Our socialism does not include extreme materialistic concepts, since Indonesia is primarily a God-fearing, God-loving nation. Our socialism is a mixture. We draw political equality from the American Declaration of Independence. We draw spiritual equality from Islam and Christianity. We draw scientific equality from Marx.
Transforming our societies and our economies is an agenda that requires the participation of all. Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are key. Including and empowering women and girls to develop and implement climate solutions is the right thing to do. It is also the smart thing to do.
Citizens of Rome might boast that the claim of ‘Civus romanus sum’ set them apart from barbarians and slaves, and it was true up to a point, but Roman citizens lived in a society that accepted pain, cruelty, and torture as the norm, and in which there was no suggestion of equality at birth or mercy in the afterlife.
From the new hate crimes law to the repeal of DOMA and ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ to the emerging popular support for marriage equality, we are making progress at breakneck speed. As someone who has dedicated most of my career to civil rights law, I am deeply moved by this sea change and proud to have done my part.
The right to a quality education is, I believe, the perfect path to bridge the gap between different cultures and to reconcile various civilizations. Without such a right, the values of liberty, justice and equality will have no meaning. Ignorance is by far the biggest danger and threat to humankind.
Most Americans are fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I’m advocating a balanced budget. But along with that, look, there should be gay marriage equality. A woman should have the right to choose. Let’s not build a fence across the border.
Marriage equality is a hustler’s feeding frenzy of gold-diggers. I campaigned for marriage equality in Maryland because I believe we should have the right to it, but I personally don’t want to get married. I don’t want to imitate the traditions of heterosexual people. I hate weddings: they make me uneasy.
Half a century ago, the amazing courage of Rosa Parks, the visionary leadership of Martin Luther King, and the inspirational actions of the civil rights movement led politicians to write equality into the law and make real the promise of America for all her citizens.
I think people align themselves with my way of thinking when they’re talking to me. They try to create new avenues for me to pursue, so if you want to be a doctor and you have interest in human rights and philanthropy and social equality of medicine and disease, why don’t you think about being surgeon general?
Abolition didn’t just happen – people made it happen. Women’s suffrage didn’t just happen – people made it happen. Civil Rights legislation didn’t just happen – people made it happen. And marriage equality didn’t just happen, either – people made it happen.
One of the factors a country’s economy depends on is human capital. If you don’t provide women with adequate access to healthcare, education and employment, you lose at least half of your potential. So, gender equality and women’s empowerment bring huge economic benefits.
For most of us, fidelity is faithfulness to an obligation, trust, or duty. For the men and women of the FBI, fidelity also means fidelity to country. It means fidelity to justice and the law, fidelity to the Constitution, fidelity to equality and liberty.
Single women will get us closer to gender equality, and that will take many forms, including a reimagining of what families entail and what it means to have a full female life. Also, their presence will force the government to support a population of independent women more capably.
The Obama years will be remembered as a cultural – and legal – tipping point for equality for all people who do not identify as strictly heterosexual, arguably the civil rights movement of our times. The president signed the bill repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ The Defense of Marriage Act was struck down by the Supreme Court.
We must remember that although we come from different backgrounds and ideologies, we’re all part of this great experiment in self-governance. We’re all united by common values of liberty, justice, and equality of opportunity, even if we don’t always agree on how to achieve them.
We should not wait any longer to ensure that women get the pay they deserve. I will keep fighting for this until we achieve equality. I am very thankful for all those who are already advocating for equal pay, and I hope others will join me in this fight.
If we truly understand, remember, and love the people of Indonesia, let us accept this principle of social justice, that is, not only political equality, but we must create equality in the economic field, too, which means the best possible well-being.
Today, Negroes play on every big league club and in every minor league. With millions of other Negroes in other walks of life, we are willing to stand up and be counted for what we believe in. In baseball or out, we are no longer willing to wait until Judgment Day for equality – we want it here on earth as well as in Heaven.
When Landon Carter, a Virginia plantation owner, read the Declaration of Independence two days after it was issued, he wondered whether its ringing affirmation of equality meant that slaves must be freed. If so, he confided to his diary, ‘You must send them out of the country, or they must steal for their support.’
Within loyalism and the UVF, there are clearly people who are not just aggravated by the issue around flags or parades. They’re aggravated by me and Sinn Fein being in government. They’re opposed to the political institutions – there’s an inability of a minority within loyalism to accept the concept of equality.
Every president to hold office has espoused some version of Americanism – the truths that we hold self-evident, even when those truths are not always in evidence. But for all their grand rhetoric and mostly good deeds, none was able to seal the deal on the trifecta of equality, plurality and socioeconomic ascendancy. Obama has.
At the end of the day, I think people are starting to realize that if you say you stand for equality, it has to be equality across the board. It can’t just be equality for people who look like me, are my gender, think or love like me. It has to be equality for everybody.
I’ll never understand how destroying families through deportation benefits our society. How we treat the undocumented says a great deal about us as a people and whether or not we’ll continue to fulfill the fundamental American promise of equality and opportunity for all.
Roosevelt’s New Deal regulated business, protected social welfare and promoted national infrastructure on the principle that the role of government was not simply to protect the property of the wealthy, but rather was to promote equality of opportunity for all.
From the day of its birth, the anomaly of slavery plagued a nation which asserted the equality of all men, and sought to derive powers of government from the consent of the governed. Within sound of the voices of those who said this lived more than half a million black slaves, forming nearly one-fifth of the population of a new nation.
