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Jane Evershed, W A M M
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Women and blacks receive one month per year to celebrate their history. Patriarchy gets the past, the present and the future. (Contrary to popular belief, opposition to patriarchy is not be equated with man hating or pro-matriarchy.) Women have not yet had the opportunity to shape our planet. Please, don’t mention Margaret Thatcher, she is a complete inculcate of patriarchal “values,” and the same goes for Condoleezza Rice. Statistics show that when a governing body reaches 33 percent female representation, it reflects positive changes in legislation concerning social issues, such as health and education. Just google the term “parity” if you have the means. Women have not voted for more than one paltry century. Patriarchy’s track record reveals that the huddled masses have long been bullied and subjected to holocausts, genocide, along with grave and irreversible environmental damage ad nauseam. Human society could be far more advanced than it is now had women (given their traditional role as caregivers) played an integral part in our social evolution from the first. Of this I am certain.
As keepers of this earth, we the people are entitled to our rights as a living species and are required to act on behalf of all other species for our survival. The survival of all sentient beings should reside above and beyond man-made laws, which have protected those who lay waste to this earth. As human beings deriving our sustenance from earth and its elements, without any other resources from which to thrive, we must deem all ruling powers with nuclear destruction capabilities and war agendas as obsolete. The U.S. 2005 fiscal budget projected $421 billion for the military, compared to $60 billion for education and $51 billion for health. Every missile manufactured here costs $3 million to clean up after, and U.S. patriarchy has built 60,000 of them. If we do the math, that translates to $180 BILLION.
Clearly, domestic policy and the environment suffer terribly in our testosterone-infused government, both here and in patriarchies reigning worldwide. Humanity must create a global blueprint for peace drawing from a pool of renowned stewards of the earth. Women like Vandana Shiva, Arundhati Roy, and Helen Caldicott come to mind immediately. Protecting air, water, and soil and outlawing weapons manufacturing must become the supreme laws of this planet if we are to survive. Grandiose in thought, yes, but so is the U.S. goal to own and control space, and therefore the world. Parity is not a scary word you have never heard before, it merely means fair gender representation in government.
We must utilize all our survival instincts to combat the continuing illegitimate destruction caused by the male monopolization of governing bodies worldwide. We must use new forms of protection that emerge independently of the patriarchal ruling elite. Nature requires harmony, balance, and ordered chaos in order to evolve. Global diplomatic input of the female species, in equal representation to their numbers (53percent) is needed to begin the healing of our planet. The time for people to demand parity on a local and national level is now. Fair cultural representation would naturally follow parity. Parity must take precedence, though, as there are only two genders and thousands of cultures. Indeed, women of color must play a huge part in parity, having been twice demonized. The system of patriarchy has gone too long unchecked, and has brought the dark scenario we feared after the first atomic bomb was detonated. I suspect that our brothers, fathers, and sons would do well to initiate its implementation. Parity clearly offers humanity new strategies for survival.
Jane Evershed serves on the board of Women Against Military Madness and is a nationally renowned artist and poet. |
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Anti-War Resources
Is Iran Next?
The U.S., Iran and nuclear proliferation.
article - click here
Word UP!
Today the real test of power is not the capacity to make war but the capacity to prevent it.
—Anne O’Hare McCormick
Anne O’Hare McCormick (1882–1954) was a foreign correspondent with the New York Times and the first woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 1937.
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© 2005 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete March 2005 Index - click here
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