First things first. I'll come right out and say that I have no use for the Concerned Women For America. Can't stand them. If anything, I hate their head honcho, Beverly LaHay, even worse than Bill Bennett. (Boo. Hiss.)
Why this vehemence? Do I hate them for their beliefs? Certainly not. I find it quaint that they think that ending sex education will prevent teen pregnancy, when teen pregnancy predates sex education by some few centuries. I get a good chuckle when I hear them claim that pornography causes men to become serial rapists and murderers, considering that if all or even most readers of Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler turned into Ted Bundys there would scarcely be a woman left alive in the U.S.
I can even be understanding when they start saying that all a real woman wants is to obey her husband and nurture her kids. First I look in the mirror and confirm that I'm still female, for all my worldly ambitions. Then I sigh and remind myself that after all, some people do find it scary to have to make their own decisions. And sometimes even the best of us forget that what we want for ourselves may not be what others want for themselves.
And here is where I start to get irked with the CWFA. They wish to provide what they want for every woman, and for every child what they want for their own children - and they are willing to meddle with the laws to do so.
Well, you say to me, you concerned, conservative women, didn't the feminists do the same thing? Didn't they naively assume that every woman wanted freedom, equality, the opportunity for a career, and fight for the rights of women who were really just as happy to stay home and cook?
True. And I give the Concerned Women, most of the rank and file anyway if not their publicity-hungry loopy leaders, full credit for sincerity. But - and this is a big but - the feminists wanted to gain rights, and the Concerned Women want to take them away. The feminists fought to provide options and open doors; the Concerned Women want to limit options and close doors - and quite possibly board up the windows and block out the sun.
You see, when you give people rights that they don't want, there's no harm done. They can just ignore the rights and go on with life as usual, as we see illustrated by the thousands of Americans who never bother to vote. But taking away rights is quite another matter. I doubt that those of us who do vote would take kindly to a movement by the non-voters to cut government spending and eliminate all those tacky campaign ads by establishing a monarchy.
No respected feminist has ever stood on the steps of the Capitol to propose that homemakers be forced by law to put their children into daycare and get jobs. Such a law would be tyrannical in the extreme. But the CWFA will cheerfully manipulate the laws to impose on career-minded women, housekeeping-minded men, sex-minded teenagers, and love-minded homosexuals, a social order which like cod-liver oil is supposed to be most beneficial to those whom it most disgusts.
I do not want cod-liver oil given me for my own good. I will share my philisophical vitamins with anyone who wants them, but I will force them on no one. I ask that the Concerned Women For America be willing to extend that courtesy to me.