Lynnette Long:

But when new memorials and official documents are created, we hope to find some semblance of gender parity in this supposedly post-racial, post-gender culture. Not so when it comes to the new biometric passport issued by the U.S. State Department in 2007. ...

Six presidents were quoted: George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson. Four other citizens were granted the privilege of being quoted on our nation’s official passport, including Daniel Webster, Martin Luther King, and Ellison S. Onizuka. Only one woman was quoted: Anna Julia Cooper. ([Of]Cooper’s quote: “The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class – it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.”)

What would possess the U.S. to create a new passport, decide to include quotes, and ignore the contributions of over half its citizenry? I don’t get it. I really don’t get it.

Wake up America. Sexism is alive and well. Not just in the past, but in the present. It’s not just some people who are sexist; it’s our government that is sexist. And maybe I’m naïve, but I don’t think they even notice. They don’t make a conscious choice to ignore women; they just don’t even think about us. That’s worse.

So not only do I have to wrap the friggin thing in tinfoil to stop RFID-sniffers from stealing my identity from the chip, I've got to write "By carrying this document, I hereby endorse The Handmaid's Tale" on the cover. Eesh.

NOTE Bio.