By Glenda Buya-ao Claborne
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 26, 1997

Be aware of 'wider culture'

Editor:

Over the past week, I told myself, a 34-year-old wife and mother of three boys, to shut up and leave the Wildcat to the 20-year-olds. But here I am.

It is good to know that the Wildcat has an opinions page editor with a mature commitment to freedom of speech. I agree, there is no other way to do it but to let ideas and opinions fight it out.

I realized over the past weeks that there are one and a half decades of life experience between the 20-year-olds and me. But it would mean copping out and condescending to say that we cannot communicate.

I was in the East Coast in the late 80s and in San Francisco in the early 90s when, even as a full-time housewife and mother of three very young boys, I became aware of the backlash to feminism and other modern liberal movements. It was therefore irritating to read commentaries in the Wildcat that do not seem to be aware of this wider cultural and intellectual trends going on in the US. Much more so because I expected academia to be the first institution to get it.

Go ahead and fight for women's liberation or bash religions that only give you romantic answers to life. But please be aware of the wider contexts of your fire and enthusiasm so you do not sound like you just came down from Mt. Arafat with a whole new revelation in hand.

Having an undergraduate dregree in psychology and having mulled over my psyche for years, I have come to a point point where I feel nauseated over psychological interpolations that reflect a more narcissistic self than an enlightened one. Call it the backlash within that parallels the backlash without.

Also, having lived in the Philippines and in Sri Lanka with my husband who worked for the Peace Corps, The Asia Foundation and the UN, I have become a bit cynical about going rah-rah for this cause and that cause. Just imagine a bunch of idealistic expatriates abroad pouring out their disillusionment, over beer or tea, about the very people they were supposd to be fighting for, not to mention their disillusionment with the causes they were fighting for.

This is not to dampen idealism and enthusiasm in the very young. Please, I would be the first to push you to use your fire an energy to the best. Just allow your cranky older sister to scowl at you once in a while.

Glenda Buya-ao Claborne
Journalism graduate student