On Sunday night, As she accepted her Academy Award, Patricia Arquette made the above statement in calling for equal rights for women in this country. It sounded both reasonable and justifiable to me. It makes no sense that in the 21st Century women should be paid $0.78 for every dollar a man is paid for equal work (and $0.64 for Black women).
But heads immediately exploded on the right. One Fox News commentator said she was "appalled" at Arquette's statement, and others began picking it apart. What is the problem? Why is the concept of equality so hard for those in this country's right-wing? Are they so insecure in their own lives that they must have some group (women, minorities, LGBT, etc.) with less rights than they have to be happy?
To me, freedom means everyone has equal rights and equal opportunity. But freedom means something different to the right-wing. They think it means having the freedom to be better (i.e., more equal) than others. They think equality is a zero sum game, where when one group is given more rights, some other group must give up some rights. But that is false. Giving women, minorities, and the LGBT community equal rights takes nothing away from white men.
Their idea of freedom and equality is also anti-American. In the United States, our freedom and equality is determined by and springs from the Constitution. And our Constitution guarantees ALL citizens equal rights.
Patricia Arquette is right. It is time for women in America to be granted equal rights (and that includes equal pay for equal work). In fact, it is time for ALL citizens to be granted equal rights.
