campaign continues to build momentum and I'm excited to report a few recent developments.
Just over a week ago, I was joined by over 350 dynamic and dedicated women leaders from throughout the Fifth Congressional District and across the state, and I am grateful that so many politically active and committed women have decided to stand with me - they bring so much to my campaign. You can watch a slideshow of the event here.
And, yesterday, we launched the first television ad of the special election.
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| Since I first decided to run, I have been talking to people throughout the Fifth District one-on-one, at "Meet Niki" events, at festivals, picnics, and town meetings, and at forums and debates like the one hosted by the Lowell Sun and Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday night. I want to hear from people, and I want them to know where I stand. This media effort builds on my attempt to meet and talk to as many people in the Fifth District as I am able. Our first ad highlights my highest priority, bringing an end to the war in Iraq and bringing our troops home.
When I spoke to committed women leaders last week, I talked about how this Administration has us on the wrong course and we need change. In fact, too many changes advocated by the Bush administration have taken us backwards instead of forwards.
Two months ago, in a departure from years of Court precedents, the Supreme Court reversed a decision that six federal courts deemed unconstitutional and harmfully restricted a woman's rights.
As the lone female voice on the Supreme Court bench, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's delivered a powerful dissenting opinion. She wrote that decisions made in cases tried before the Court between 1973 and today, "center on a woman's autonomy to decide for herself her life's course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature."
Instead of finding ways to safeguard a woman's health and life, she writes that "the Court 'shields' women by denying them any choice in the matter. This way of protecting women recalls ancient notions about women's place in society and under the Constitution - ideas that have long since been discredited."
She concludes, "In candor, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, and the Court's defense of it, cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court - and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives."
The decision in this case is wrong, and not only does it set us back, I regret that it is a frightening indication of what is to come. We can not let that happen. That's why it's so important - and so critical to our future - that we elect progressive, pro-choice majorities to public office.
I was thrilled to be joined last week by so many women who have already courageously broken the glass ceiling by refusing to let obstacles or ignorance get in the way of their success.
Thank goodness.
Women's voices are louder than ever, and we can take advantage of this window of opportunity to put our country back on the right track. |
