March, 2008 |
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Women’s rights are
human rights?
Stephen Henry Lewis,
United Nations’ envoy for HIV AIDS in Africa, 2006, said:
“[Women's rights have] never been made real, and so long as men control the levers and bastions of power… it never will be real. The demeaning diminution of women is everywhere evident… where freedom from sexual violence, the right to sexual autonomy, to sexual and reproductive health, social and economic independence, and even the whiff of gender equality are barely approximated. It’s a ghastly, deadly business, this untrammeled oppression of women in so many countries on the planet.”
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Plebian Plots Prevail
Slanted Slates
Nothing screams modern dissident gender realities like a good old fashioned political race. If only we could reinact one! First of all, this is the first major gender race in American political history. Secondly, even though there’s a woman and two unusual men vying for the spotlight, if observers could close their eyes and still read the scripts, it would be difficult to tell on paper which gender is which.
Foregoing the make believe and with my eyes wide open and my ears in good working order, I’d venture to say Hillary is male-trained and Barack is female-trained. McCain—well there’s no question where his conflict resolution tactics lie—at the trigger end of a gun barrel, so I’d be inclined to say he’s male-trained.
Mind you, ‘male-trained’ simply means having acquired some of the characteristic realities of males: left-brained, logical, linear, sequential, exclusive, temporal. ‘Female-trained’ simply means having acquired some of the characteristic realities of females: right-brained, intuitive, spatial, synthetical, inclusive, synergistic. All characteristics have their pros and cons, but none are better than another. In fact, characteristics have evolved to be quite complimentary in how the duel-hemisphered, gender-less human brain functions.
Slippery Slopes
This slate of unusual candidates makes it difficult to choose the perfect leader for a diverse group of people, especially when there’s no questioning the answers they sometimes give to concerned inquirers. “Slippery slopes” is an understatement when it comes to their political debates, live interviews, and paid-for-by campaign advertisements. The media further complicates our choices in its attempts to sensationalize everything on behalf of their sponsors.
Then if the directors of it all throw into the brew-ha-ha a bit of racism and/or sexism and/or gerontology, the likelihood of an educated choice becomes even more cloaked. And we don’t yet know what the producers will be tossing over their shoulders into the simmering pot of gulag…er ah…goulash they’re trying to feed the already over-fed but politically under-nourished American people.
Washington has become a nightclub act, a speak-easy of tap dancing puppets too big for their patent leathers. Tears or jests, the stage is set for just another act of a very long and boring drama without the slightest inference of a moral to its plot. It just thickens with each added ingredient of unknown sticky substance.
Some will be voting for Hillary because she’s a woman. Some will be voting for Barack because he’s mulatto. Some will be voting for McCain because he survived death. And when the curtain comes down on the eve of November 4, we’re still not sure what the next act will be. But the whole world will be watching.
It’s Really Time!
A recent guest on Bill Maher’s Real Time panel reminded his viewers that the United States is still more sexist than racist, indicating that a man will probably prevail as leader of our nation. One thing we all have in common with the candidates is we’ve survived death so far, but in the long-run, it will unquestionably prevail. My question in that context is—which of the candidates if elected could and would possibly hasten our demise?
America has had such a variety show of presidents in its short political legacy that not one stands out as unusually talented in leadership skills: cowboys, lawyers, oilmen, farmers, playboys, handicapped, generals, entertainers, business men, and even a (gasp) Catholic.
But have we ever had a true humanitarian? Someone who really put all people first for their entire term(s)? Have we ever had a government other than “of the people”? Whatever happened to “…by the people, and for the people”? The endless charade of democracy continues to rob us of the democracy we’ve been promised and so many have prematurely given their lives for.
Hillary, Barack, or John—which one will be the next leader of the mega clean-up crew following Bush’s eight-year bash. It comes as no surprise that each is a sort of victim representing our nation’s 200-year-old caste system which has always relegated such grunt work to women, people of color, and the elderly. What surprises me most is someone would even want such a job, much less be willing to risk everything for it. We’ve learned however that the rich, fat-cat good old boys definitely know when to walk away and when to run like hell, leaving their messes behind. No encores, please.
Related column #386, Democracy, If Any Fred on Everything.
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