Happy International Women's Day...For Now.

Here's a news bulletin for the vast majority of men and women in this country who do not listen to Pacifica radio: today is International Women's Day. Ladies: it's your day. Remember....honor. Celebrate!

Celebrate? Has this guy missed something? Have I not had enough coffee yet? Don't we have a Mother's Day?

The short answer is that yes, we do set aside a day to honor mothers, and yes, that is a good, wholesome, and wonderful thing. Are the rest of you childless, single ladies feeling left out? Ignored? Well, I suggest that if the answer is yes, you had better get off your asses, marry someone, and start cranking out puppies. International Women's Day is NOT coming to a theater near you anytime soon. That is the sad fact.

Just this morning, I read an article about the recent abortion law passed in South Dakota. It is now a felony offense for a doctor to perform an abortion in that state, even in cases of rape, incest, or the health of the mother being put in jeopardy. This law is certain to go all the way up through the court system and will probably not survive due to it's violation of court precedents going back to Roe v. Wade. It's a test case, but what disturbs me is that this has not caused outrage across the nation, especially among women.

International Women's Day was founded in 1912 out of solidarity with working women in the United States. In those days, women were in the forefront of mass demonstrations in most of America's great cities, demanding rights for equal pay, better work conditions, and most importantly: respect, something Aretha Franklin was still trying to find sixty years later.

Ladies: your grandmothers, aunts, great-aunts, mothers, and other warrior sisters fought long and hard for the rights which you have today, but may not have next year or the year after. Perhaps you will be fine, but your daughter or niece may not be able to get an athletic scholarship. Perhaps she will not be able to have a career beyond Wal-Mart. Maybe the forecasters are wrong; maybe conservatives do want to completely illiminate Roe v. Wade, not just chip away at it bit by little bit. Is South Dakota a mirage or a bellweather? Do you care?

It appears not.

The feminist spirit ran it's course and died somewhere in the post-Murphy Brown Era. Political pundits talk about the Revolution of 1994, where Republicans took control of Congress for the first time since the Ice Age. Does anyone remember the Revolution of 1992? Anyone? That was the election year that not only brought Clinton to the White House, but also an unprecedented number of women to the House and the Senate, as well as governorships nationwide. It was also the same years that I found myself in the middle of a massive protest in Times Square. Six-thousand women and men were there to demonstrate against the Supreme Court possibly ruling against women in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a case which would have given states greater power to regulate abortion services. 1992 was a great year, so what the hell happened?

Conservatives began infesting the body politic, attacking Hillary Clinton ad nauseum, and polluting talk radio across the nation. 1994 was the year things began to change bit by bit. The economy was getting stronger, but people were falling asleep. George W. Bush oozed his way into the White House and conservatives now control this country: the courts, Congress, the White House, the media, and the majority of state houses. We are currently in a cold war on terror which will get pretty hot when this country is again attacked. At that point, all bets are off as women and minority shall be the first in the camps.

I exaggerate on that last point, but the fact is that when women lose their reproductive rights in a "free-market" world like that in which we live, everything else will probably go with it. So turn off the TV, get out today, and celebrate International Women's Day. It's your day...at least for now.