by Elaine Charkowski
According to the religious right, a ripple effect set in motion by the lack of "traditional family values" is causing the breakup of the family unit which in turn, is causing the breakdown of our society.
Violence, drug use, divorce, child abuse, and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases seems to support this belief. However, the irony is that families and societies, both in the United States and abroad, are not being destroyed by the lack of traditional family values but because of them.
Scripture is a collection of statements attributed to God and copy-edited by men. Hence, all the world's major religions are male-supremecist, their respective gods "granting" men the right to be the family dictator. Men's gods also rule by force, threatening hell and punishment if one dares to disobey.
In Webster's Dictionary, "family" comes from the root word meaning "group of servants." A "husband" is the "male head of the household". "Husband" is also a verb meaning, "to use and employ to good purpose and best advantage," as in animal husbandry.
"Wife" comes from the root word for "veiled" and also means "the female of a pair of mated animals." Bill McCartney, founder of the right-wing men's group Promise Keepers, tells men to "tenderly and gently" take their "god-given" position as "head" of the family . But what happens if women don't behave like sheep. joining the domestic animals that are "husbanded?" Wife-beating is a "traditional family value." The "Rule of Thumb" was a law allowing Englishmen to beat their wives with a stick "no thicker than a man's thumb" to make them obey. According to the US surgeon general, battering is the number one "health" problem of women in America.
Since families are the building blocks of society and most families are male-supremecist dictatorships, it follows that societies and governments reflect the "traditional" family's dictatirial "ethic, -"might makes right." Thus, nations are macrocosms of dysfunctional families and war is a macrocosm of domestic violence. The personal is political and all violence takes place on a continium.
Power institutions like religion and government have developed in every culture. Carol Christ who wrote "Why Women Need the Goddess" said, "In order to change society, the changes would have to be in the best interests of the people controlling the power institutions. If their interests are not served, the changes are repressed."
Presently, men control religion and government. Hence, issues which particularly interest and affect women such as the environment, housing, child care, job training, education, family planning, domestic violence, and health care are chronically underfunded if they're funded at all. Meanwhile, "our" 90 percent male government hands over $250 billion to the military annually. The "big boys" get to buy all the "war toys" they want so they can play "soldiers" while the homeless shiver in the cold and battered women have no place to go.
Much of this shamefully squandered tax money was taken from women. Thus, women are forced to be "enablers" of dysfunctional nations just as battered women are often the enablers holding their dysfunctional families together by not being able to leave, for what ever reason.
World War I was fought to end all wars but the carnage continues. Since the end of WWI in 1918, the world has existed in a continuing state of war with intermittent periods of peace-not the other way around. Today, scientists in the weapons industry (sociopaths) continue to invent yet more creative ways of killing people. "Star Wars" technology is the latest "new and improved" bloody warclub. Nuclear battle stations in space threaten to perpetuate war into the next century as well as threaten all life on earth. These scientists' narrowly focused little minds are too small to hold such a thought.
However, things are beginning to change. Increasing numbers of women and men around the world are speaking out against both war and domestic violence.
The March to End the Silence, held in Washington on October 18 had participants from every state. Women and "a few good men" marched in memory of women murdered by the men.who wanted to control them. The marchers included women who survived and the children of the women who didn't. At least 1,500 silhouettes were carried, representing women who were shot, beaten, burned and stabbed to death by their husbands and boyfriends.
The men who joined the march are living proof that war is not a function of testosterone or a biologicaly determined dysfunctional behavoir.These men were brave enough to "be all they can be" by object ing in public toother men's violence. According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, 90% of all murders are committed by men.
Regarding the global counterpart of domestic violence; on October 24th, women from around the world presented the Women's Peace Petition to the President of the 52nd United Nations General Assembly. For the past six months, the petition has been circulating worldwide via mail, fax, Internet and word-of-mouth. It contains more than 90,000 signatures with thousands coming from India, Turkey, Philippines, Mozambique, Canada and Australia and the United States.
The Women's Peace Petition reads: "We are horrified at the levels of violence witnessed during this century and that women and children are the primary victims of war and poverty. On behalf of society at large, we, the undersigned women of the world, demand that annually, for the next five years, at least five per cent of national military expenditures be redirected to health, education and employment programs. By doing so, one half billion dollars a day would be released worldwide for programs to improve living standards.
We also demand that war, like slavery, colonialism and apartheid, be delegitimized as an acceptable form of social behaviour, and that governments and civil society together develop new institutions that do not resort to violence for the settlement of disputes.
Together we commit ourselves, as half of the world's population, to use our power to ensure that these demands, which will promote international peace and security, are met through legislation and action. We resolve that we will inaugurate a new century that rejects warfare and promotes well-being, justice and human rights." Early feminist union organizers encouraged women to come out of their homes and participate in "social housekeeping" to "sweep away" oppression and "clean up" society. Even though the Peace Petition has already been presented, we should continue to make copies, collect signatures and network to share our ideas. In this way, millions of creative ways to build peace can be shared to finally end war and domestic violence. Pease is possible and as Susan B Anthony said, "failure is impossible!"
**please copy and send the women's peace petition to others! We must end the acceptance of murder (war) to solve global disputes!
Check out Elaine's web site, The Feminist Agenda.