Riddle Me This

Can someone please explain to me what is so intimidating about women that we must be oppressed so violently? Seriously, if there is one major difference between the genders, it is that we, women, are the givers of life. Is our god-like power so intimidating that you men feel we should be, what, oppressed, killed, what? I can't figure it out. It can't just be religion. Religion is just the guise man hides behind to commit atrocities. Is it because you are physically stronger? I've always said no law can protect any woman in an empty parking lot at night. We are often at your mercy due to the constraints of our physical abilities.



I remember the first time I discovered Ms. Magazine.



It had articles on how women are treated abroad in various countries, as well as women's issues here on the home front. It was 1993 and I was 18. I was in a waiting room at the VA hospital next to the county hospital I worked at. Our mammogram machine was down and I had to walk some patients over to get their exams done at the hospital next door. There was a Ms. magazine in the waiting room and I read it and I actually stole it and took it home and sent in the form to subscribe to it. I was hooked.

I remained a loyal subscriber for a few years until the magazine took a turn toward a theme that was heavy lesbian issues and gay rights and anti-Americanism and less overall "women's issues." I was sad to let it go, but by then I found plenty of other sources of info about women's rights; various websites and other magazines. And at that point I was a political naive and hadn't developed the conservative prowess that I have now. ;)

I am not just proud to be an American, nay, I am grateful to be an American woman. (Cue Lee Greenwood.) I am so very aware of how lucky I am to have been born in a country where I am not forced to wear a burka.



Did you know there was more to the burka than the outer covering? Well, there is. In Iran, the "burka" is a pinching mask of black bands pressing against the eyebrows and nose, and ending in a point just above the mouth.

The Taliban is actually gaining ground in this "post 9/11" world we seem to have found ourselves in. Did you know England and Canada have Sharia courts? We are heading in the wrong direction and I'm scared. I'm scared as a woman. I'm scared for America. I'm scared for Americans. Who would have thunk it that 7 years post 9/11 we'd have a president named Hussein and we'd be on the fast-track toward Socialism and we'd be CLOSING GITMO and downsizing the military. If this is a dream, someone wake me up.