Gentle Reader,
Almost two weeks with very little sleep.
Emotions are, needless to say, running a little high. This is in direct proportion to the chocolate supply running low.
Thankful for Kate and the crew. We: learn.
Go.
There are times when I wonder if I should have stuck with journalism. I love the news. I love politics (even ridiculous as all that is right now). I love asking questions and pursuing leads. I love searching for the right words to describe a scene. Words that bounce across the page, keeping the reader hooked until the very end.
Then there are times, like tonight, when I watch a national news broadcast.
And I know I never would have been able to stand it.
The story centered on women. Swathed in black from head to foot. Only their large, sad eyes grant them access to the world. They might as well be ghosts. Have their mouths sewn shut in order to become the silent property that men believe they are.
Women who fight for ISIS.
Women who beat and kill other women.
For flashing a bit of ankle. Or something equally ludicrous.
Women of the hijab, the niqab and the burka.
Women of the fist, the whip and the gun.
My heart burns. How brainwashed and beaten down does a woman have to be to harm or murder fellow women? What evil has so twisted her soul that she would think it right and proper to strike her sisters?
I am furious with the men and the religion that have slapped, kicked, screamed and shackled them into these warped beliefs. That have driven them to these actions.
Islam at its finest.
Women stripped and muffled under the thumb of male cowardice and smallness.
To the end of my days I will declare the equality of women. I will preach about a God who made us in His image. I have no tolerance for the Scripture-twisting and misapplication that results in a so-called Christian understanding of women that finds greater support in the Qur’an and sharia than it does in anything the Lord ever said. I will do whatever I can, wherever I can, to promote the bonds that tie us together in the wondrous mystery of womanhood. For we are all the same – we laugh, we cry, we love, we work, we hurt. No woman is “other” to her fellow women. We know each other’s fears, desires, longings, hopes and dreams. We’re all just trying to get through the day as best as we can.
We must learn to do better. Women, let us build each other up. Let us cheer each other on. When you win, I win. When you mourn, I mourn. Let us stop the name-calling and the shaming and the competitiveness. Let us stop the judging.
Above all, let us be the bringers of peace in an increasingly-violent world.
Stop.
