For God's sake, stop talking to me about what the founders wanted. They accomplished something extraordinary. BUT, the founders excluded me on multiple levels. They created this nation without asking for input from women or people of color.

I reject the idea that choices made FOR me 100s of years ago, by men who had no interest in promoting my success or empowerment, shouldn't be amended or altered. They locked my ancestors out when the decisions were made. I don't feel obligated to consider their opinions now.

In my mind, the decision by the founders to exclude half of the nation's population and to allow others to remain in bondage calls their good judgment into question. Every decision they made is suspect and should be investigated.

Creating a new nation in which slavery was legal, women were disenfranchised, and the wealthy were more trusted and empowered, is disqualifying in many ways. Their opinions can be safely set aside. Let's move on.

Our founders created a system in which a married woman was considered "civilly dead." Woman did not have the right to custody of their own children. THAT'S who you want to consult now on issues of civil rights? I think not.

With a due respect to the founders, and they deserve a lot of praise, they got a lot wrong. They should quietly fade into the history books as we fix what they screwed up. We got this.

"We’ll have our rights; see if we don’t: and you can’t stop us from them; see if you can. You may hiss as much as you like, but it is comin’."
-- Sojourner Truth

"The elective franchise is withheld... because the word 'people'... has been turned and twisted to mean all who were shrewd and wise enough to have themselves born boys instead of girls, or who took the trouble to be born white instead of black."
--Mary Church Terrell