In 1953, less than 10 years after WWII, at the invitation of the US government, I came to Maryland for a year as a German exchange student to learn about democracy. My initial love for the US culminated in marrying an American student I met at the Sorbonne in Paris and moving to the US. I became an American citizen, still idealistic about democracy and equal rights. But when I started working in Atlanta, GA, I realized not everything was equal. There was no equal pay, there was no equal opportunity, and there was no legal basis to help me fight for what I had earned. Then I learned about the ERA and how far behind the US is in guaranteeing in the Constitution equal rights regardless of sex. I learned that the absence of such legislation is inconsistent with American core values, and that Constitutions written after 1950 in many other countries in the world include such specific legal protection. I think it is time the various states ratify the ERA and bring the US in line with other countries in the world. We are not a country of old white men, we are a country of powerful people of both sexes, and it is time everyone in every state acknowledges this fact. Hilde Uhler, a Georgia voter living in Germany