STRONG WOMEN

  I love strong women. Matter of fact I love women period. A black lady friend of ours once asked my son if he liked black women. He said "I just like women",  Right answer. Personally I hate to see women mistreated and I don't understand why some men want to possess or abuse women both verbally and physically. This is because it was drummed in to my head growing up, by my mother and my grandparents that a real man doesn't mistreat women. In addition the death of my mother at the hands of my father affected me greatly. After my parents died my Aunt Goldie (Didi) Anderson took my brother Mark and I to raise along with her own two children. She was a divorced woman raising four children on a single income. Luckily she didn't have to worry about childcare because she lived with my grandparents who watched us while she was at work. For the 1960's she had a good job with Southern Bell Telephone Company which is AT&T today. Unfortunately she was not making the wages of a male doing the same job.  Even then I considered this to be unfair. At that time women were pretty much limited to secretarial work, nursing, teaching, the restaurant industry or department store work. Female doctors, and lawyers were pretty rare. It is fair to say that most women were housewife's. If they worked outside the home it was part-time in order to make a little extra spending money. If a woman joined the military they were commonly thought to be a whore or a lesbian.

A nurse in a Nashville Civil War tent hospital

  Things started to change in the early 1970's. I saw this first in the military. Although I had known many W.A.F.'s, as they were called in the Air Force, women were usually confined to administrative jobs, nursing, or cooks. I had several friends who were dating or married to W.A.F's. There were no female Security Policemen until just before I was discharged from the active Air Force in the Spring of 1972. On most bases there was security and law enforcement. They began allowing women into law enforcement but I never worked with any until I joined the Guard in 1977. The fight over the Equal Rights Amendment was gearing up throughout the 1970's but in the end it would be defeated. I was happy about that because I didn't think that an Amendment to the constitution was needed to bring about change. This has proven to be the case. 

 Although I have always considered myself to be a feminist I hate the modern feminist movement. To me organizations like N.O.W. have been more anti male and political, than  feminist. They are just an arm of the Democratic Party. Whenever Democratic male leaders mistreat women they are given a pass. For example when Ted Kennedy's gross negligence killed a young woman staffer at Chappaquiddick no feminists spoke out. During the many Clinton scandals, including his violent rape of Juanita Broderick, N.O.W. and other feminists were no where to be found. However they were ever present during the confirmation process of Clarence Thomas when they drug Anita Hill out of the closet. Then they were outspoken during the sexual harassment scandal involving Republican Senator Robert Packwood.  To me it is about Party politics and not so much about protecting women. If you notice the homosexual movement and the modern civil rights movement work the same way. Republican homosexuals or black Republicans are routinely attacked or ignored by these groups depending on the situation.

  There have been certain myths that have been promulgated by the feminist movement.

1. Women are morally superior to men. - I hate to burst their bubble  but no sex has a monopoly on morality.

2. Only women have a right to have an opinion on abortion. - I have been told many times that because I cannot have a baby I have no right to have an opinion on abortion. Wrong. Abortion involves the taking of a human life. That makes it a moral issue and we all have a stake in that.

3. Men and women are the same. - News flash, men and women are very different and have different roles to play in life.

  We have gone from the inequality of the 1960's to women pretty much doing everything occupationally.  This includes fighting in combat units. being police officers, firemen, linemen, and many occupations historically reserved for men. My attitude about equality in the workplace is this. Most men are physically stronger and bigger than women. There are many women who can easily kick my butt and are stronger but at 6'3" and 285 lbs. I generally tower over most women. Women should be hired in to any job as long as they can physically do that job. In our politically correct society the standards are lowered for women in order to accommodate them many times. I have seen this done in military, fire department and police training. When I was a a supervisor at a local industry about 75% of our employees were women. When I started there in 1983 most of these women worked as line operators. Except for a couple of exceptions men primarily worked the utility jobs and were tow motor drivers. The utility jobs were more physical. This required a lot of lifting and where we packaged Epsom salt the utility person used a heavy iron bar to break up the salt, which was in 100 lbs. bags. They would then have to lift the bags and empty them in to a hopper. This work was very hot and tiring. 

 After I became supervisor the company opened the utility and tow motor jobs to women. This became problematic because women were selective about where they wanted to work. Because of the physical hardship they complained about working in the salt room. After a while only men ended up there and they were constantly complaining to me about it. We had three production supervisors and the other two would only put men in the salt room. One was a male and the other was a woman. Whenever I worked in the area where the salt room was I tried to be fair and I would divide the time equally between men and women utility workers. Soon the other two supervisors began scheduling the female workers out of my area so they wouldn't have to work in the salt room. This was not fair to the male workers who ended up working in the salt room more than they should have. Over the years, no matter where I have worked, I have seen this kind of thing happen repeatedly.

