Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a time to reflect on the civil rights battle and how much fight still remains. But one group of men, mostly if not entirely white, spent the holiday weekend in the Bahamas plotting how to continue their stranglehold on NJ. So much for civil rights. Our democracy is not invite only.

George Norcross and his "Can Do Club," as he calls it, consists of all male powerbrokers and NJ politicians. They host annual trips and this year's included Chris Christie and his son. Women are conspicuously absent and uninvited. If we want a true democracy, women must be included in meetings like these when candidates are selected and policy and legislation is formed.

Cutting out women is a classic political strategy, in NJ and elsewhere. But it should not be accepted. Leaving anyone out of the political process cheapens the participants and hurts the outcomes. It hurts women's political potential, loses their voices, and adds to the rampant misogyny that recent reporting has again brought to the forefront.

We need to take back New Jersey. Ask your Representives if they are invited on this trip. If they're a woman, you already know the answer.