It's Long past time that Women seized their rightful place

The Time is Here…..

heavy percussion, strong backbeat building....drum beat building...

"Look, if you had

One shot or one opportunity

to seize everything you ever wanted

In one moment

Would you capture it

Or just let it slip?

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment

You own it, you better never let it go

You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow

This opportunity comes once in a lifetime you better"

from Lose Yourself: Eminem

The Fall of 2017: This is the first time in the history of this country, and I would suggest that it is the first time since man (and woman) learned to walk on two legs, that sexual assault against women has been taken seriously (enough) by our citizens that it is a likely disqualifier for serving in public office in this country. It also appears to spell the end of a career in public life….as we have seen on multiple occasions, i.e., Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Kevin Spacey, etc., etc.. Whether this heightened intolerance for sexual abuse is sustainable, or becomes a temporary fad remains to be seen but clearly, in light of the fact that the sitting President of the United States is a serial sex offender, this would appear to be the opportunity that women, and those who support women, have been waiting on for centuries. The curtain has been pulled back to reveal behavior that is uncivilized, shocking and crude. It has been going on forever. Men are running for cover in every corner of American life….be you a clergyman, a politician, or a TV host, the testimonies are mounting and the bodies are piling up. It’s never been close to being this bad…Yet, only a year ago, Donald Trump, a man who regularly abuses women sexually (or rapes them) received 42% support by women across the board; a sign that feminism is frozen stiff, a corpse.. Have times changed that quickly? I don’t know for sure but women are now emboldened and it is not a good sign for men who have something to hide. For once people are listening. It is long past time that women asserted their power and demanded dignity and respect. Their numbers alone (Women make up 51% of the U.S. population) suggest that this second class status should have never gained steam in the first place.

Women have their chance…in this place, at this time----they have a chance to seize the moral high ground once and for all and be the leaders of tomorrow…most certainly moral standards are not going to be upheld by men. That was a doomed experiment from the start. Who were we kidding? If it weren’t such a catastrophe it would be laughable---It's a total disaster. Now, it appears, that men may have to uphold a standard they have never been asked to meet. I'm not betting they can do it. Women have simply lacked the conviction and drive and organization to demand any standards at all from men. Women have been pitifully inept at standing up to abuse. After all, if Trump was caught on tape abusing animals, and 50% of the voting public were members of PETA, is there any imaginable way that Trump could have been elected?-----not even close (and animals can’t even stand up for themselves); they need surrogates. Similarly, if 50% of the population were gay and Trump was a confirmed homophobe is there any chance at all that Trump could have come close to being elected? What if half of our population had the deformity of the reporter who was mocked by Trump during the 2016 campaign? Can you imagine that 42% of them would have voted for Trump? It’s breathtaking. Women have, up until now, been keeping the silence for men. They have been looking the other way and too easily spreading their legs for the man, no questions asked. We need much higher doses of human dignity on both sides. Women are so accustomed to being on the bottom that they don’t even know it when they see it…They are so used to being dominated that it would feel strange if they weren’t.

“and you hardly feel a thing, brings a perfect little death” - from Broadway song “Everyday a Little Death” (words and music by Stephen Sondheim)

America, I think there is clear potential here that women are going to be glad that Hillary Clinton lost the election. You lost the battle but you are poised to win the War. Handing the reigns to Trump was perhaps the only way to shine a white hot beacon of light at the most ubiquitous and ongoing abuses by one demographic against another in world history. Sexism, and sexual assault (it’s twin sister) have been the insidious elephant in the room since before back when we only had caves. It is the unspoken, faint whisper that is so institutionalized and so woven into the “stars and stripes” that it has been accepted as being as normal as a picnic on a summer day. It’s a part of the American story the way Baseball and War and Christmas are part of our story; the way music and cinema are part of our story

This is the time! The opportunity has finally shone itself. This is the opening that women can’t afford to turn their backs on …..The expiration date on the male sex’s dominion over and subjugation of women in this country has timed out. The torch should (and must) be passed. We (all) need this desperate reset. It is time that women in this country take leadership in bringing this country a renewed set of ethical, moral, and leadership principles that uphold respect and dignity and decency for all it’s citizens. It is time that corruption and the thirst for power and control are no longer rewarded by this collection of 50 states. It needs to be taken from those who have been terrible stewards. Make all elected officials in the country women as far as I am concerned. The U.S. Congress has a male majority of 80/20. Yet, as stated earlier, women make up more than 50% of it’s population. In more than 80% of the cases where there is a single parent raising children it is the woman who is the “single parent”. Men have abandoned their responsibilities too often without looking back or paying a price. Men make up 98% of all those serving time in prison for violent crimes. There are no clear studies to sustain this but most would agree anecdotally that men are much more likely to exhibit selfish tendencies at the expense of shared benefits.

In a 2011 article in Psychology today, Psychologist Noam Shpancer said this:

Nevertheless, the caring imperative--putting others before oneself--seems to be especially urgent and binding in the lives of women. A man will more easily shrug off an accusation of selfishness. After all, part of society's definition of manliness involves a striving toward self-enhancement, ambition, competition, and aggression. For women, an accusation of selfishness hits harder, since an ethos of caring is seen as a bedrock of the concept of femininity. The desire not to be seen as--and not to feel--selfish seems to motivate and shape the lives of women more than the lives of men.

Ask yourself, how many women can you name whose fingerprints are on the deaths of the 60 million men, women, and children who perished during WWII? It was man’s job from start to finish. There was testosterone on every bullet and on every trigger. The names roll off the tongue like bitter ointment: Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito, Goebbels, Himmler, Stalin.

So, with all this data that supports a woman’s unique capacity to serve and thrive in leadership roles in our society why is the tail too often wagging the dog? Why does “might (too often) make right”. Well, I think the answer is all too clear…the more aggressive, selfish, power hungry, "thrustful", of the two sexes is the one that has historically “called the shots”… that might make sense if you are a lion or a hyena in a pack but we are not merely instinctive creatures that exist solely according to genetic programming and instinct (Or are we?). Being physically strong is good if you are swinging from vines in the jungle or working on a construction site, maybe, but it is otherwise a very insignificant and dispensable characteristic in modern human life. Muscles are for “show”. We are not living in an Ice Age anymore. We are looking for some refinement; the kind of refinement that has been seriously lacking in the male sex in our society. Women might be our last and only hope. A famous book once prophesized that, “The meek shall inherit the Earth”. It’s quite possible that the one that absorbs is meant to have power over the penetrator---Life offers a few paradoxes, take note. If we are to be a more civil and respectful and peaceful society, one that treats women respectfully and with dignity, then I think it is more than obvious that women have to take a leadership role….. If women work in their own interests (for a change), which happens to be the interests of society at large, then it is theirs for the taking…. Don’t squander this precious moment. Keep the pressure on. Keeping "breaking" silence.

It’s not going to be handed to you, that is for sure. Securing a women’s right to vote was arduous and it came with much personal sacrifice and bloodshed in the streets. It was less than 100 years ago that the last demographic in America was given the right to vote. Even black men who were slaves just 10 years prior got the right to vote in 1875, a full 45 years before women. Women will have to use elbows as well as their voices; the same voices that disgraced and removed Al Franken from the U.S. Senate and kept Roy Moore out. I think if women really broke all silence there might not be a man standing in the U.S. Congress when all was said and done. There might not be a man standing anywhere. “Let the Truth set you free”

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment

You own it, you better never let it go

You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow

This opportunity comes once in a lifetime.