This may come as a surprise to some, but words have meanings. Some words have very broad definitions and can be used in any number of circumstances. In my neck of the woods, the word “wicked” is such a one. “Wicked” may be used as an adjective to mean “evil” (The Wicked Witch of the West tried to hurt Dorothy and her friends.); it can be used as an interjection (“Kids, we’re going to the new water park today.” “Wicked!”); and in true Bostonian fashion (which is really a general Massachusetts thing), a modifying adverb or compound adjective (“wicked awesome”, “wickedly brutal”, etc.) Wicked is neither good nor bad in this last case; it just demonstrates something is “more”. Sort of like “good, better, best”. After “best”, there is “wicked”.
Where am I going with this? One of the most popular phrases today is “war on women”, as it relates to pretty much anything the Democrat party says blocks “free” contraception and abortion-on-demand. A quick Google search for the term brings back 363,000,000 hits. Allow me to paint another picture of the “war one women”, with some help from our good friends over at Merriam-Webster:
war:
a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations (2) : a period of such armed conflict (3) : state of war
Hmm. I like to think that of all things, my dictionary at least won’t lie to me. While tensions in the hallowed halls of the Capitol building can get pretty hostile, I don’t think any real brawls have broken out since 1858* or so. As arguing over who should pay for a woman’s birth control is really more of a philosophical difference than an issue akin to those that caused the American Revolution, the War Between the States, WWI, WWII, etc., I’m going to go ahead and say that the current “War on Women” is more hyperbole than anything else.
If we’d like to discuss a real war on women, let us turn our heads to Iraq right now, where a full-blown genocide is taking place. Oh yes, genocide. Everyone is probably tired of that word, since we heard it bandied about so much in conjunction with Rwanda (and no one seemed very interested then) and if we throw Iraq into the mix, people will just be even more disinterested. After all, haven’t we dealt enough with Bush and his mess**?
However, if even MSNBC is calling the ISIS and Sunni violence against Iraqi Christians a genocide, then there is a problem. MSNBC is among the least watched and trusted of all the mainstream news sources and definitely left-leaning, so if they are even jumping on the “Baghdad, we have a problem” wagon, I’ll go ahead and say there’s a problem.
Would you like to know what a real war on women looks like?
It’s watching your child get beheaded, and his head stuck on a pike in a park because his parents are Christians.
It’s being forced to give birth with your legs shackled to the stone floor of your jail cell while your toddler looked on because you would not renounce Jesus and convert to Islam.
It’s watching your husband hanged because he would not give up his Christian faith.
It’s being gang-raped, beaten, and left to starve for no other reason than the fact you are a woman.
It’s having to be covered from head-to-toe, because you are a woman.
It’s not having any control in whom you marry, because you are a woman. The men in your life – your father, brothers, and husband – make all your decisions, because some other man once decreed that women are only half as smart as men.***
It’s submitting to domestic violence, because your religion says that wife-beating is okay, even necessary.
It’s giving yourself or your daughter to a pedophile, because your prophet took a child-bride.
It’s not being allowed an education, or risking your life for one, because your are a woman.
It’s having your clitoris and labia cut off and the wound sewn shut, allowing only a tiny hole for menstrual blood and urine, for no reason other than to control your sexual behavior.
That is a war on women.
Let’s remember the true meaning of war and what our sisters and brothers on the other side of the world are going through right now. The next time you hear someone mention that idiotic phrase, be sure to tell them what a war on women really looks like.
*1858: the caning of Charles Sumner. There have been a few fistfights in state legislatures and maybe one or two in Congress, but none as epic as this one.
** I need a sarcasm font.
***http://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/Arlandson/women_top_ten.htm
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