 |
Friday,
January 30, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Women
shouldn’t fight on front line with men
COMMENTARY
By Roxy
Latifi
As
women want equality more and more with every emerging
generation, it’s no surprise that the question of
whether or not women should be drafted has come up.
Supporting equal rights is crucial. Everyone should have
the opportunity to prove that they are just as good as
the next person, regardless of race, creed or gender.
But let us take a minute to think about those two words,
“equal rights.” What exactly does that mean?
Does it mean everyone, regardless of color, creed or gender,
given the chance, can do anything anyone else can do?
To say that equal rights should exist because everyone
can do anything just as well as the next person would
be wrong. The opportunity should exist, but the truth
of the matter is that no matter who you are there is always
someone who can do something better than you.
So when someone says feminists are for equal rights I
would agree. Women just want the same opportunities that
men have. Women want to be considered an equals.
But when the question of who is better for fighting on
the front line of our nation’s war arises, I am reluctant
to answer with “women.” While women should have
the opportunity to prove that they can be all that they
can be, the fact is that just because they can do it doesn’t
mean that they are better at it.
Women are entirely capable of fighting alongside male
soldiers, but I see a different need for women. Have we
forgotten it was women who served our country within its
borders during every war the United States has been in?
We tend to over look these so-called minor actions. Women
fought the war; they may have not been shooting at the
enemy, but they helped assemble those weapons for every
man who needed to defend our country. They helped stop
the bleeding of our brave men before they bleed to death.
Women were the backbone of the household.
Women were the ones who held the family together even
after the telegrams arrived announcing the grim news of
an MIA or death. So whoever said that women couldn’t
fight a war must not be able to look beyond the obviousness
of what war is. There is so much more to it than shooting
a gun. War leaves mentally and physically disabled people
and it was women who cared for and healed those people.
We need someone here to keep the country going. We need
strong individuals to keep the sanity. We need women to
fight that war. I doubt men would be up to such a task.
Men were signing up for the armed forces in record numbers
during World War II, causing a great loss of manpower
in the factories back home. Someone needed to run
America while others were overseas protecting it. Someone
needed to keep our country going during this time of chaos.
Women held it together. It was the women who said I will
fight for my country too. In the factories that made guns,
airplanes, tanks and clothes, women were supporting the
manufacturing; on the farms that raised the cattle, sheep
and pigs, women were there making sure America was fed,
clothed and protected; when the sun went down they was
also there to comfort and relieve the pain Americans were
feeling.
Just because a woman is not on the front line doesn’t
mean she isn’t fighting.
Roxanna Latifi is a junior news-editorial journalism major
from Fort Worth. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
