I
came across this incredibly dangerous and tragic and enraging story while
having my oatmeal and raspberry yogurt this morning. It is Susie Madrak's
personal story of resigning from most likely one of her first jobs as an
18-year old, here is the link to the full story as well as an excerpt below: http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/your-papers-please-part-ii-arizona-bi
“When
I was 18, I worked for a publishing company that was a little bit strange. The female department head was a
fundamentalist Christian and a member of Jews for Jesus who used to hold
Tuesday morning prayer meetings before work.
It was well known that if you never did attend a prayer meeting, you
could forget about getting a raise.
My
immediate supervisor was a young woman named Janice. One morning, while Janice
was in the restroom, the department head went rummaging in her purse and found
her birth control pills. Instead of talking to her, she called all the
editorial clerks and assistants into her department and announced that we were
no longer permitted to socialize with the editors, and that we were nothing
more than “Jezebels, sluts and whores of Babylon.” (I found this particularly ironic since one of
my co-workers graduated from a genteel and well-known Southern women’s
Christian college. She’d confided in me that both her father and
grandfather—church elders—had raped her. The father raped her shortly after she
tearfully confided in him that she’d been raped by her grandfather. “The family
that prays together,” etc. ...)
The
department head also announced that if it was discovered that anyone was using
birth control pills, she would be fired immediately. And that if anyone didn't
like it, well, she could just resign. So
I went back to my desk and typed up a resignation letter. I also took another piece of paper, drew a
swastika and taped it to the department head’s door. (What can I say? I was young.)”
What happened
to the Fourth Amendment of our Bill of Rights in this country? Have we forgotten: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons,
houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall
not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause,
supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be
searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Of course we have forgotten, any number of
laws and legislation have been passed, notably for national security reasons,
to diminish this FUNDAMENTAL right.
Susie’s employer had absolutely NO business
riffling through an employee’s purse, and she was not looking for weapons or
other workplace dangers, but birth control!
After this complete invasion of privacy she attempted to SHAME this girl
specifically and proceeded to create a division between editors and their
assistants – divide and conquer, us versus them. And finally concluded this public spectacle with
the announcement that she would fire employees for using birth control. Am I living in another country, is this a
movie where I fell asleep on a train and entered some type of bizarro world?
Susie shared this story because Arizona the legislature
is debating HR2625 at the moment and some folks just removed the following
passage from the legislation: “A religious employer shall not discriminate
against an employee who independently chooses to obtain insurance coverage or
prescriptions for contraceptives from another source.” Although not a lawyer, I believe this law
would endorse and support the actions of Susie’s boss above. Another sad day in the good ole’ U. S. of A.
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