Changing Times - an Optimistic Look Towards the Future

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, the political arena in the United States remains dominated by the male of the species.  But like the trend within the demographics of this county that is obviously moving towards a majority of non-whites (projected to happen by 2045), there is another seismic shift that is unfolding in regard to the societal power and influence of women.  This change is reflected on many levels by the following statistics.

Currently (2022), 57% of bachelorette degrees are held by women; 54% of law students are women; 50.5% of medical students are women; 50% of current students are women who are earning degrees in the areas of science and engineering.  Since the days of my childhood, I have witnessed amazing changes in the area of women’s rights and women’s progress.  Currently, there is no profession or livelihood that in not represented by women.   This aspect of life that we have taken for granted was certainly not the way it used to be.  There was a time when women were only allowed to participate in a limited aspect of the human world other than their expected roles in motherhood and nurture.

Given these statistics, it becomes quite evident that within a generation, the social and political climate will undergo a significant transformation.  As women participate more and more fully within the larger culture, the tone and timbre of politics and policy will undergo substantial changes and the heretofore white male-dominated environment would become seriously threatened.

In many states – mostly in the American South – long dominated by white males, there is a stark realization that those in power will face a very different reality.  The underlying fear of this eventuality is, of course, shared by many in these backward and repressive states where the development of educated and free-thinking people is discouraged and ignorance and religious intolerance is thoroughly exploited.  This explains why in many states, legislation has been speedily crafted and made into law with the transparent aim of suppressing the ability to vote by many of its non-white citizens to the ludicrous degree of making it “illegal” to supply water to those waiting on long-lines to vote even in the hottest of climates.  This subliminal fear also explains blatant attempts to control women even by imposing draconian measures to condemn and outlaw abortion. 

There are backward areas of this country where Big Lies are freely supported and propagated.  One of course is the completely unsubstantiated conviction that the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen.  Another absurdity that is currently being codified in some states is that human life begins at conception.  This purported truth flies in the face of biological reality.  Clearly, a fertilized human egg is not a person; is not human.  In fact, the human fetus does not become viable outside the womb until after twenty-four weeks of development.  To suggest that the termination of pregnancy in the early stages of fetal development is equivalent to murder is preposterous and draconian.

The purpose of this kind of lie is to substantiate an absurd political reality that allows for convicting a woman seeking and abortion or those in the medical profession who could safely abort fetal development as guilty of attempted murder.  The defense of democracy or morality is not the foundation of such assertions – they are driven by an exaggerated fear of a changing world in which women are no longer held captive by their gender, and men freely acknowledge and support a true equality of the sexes.

These attempts at changing the course of human history will fail as all fundamentalist and extremist ideas must, for they are ultimately unsustainable.  The tragedy lies with the fact that many innocents will suffer unnecessarily due to this level of extreme ignorance and profound stupidity.