Thanks to all of you who attended our Program Planning meeting on Feb. 20. We had a robust discussion after breaking up into virtual rooms so that we could have smaller, concurrent discussions. It was not always easy to select which are the most important issues given our interests, concerns, time, and energies.

These were our top three state issues:

• Affordable Housing/Homelessness

• Climate Change Emergency

• Digital Divide

Next step: after merging input from the 63 Leagues, LWV California will propose the resulting list of Priority Issues to the state convention for approval in June.

We are recommending action and education programs be created on these local issues:

• Affordable Housing/Homelessness

• Climate Change/Natural Resources

• Effect of Money in Local Elections

• Redistricting in City of Santa Clara/Monitoring Redistricting Efforts

• San Jose Governance

Yes, we chose more than three issues! We just couldn’t stop ourselves. This effort will help us prioritize our work in the coming year after our membership approves the priorities at our Annual Meeting on June 5. If we feel the urgency and have the positions, we can still take action on other issues.

THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

March is Women’s History Month. The League and many others have worked hard through the years to pass the Equal Rights Amendment which states that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

This effort has been long in the making and is not complete:

• 101 years ago, the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote.

• 98 years ago, the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in Congress.

• 49 years ago, the ERA was passed by Congress.

• 1 year ago, the ERA was ratified by the required 38 states.

But the Equal Rights Amendment still needs to be added to the Constitution. Read more about the history and how close we are to achieving the goal. Please encourage your federal legislators to take action--even if you think they agree with you!

UPCOMING EVENTS

In addition to several fascinating events in March that we hope are of interest to you, consider adding these future events on your calendar:

• Local Government Study Consensus: April 24, 10am

• Annual Meeting: June 5, 10am

• LWV California State Convention: June 7-13

Stay safe and maybe we can meet in person after we get our shots!

Carol Watts

president@lwvsjsc.org