I submitted a column over 6 weeks ago that continued on my
theme of income inequality (look for it soon) but I asked the editor to run
this one first because the topics are so current.
So where to begin? Let’s start with
the least controversial topic of “being woke”. As a 60 year old white man I
probably shouldn’t even be using (or knowing) that term, but I really like it.
Considering the demographic of the Winters Express readers I don’t need to
worry about getting called out for appropriating urban slang, more likely I
need to explain it. In a nut shell being woke means that you are aware of and
vigilant to what is (or should be) socially unacceptable.
That leads me to the topic of sexism,
more specifically sexual harassment and/or misconduct. Once again, as a 60 year
old man should I even be going there? Statistically, I am the problem,
personally not so much. First let me explain that as a human male, I have been
aware of and sexually interested in females since I was a pre-teen. I remember
finding and reading erotic books that my dad had in his desk and also looking
at by best friends’ fathers’ collection of Playboy magazine’s when I was just
10 years old. By age 13 I had Playboy pinups all over my bedroom walls and my
head was full of unrealistic fantasies.
I won’t go into any more of my
sexual history, just wanted to make the point that I have always enjoyed the
female form. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the first thing I notice
about a woman is her body. Does this make me sexist or a bad man? I’m only
doing what comes natural but I’m also “woke” to the fact that this makes women
uncomfortable so I try to be sensitive and not obvious as to where my eyes
instinctively want to go.
This brings me to all the high
profile harassment claims that are all over the news. Do I believe the
accusations? Hell yes. As a man, I know that historically when given an
(perceived) opportunity a lot of men will try and take advantage of women for
very basic sexual gratification. And that’s just everyday guys; if it’s a man
with power and an overinflated ego then women watch out!
So how do we fix the problem? Well I
think what we are seeing right now is a good start. Thanks to the “Grabber in
Chief” it’s now easier than ever to talk about it, expose it, and for men to
start taking responsibility for it. That’s what I’m doing, I work with mostly
young women and I’m very aware of all the sexist things I shouldn’t do. I don’t
touch, I don’t leer, and I don’t make sexual comments or jokes. I keep it
professional, plain and simple.
OK, now let’s talk about guns. It’s
gotten to the point that with so many mass shootings we can probably all start
playing the 6 degrees of separation game. Let me start, this last shooting (as
of the time I write this) at the church in Texas was at first just another
tragedy in the news. Then my mother-in-law from Michigan called to tell my wife
that both parents of the husband of our niece who lives on a military base in
Okinawa had been killed in that shooting. Even though we never met them they
were still family and it becomes more than just a news story, it’s just a few
degrees of separation.
I’ve never owned a gun and I’ve only
shot a 22 caliber rifle when I was a kid at YMCA camp (I wrote a column about
that) and once as a teenager I shot a 450 Magnum (my ears are still ringing)
when I worked for a guy who thought he was cool and carried it around in his
briefcase. In high school my best friend jokingly pointed his dad’s shotgun at
me and to this day I don’t know if it was loaded or not but I still remember
the feeling I got in the pit of my stomach and it wasn’t a good one.
To view the column in it's original form go to page 15 of the following link. Winters Express 11/30/17
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