We all tend to romanticize the past and I am as guilty as everyone else. there is however a dark side when we look back in history and one of those areas is women's rights.
It is not that long along when women were treated with less respect then we do today. They were denied the right to vote. Owning property was only available to men. If a women talked the wrong way to a man, he had a right to strike her and she had no right to protect herself. Women, who wanted to end a pregnancy were relegated to back alley operations, by unscrupulous men, women or doctors. A woman was called a slut, while the men she had sex with were labeled studs and worshiped for their virility. Women were submissive to men. Women were sexually harassed. Men would pat them on their backside and women were told to appreciate the attention. Women finally had enough of the second class citizen treatment and demanded equality and respect. It was and still is a slow process.
For the most part women and men joined together to change all of that. It is an ongoing process, but one that is constantly being attacked by people, who do not really believe in equality for every person. The attacks on women and how their own bodies are treated has been debated over and over again. Men, in leadership positions have tried to take over the conversation and exclude women as they discuss their own health.
Would Republicans exclude men from a discussion on prostrate cancer or erectile dysfunction? I can guarantee they would be included. Yet this past week, Congressman Issa, led his Republican cohorts as they held a conference on women's health and excluded the very people that are affected by the process. The Republicans say it was about religion, I say it was about turning the clocks back at least 100 years on women's rights.
This week I have written several times about this issue, and some people wonder why, being a man, I would be so concerned about this issue. Easy. I care because I respect women. I have been married for thirty seven years and I care about my wife and her health. I helped raise two daughters, grew up with two sisters and I am the grandfather to two granddaughters. I have many female friends and I care about their rights and their health. When I say the answer is easy I mean it. Women that I love very much are threatened, by the backward, uneducated, and ridiculous movement, that the Republicans are leading. They want to strip away, rights from over half of our citizens, women. They want to dictate how they use their bodies. they want to eliminate the responsible approach of birth control. They talk about religious freedoms, which are protected, while they take freedoms and rights from women.
My response is to speak out. Now I need you, my readers to do the same. Men and even to a degree more, women need to be heard. Write back to me. Encourage others you know to comment and I will forward those messages to the Congressmen and Senators. I will send the results to the White House and let the President know we are behind him as he fights to uphold your rights. The choice is clear. The time is now. Speak and be heard. Silence will only embolden the people who what to rip freedoms and rights from the American citizens. Demand they stop and leave you free to make the choices that are best for you and your family.
Men and women exist because a man and a woman united. Women give birth through the joint process of men and women. As politicians grow up they forget where they come from and who gave them life. Health, mental, political and financial issues affect both men and women. So why do they exclude women from conferences on female health? Simply stated because we have opted to dumb ourselves to give these politicians a superior stupidity because we forget the times of Donna Reed and apple pie are gone. Instead of us women standing up, and saying "Excuse me, its my turn", we sit and wait, and wait and wait. Lets just hope we dont wait too long . With our saturated luck we will end up wearing turbins and wraps that only reveal our eyes. The world and politics go hand in hand led by both men and women but lets give those who actually know what they are talking about the open forum. Maybe Joe the plumber from Alaska will learn that in order for him to fix the pipes he needs a woman to accurately turn the wrench.
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