A World with a Heart of Gold
By Michael Boyajian
When I was a teenager in the 1970s on Long Island my friends and I would spend our days on the south shore beaches body surfing. Then at night we would head up to the rocky north shore beaches to hang out with Thin Lizzy’s The Boys Are Back in Town playing in our ears.
Long summer nights were spent there looking up at the stars, drinking cold beers from the cooler and watching the prehistoric looking horseshoe crabs making their way down the beach to the waters of Long Island Sound.
What was wrong with this picture? It was all guys hanging out at the beach at night. At Yankee Stadium it was mostly guys at night games. Hanging out in the mall and in the parks at night it was mostly packs of guys. Delivering newspapers were guys.
Yes my friends it wasn’t that long ago that this country was living in a male dominated world similar in some respects to the images we see of Islamic countries today but for the veils. But today we have had Hillary Clinton running for president and we will most likely have three women on the U.S. Supreme Court with many believing that there should be no less than four on that court. Women are also emerging in the business world and in sports.
But there is still a glass ceiling out there. There is not enough television coverage of women’s sports, there are not enough women in Congress and they are generally paid less than a man even to this day.
I once heard a conservative political operator exclaim what is a women’s issue? Well, I just named a few and there are plenty more. This is not to take away from issues that involve all people but one must never under estimate the importance of women’s issues. It was after all less than a hundred years ago that woman got the right to vote in this country.
Any nation that denies women equal rights is only hurting itself, blocking the input of ideas and contributions to the national good from half the population. Remember, it was a woman, Helen of Troy, who launched a thousand ships in ancient times, it was a woman, Queen Elizabeth, who defeated the Spanish Armada putting Britain on the road to Empire, it was a woman, Cleopatra, who conquered Caesar’s heart, a woman, Theodora, who led Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity, a woman, Catherine the Great, who made Russia a world power, and a woman, Khadijah, who was the first convert to Islam.
Not a bad track record for people who did not have the same opportunities and rights as men. Just imagine how much more could be gained if equality reigned supreme. Yes, we would probably be living in a much better world, a world with a heart of gold.
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