A May 2004 Gallup poll asked Americans their opinion of the morality of a number of social issues. According to that poll, 60 percent found it morally acceptable for an unmarried man and woman to have consensual sex. However, only 49 percent found it morally acceptable to have a baby outside marriage. And to confuse things further, just 40 percent found it morally acceptable to have an abortion. Wow.
These statistics present quite a conundrum. Here we have a majority of people believing unmarried sex is OK, but having a baby out of wedlock isn’t. Yet obtaining an abortion is even less acceptable. So what would these people have us do? Enter into a marriage for the sake of a child because…
…because what? Here’s where the logic ceases to exist for me. How can the same people approve of the act that creates a child if they don’t approve of the existence of that child, and approve even less of the...
My job for the past seven weeks has been to index a 6-volume set on feminism in literature from antiquity through the 20th century. Indexing is the kind of work which, once you stop for the day, your brain keeps categorizing and developing term hierarchies. So as someone is talking to me, in my mind, I’m indexing the terms and concepts that come out of his mouth. It’s exhausting.
These days my head is full of feminist theory and criticism. Having read so much about it, I can’t help but think about how the concept relates to me, and more importantly, to my children.
Time was, feminism was the dirty F-word. Media painted all feminists as militant, man-hating lesbians, hell-bent on destroying family values and undermining the infrastructure of society. Many of the freedoms and choices we women (and our daughters) enjoy today came at great cost to our foremothers. But what about the boys?
Feminism isn’t just a female thang. I was...
Last week, disgruntled Granby citizen Marvin Heemeyer went on a rampage and bulldozed several buildings in his town, leaving in his wake millions of dollars in damages. Satisfied with the job he'd done, Heemeyer put a bullet through his own head and ended what appeared to be years of tormenting anger at a town he felt betrayed him.
Amazingly enough, Heemeyer didn't physically harm another living soul. He demolished businesses belonging to people he felt were mean to him. He razed public buildings as well, including the library. And that's what really got me.
My former husband and I used to live in Granby, many years ago. There wasn't a lot to do there. We had no TV; for a while, we had no phone. In winter, we often got snowed in. The library was our primary source of entertainment. It was a small library and didn't have a wide array of books from which to choose. There was no "New Books"...
