You may have seen this as Facebook posts. I am also preparing a post that is addressed to men as well. Feel free to share as you see fit.
To the women of America:
For thousands of years you have been under the control of men who have, under the guise of protection, abused, bought, and sold you, held you up as a trophy, degraded you as a human being, and used you to sell everything from cars to alcohol to toothpaste. You body has been regulated by men, and denigrated by religious tradition. We have just watched on the national stage what a large portion of our “leaders” believe about your rights under the law, about your rights for safety in your own skin and for your own autonomy. Your status (economic and social) has been a political football kicked around by both major parties. They have both been remiss in being genuinely present to your concerns, your grievances, and your hopes and value as a human being. Worse, one party has been actively hostile every step of the way not only to your rights but to every citizen that does not look like them – white old male property owners.
The struggle for the recognition of your humanity has played out before us over the last few weeks. Whether this is the last spasm of a corrupt and dying patriarchy, or it ushers in a new dark era of oppression rests on your voice and your vote. I and other men will stand with you and lend our voices in support of your full humanity and citizenship, but I cannot cast your vote for you.
In some circles, your voice may mean little, but your vote will mean everything.
Response to the responses:
I have been taken aback by the positive esteem my post engendered. I was speechless for a while. Thank you all for such regard. It’s sad that this should be remarkable. Why should it merit praise that I’d want half of humanity treated as well as the other half?
I have three reasons for saying what I did. First, it is the right and honorable thing. There were times in history when women were regarded with great value. Often, they were held above men and so it was little better in that regard. To raise one person or gender at the expense of another is a false value. We, each of us, have our gifts and can contribute to the well-being of each other and to all of us.
The second reason is that I love my daughters and granddaughters, wife and female friends. It hurts and angers me to see them treated badly. I see beauty, skill and strengths in them from which we would all benefit if freed from predation, manipulation and constriction. I want them all to be powerful, respected and autonomous, as they deserve. I don’t want them to have to be concerned about their safety because of who they are. Their discomfort reveals our failure, especially men’s failure.
The third reason is purely selfish. What is more beautiful than any person who can be fully present to themselves and to the world, and who can feel comfortable and safe in their own skin with no need for comparison, concerned first with the expression of their own vision, and the living of their own lives in a world that honors them?
There’s artistry in the way every conscious human being moves in the world. I want more of that – for the sake of all that I love.