How many men know this day? What the date is, every year? What the day stands for? Ask your man...does he know the date? Does he know what it is? Do you?
Women raise our babies from the first breath to the last in many cases. They stabilize families. They raise our sons and daughters. They, in particular, raise our sons to hopefully respect women, mothers, daughters, sisters. They are the stable rock of culture, wealth, and family values in nearly every society....this is the day we celebrate women, international women, and the global woman.
What is a global woman? She wants education, and she earns every bit of it, side by side, in place with her male counterparts in every classroom. In most cases she excels, though she never brags about it....
She sees and unites with other women, mothers, daughters, sisters from around the world. An unspoken bond so strong....
And she sees our men, fathers, just as strong an unspoken bond, husbands, brothers, friends also on their own pathways...some friendly, some not...but she never fails to respect humanity...however respectful or not they may be toward her...because her humility and virtue are what give birth to all of the joy and the pain....in every house, in every family....she knows....her mother knows...her sisters know...we, men, need to know this too...
A global woman is a major contributor. An enteepreneur, an artist, a major facilitator of causes, a politician, representative, a spokeswoman, a builder of companies, schools, institutes, major, credible institutions with humanity and civilization as causes, not chaos. She produces something on and for this planet Earth. She puts down a family, yes, if she is so lucky, and she plants trees, she plants companies, she plants leadership where she goes...
Every male may be expected as much, but may also be expected to have respect for womens' contributions at the highest level.
There are so many global examples....in America, we know some of the famous ones, the names, Mother Teresa, Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Rose Kennedy, Barbara Bush, Jane Doe, are all prominent women, global, with American affection for their contributions as leaders, pioneers, creators, standing tall, many having gone beyond the borders of their birth to make contributions.... women... mothers and family....but there are millions more, in today's world, globally BILLIONS more who are women alone... and mothers, daughters raising our own daughters and sons, who inherit the earth, who write the next chapter of our plant's civilization....
This is what I see, as son, man, husband, father....of my heroines, on this day, and many more, most of the days and years of my life!
I cannot even begin to bring a portion of what would be a respectable tribute in scale, but to say that the scale is more than half the people of our planet...this day, this one day, we give you our torch of hope and appreciation...
Mothers, where we all started, daughters, whom we raise in such respect, wives whom we are priviledged to love, friends who we respect and love as colleagues....YOU are what turns this world around its axis....
This day is yours. This day is ours to respect and share with you It's like Mothers Day and then some, Wow! We love you!!! Thank you!!! You have brought us all gifts we cannot begin to even imagine....
We can never show our full respect. It will be for the ages to understand this respect. That is why we have International Womens Day, after all! It is for the planet and for the ages....
Monday, March 8, 2010
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Wonderful post and salute to Women on this International Women's Day... Note the UN's message on this day.
ReplyDeleteIn his message for the Day, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that “the third Millennium Development Goal – to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment – is central to all the rest. When women are denied the opportunity to better themselves and their societies, we all lose.
“Until women and girls are liberated from poverty and injustice, all our goals – peace, security, sustainable development – stand in jeopardy,” he added.
I was disappointed that my primary search site, Google, who so oft post creative graphics to promote significant events and holidays on their primary search page, overlooked this most important of days.
I am reminded of Nobel Prize winner,Wangari Maathai and her efforts to conserve the Kenyan environment with the help of womens' groups. Trees are used for firewood and the landscape, once full of forests, was quickly becoming stripped and neglected. By working together, the women are becoming empowered while helping replenish the habitat.
ReplyDeleteHey Dr. Mike! your blog about Women's day came at a perfect time. I thought you might be interested to hear, India's legislature honored World Women's Day by voting to set aside 1/3 of all the legislative seats for Women! (maybe our US legislatures should use this as a role model) I thought this was a great piece of news about women and their up coming role as leaders around the world!
ReplyDeletefrom: Lisana Locke
One of the most interesting things is that we strive for "equality." What is this thing? "Equality?" Should it not be something natural? Men and women are different. This difference is beautiful. This beautiful difference is what makes the world go round. Our differences are not inequality. Inequality is our lack of understanding.
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful day, but even by having this day proves even more that women and men are "unequal." Is there no "Men's Day" because men are celebrated everyday? No. There is no "Men's Day" because people would jump out of their skin at the inequality of it all. But isn't this equal?
Of course celebrating a race, a sex, a country, an idea, well, ANYTHING is great. Black History Month--to bring to our attention and remind of us of the inequality that existed and STILL exists in our world. Women's Studies--a program designed to unearth all of the women who have been buried in our history.
I believe women should be celebrated. We are your mothers, your sisters, your daughters, and your wives. But we must also remember that you are our fathers, our brothers, our sons, and our husbands. We should, in my humble opinion, celebrate each other for who we are and lift each other up in any way we can--regardless of sex, race, religion, political party, class, appearance, opinions...THIS, to me, is true equality.