Voice Box: The Equal Rights Amendment Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
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An early version of the ERA to the U.S. Constitution was first proposed in 1923 by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman of the National Women’s Rights Party. It was never passed by Congress.
In 1972 more than two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate voted for the amendment above. Then the ERA went to the 50 state legislatures. Thirty-eight of the states needed to ratify the amendment before it would become law.
By 1982, the deadline Congress imposed for ratification, 35 states ratified the ERA. Supporters of ERA didn’t give up and in 2020 the 38th state ratified the amendment.
Two years later the ERA is still not law because there is political disagreement about whether or not the 1982 deadline should prevent the ERA from being part of the Constitution.
Section 1, Question 3 What do you think is good about the ERA?
Section 1, Question 4 What do you think is bad about the ERA?
Section 1, Question 6 Does it matter how much time passed between the ERA being proposed and being ratified?
Section 1, Additional Comments What else do you want to say about the ERA?
Voice Box: Online vs. In-Person Friendships During the pandemic, having friends went through a lot of changes. With the help of technology, we can have both in-person friends and online friends we’ve never met in person. What do you think are the pros and cons of
both these kinds of friends?
Section 2, Question 1 Tell us about your friendships. In what ways did you meet your friends? How do you like to talk with them? For example: at school, at your houses, on the phone, by email, texting, social media, etc.
Section 2, Question 2 Do you prefer in-person or online friendships? Do you like both? Why, or why not?
Section 2, Question 3 What are the advantages of in-person friendships?
Section 2, Question 4 What are the downsides of in-person friendships?
Section 2, Question 5 What are the advantages of online friendships?
Section 2, Question 6 What are the downsides of online friendships?
Section 2, Other Comments What else do you want to say about friendships?
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