  I have no problem with women serving in the military. Women are just as smart and brave as men. They have actually served in one way or the other in every war since the American Revolution. Women disguised themselves as men in the Civil War and served bravely. It is believed that as many as 5,000 were in combat and an unknown number died. However they had to disguise their identity. The ones that gave in to romance or sexual activity were usually exposed and forced to leave the army. They were sometimes found out if they were wounded  I believe that allowing women to fight in combat units today is a mistake, however. 

 The physical differences in most women and men would be a primary disqualification.  Most women cannot pull or carry a wounded man my size out of danger if I were wounded. Combat units do not need the sexual tension that will exist with troops at close quarters under field conditions. There is always the possibility of love triangles and jealousy destroying unit cohesion. Men have been shown under combat conditions to be overly protective of women soldiers. This is what happened to the Israeli army in 1948 when they allowed women to fight alongside men. All Israeli citizens are required to serve in the army and there are female combat units in Israel but for the most part women do not serve in combat there.

  Recent polls reveal that the American people are ready to elect a woman president. My attitude has always been that I am ready for any race or sex to be elected as long as they are of good character and in line with my political beliefs That eliminates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Personally I am really liking Carly Fiorina. She is brilliant and has not said anything that I disagree with. I believe that she can go far if she can make it to the debates and gain some exposure. What really amazes me is the number of  women who do not believe that a woman should be president. Occasionally I will run into a man who believes that way but there seems to be many more women. There are many examples of strong women leaders in history. Queen Elizabeth I established England as one of the great world powers. She ruled England from 1558 until 1603. It was during her reign that the English Navy defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. She also brought about peace between Catholicism and Protestantism by the 39 articles of 1563 which was a religious compromise. 

 Queen Victoria ruled England from 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign was during the greatest expansion of the British empire in history. Golda Meir was called the Iron Lady of Israeli politics before Margaret Thatcher ever received that nickname. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion called her the best man in the government because of her toughness. Margaret Thatcher was one of my heroes on a par with Winston Churchill. There was no one tougher than the English  (Iron Lady). When Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979 Britain was on the verge of economic disaster. Thatcher privatised  and deregulated industry. Reduced the power of trade unions. Lowered the marginal tax rate, the rate of inflation. and lowered spending. During the Thatcher years Britain experienced an economic revival. She also revived British nationalism and was a strong partner with Ronald Reagan in his effort to defeat the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Her finest hour was the defeat of Argentina in the Falklands War. Women have been some of the staunchest patriots and many times have shown more backbone than men. At a time when men in the establishment Republican Party have shown a lack of leadership and courage many times I turn to people like Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and Carly Fiorna for inspiration. Although I disagreed with Coulter's endorsement of Mitt Romney, she and Malkin are absolutely fearless and brilliant. 

Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Victoria

Margaret Thatcher

Michelle Malkin

Ann Coulter

  Finally I want to honor those women who stay at home and raise their children  They have gotten a bad rap by the modern feminist movement. I don't care what the experts say. Women are better nurturers than men in my opinion. I have known women with the maternal instincts of a barbed wire fence but most women have it I believe. My mother nurtured and raised me from a baby through the most formative years of my life and I think that I was the better for it. I realize that many women would prefer to stay at home and raise their children but because of economic necessity, divorce, death of a male partner, or career choices it is not possible. The modern feminist movement discounts and degrades the stay at home moms. They should always be on a pedestal to me.

  The largest funeral that I ever attended was that of my mother-in-law. For the two days of visitation leading to her funeral and the day of the funeral the building couldn't hold the people there to pay their respects. To my knowledge all she ever did was work at home and raise her four children. She also had a hand in raising a multitude of children that she babysat over the years. She never learned how to drive and rode the bus to town every Saturday in order to spend her babysitting money on everyone but herself. Hopefully I will go before my wife but I expect to see a funeral just as large if not bigger, God forbid when she dies. For the most part she has been fortunate enough to be a housewife for most of our married life and I think that our children, although far from perfect, reflect the impact that she has had on their lives and the lives of our grandchildren. There were countless children that are adults today that she loved, nurtured, and had a positive impact on their lives. I see bumper stickers all the time that read, well behaved women don't make the history books. That might be true but the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.