So Many Motherless Boys

[February 23, 2002 -- Women are telling their stories. Women are finding their voices. Women are blogging their way to a new world. Women are blogging from under the burqua, so check out this story from the BBC Online. Thanks to Kevin Marks and Jeneane Sessums for this story.

Imagine what world we're looking at if we actually stop silencing women -- whether in the Middle East or the West. We've got a ringside seat to the colossal meltdown of patriarchy as we know it. And all we had to do to get to this point ... is tell our stories ... just tell the truth. Like that woman at Enron did. And that woman at the FBI did. And the mothers of boys molested by priests did. And bloggers are doing worldwide. And who will benefit ? Everyone -- women and men, girls and boys -- all free to live and love and be real.]

We're watching the savage acts of motherless boys in the microcosm and a raging battle between yin and yang in the macrocosm. The ability to care for others, to nurture, to feel empathy, to feel compassion, to even tolerate the weak and vulnerable in society, to have any tolerance at all, is taught at your mother's knee and has fallen into disrepute.

The desire to be on top, to be in control, to be the one in power, to be greedy, to be selfish, to hold a gun to another's head, to possess, to belittle, to denigrate, to destroy, all these impulses thrive in a society where women are undervalued.

And don't think for a minute I'm only talking about countries where you see the parade of pretty blue burquas. Americans made a deal with the devil in the past few years, to consider jobs and money our fundamental religion and make sure women and children lost any value in the economic landscape.