A Woman’s Place is in the .....
House of Representatives ...White House ...House of Pancakes ...House of Pies?
Little House on the Prairie? Home, home on the Range?
Sure, all of the above and more, even in the “Home” if I may be so bold and politically incorrect in saying so.
Women police and protect us, defend our country, drive race cars, fight forest fires, and go into outer space. There are women Marines. There are even women rodeo cowboys (“...girls”), bronc and bull riders, and they make damn good calf ropers and barrel racers too. Doctors, lawyers, educators ...
I say, that if a woman can sit in a dentist’s chair and go through the same pain and agony as any man, lesbian, gay, straight, LGBTQI or otherwise human being, she’s okay in my book.
Oh, yeah, and going through 9 months of pregnancy and the miraculous ordeal of giving birth of another human being ain’t bad either. It places her far above anyone or anything in the known universe as far as I’m concerned.
Given that it’s been a hard row to hoe as a woman in this traditionally male dominated society, and women have suffered and survived abuses no man ever could have, that has made women stronger, in my view, and they are not only to be loved and respected for this, they are to be feared. Feared for their strength, their stamina, and their staying power.
Don’t ever misjudge a woman or take her for granted.
It’s not just gender, it’s the same with race issues, handicap issues, or any issues involving the human experience of plight and plunder, right and wrong. It’s a heroic theme of survival and success. Anyone who has experienced and survived oppression to the point of severe mental anguish and physical pain and still comes up swinging ...I’ll back them all the way and that’s the person I want on my team.
The key focus and ultimate power is that of the “human being”, however, the individual. No matter what the gender, race, handicap or hybrid, to do good, to survive and succeed is the goal. Then it multiplies exponentially, spreads like wildfire, across the human experience spectrum.
So, why are women, these incredible, beautiful cosmic stormtroopers, such collective wimps in our burgeoning politically correct but so morally, socially, economically, behaviorally incorrect society? Is it the media? The ‘Me Too’ movement is kind of like the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. I understand, I get it, I totally agree, but there comes a point where you start to lose your steam, even self-esteem, for your whining. Your message is weakened, becomes tiresome, and lost if you lose the respect of those to whom you are whining. You defeat your own cause.
I feel for the frustration, pain and anguish of the oppressed and I know there is strength in numbers and in commiseration. I have experienced this myself, but admittedly not to the degree of most, comparatively.
I know I’m walking on thin ice here, so just hear me out. If at the end of this I am wrong, and I’ve written myself into a trap, then I will acknowledge it and apologize. I’m wrong a lot, but I have a good heart and I mean well.
I watched an interview on CNN the other night. News hostess, Erin Burnett, was interviewing Tammy Duckworth, a United States Senator from Illinois. Duckworth is also a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, and severely wounded combat veteran. God bless her.
Maybe it’s in bad taste to use her as an example, Duckworth is a hero, but she was “speaking out” about her plight as a professional woman, a politician, and how things need to change to accommodate her being a woman and mother with a family. She talked about conversations with her gynecologist and child bearing years, her inability to accommodate her family due to her job and how it interfered with her being a woman, not as a handicapped person. In her case, however, it would be hard to separate the two. She talked about extended paid leave. She talked about how it’s time we changed all this, for all women.
Maybe it’s the media I should be criticizing for proselytizing her situation. I mean, as Hyman Roth said to Michael Corleone in ‘The Godfather: Part II’, “This is the business we’ve chosen.”
Even though all the points Duckworth made were legitimate, I felt that it was unnecessary for her as a U.S. Senator, and especially, a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, to express these concerns to an international television viewing audience, but it was totally expected of the media to push it. Her interview tended to affect my opinion that all the women who would follow her down that path into a “movement” would seemingly, to me, tend to proselytize her personal situation and weaken the resolve and stamina of the individual translated to the many.
Sometimes inspiration tends to diminish across the board perspiration by the individuals who would cop a free ride on the resolve of others.
“It’s the media, stupid!”
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/25/politics/tammy-duckworth-pregnancy-career-struggle-cnntv/index.html
Maybe I’m being too hard-hearted ...looking too close, looking for something to pick apart. Maybe I am so far off base that I don’t know what I’m talking about, and have a gross misunderstanding of the gender issues. Maybe I’m somehow jealous. Jealous of all the things a woman like this can and has achieved and I have achieved so little, comparatively. Yes, she is an inspiration.
Either way, I like her because she calls President Trump “General Bone Spur” due to his dodging the Vietnam draft ...and her view of current politics generally.
I agree that there is strength in numbers, but the resolve must be in the individual, and that the individual, if that person wants to lead, or just survive and succeed, must exude a quiet strength to elicit the respect and love, and the fear and fearlessness, a leader must inspire.
I had a boss once who always said when asked what comes first, work or family, “Work first then family. You must work to provide for your family.” I knew what he was saying, and agreed.
I have a wonderful family, a wife and three incredible daughters, and I love, respect, and fear, everyone of them.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
