Our Turn At The Microphone--Sit Down, Shut Up And Listen, Truly Listen

Last week when Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) spoke out against President Obama’s supplementary funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, her words were the embodiment of the lyrics above from the Indigo Girls’ “Pendulum Swinger”.  In a statement, Woolsey said,

“As currently proposed this funding will do two things – it will prolong our occupation of  Iraq through at least the end of 2011, and it will deepen and expand our military presence in Afghanistan indefinitely.  I cannot support either of these scenarios.  Instead of attempting to find military solutions to the problems we face in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama must fundamentally change our mission in both countries to focus on promoting reconciliation, economic development, humanitarian aid, and regional diplomatic efforts.”

Imagine…if women like Woolsey had full and equal access to the microphone and those last words (emphasis mine) were the basis of our domestic and foreign policy.  Then we probably wouldn’t be reading Kate Michelman’s gut wrenching accounts of our disfunctional  healthcare system or reports that healthcare in Afghanistan is becoming increasingly impossible to obtain because of attacks on healthcare facilities and healthcare workers.

And we would be putting our resources to use fighting terror in the form of domestic violence in this country instead of bankrupting our economy fighting endless wars at the cost of the human rights of the citizens of the countries we invade, while dismissively suggesting in response to reports of a new law that would effectively legalize rape in Afghanistan that the human rights of women are incidental relative to protecting the U.S. from ‘terrorism’.

The new law denies Afghan Shi’a women the right to leave their homes except for “legimitate” purposes; forbids women from working or receiving education without their husbands’ express permission; explicitly permits marital rape; diminishes the right of mothers to be their children’s guardians in the event of a divorce; and makes it impossible for wives to inherit houses and land from their husbands – even though husbands may inherit immoveable property from their wives. –RAWA

Unfortunately, not only are women in Congress a small minority, they also persistently get less media coverage than their male counterparts, and Woolsey’s remarks were for the most part either ignored by the media or given one paragraph buried in coverage of Obama’s spending request. Until women like Rep. Woolsey are given their fair turn at the microphone, and until those who are in charge (overwhelmingly men or women who are equally invested in maintaining the destructive mindset that has overtaken our country) sit down, shut up and listen, truly listen, until then I fear for my country and indeed the whole world.