Editor:
John, you should have lived a hundred years ago ("UN conference promotes far-left view," Sept. 6). You would have loved it. In America back then women were seen as little more than breeding machines, capable only of bearing and raising children. Women were not supposed to have complex thoughts or emotions, or to have the strength to stand up to the harsh climate of the business world that lay outside the province of their home. As for the idea of women in politics, it was unthinkable. Sounds like paradise John? Well unfortunately for you and the legions of knee-jerk conservatives you so blindly follow, all that has begun to change. Note that the operative word here is begun. That's right it is not over, that is what the Beijing conference is all about. It is sad that you do not understand why; just as you probably did not see the significance of holding a meeting on population control in Cairo, a city bursting at it's seams with people. You see John, the location helps make the point that we still have progress to make in women's (and as Hillary Clinton so nicely pointed out) human rights. Just the way in which the Chinese government is handling the conference shows the world how they operate to oppress. It disheartens me that you and conservative organizations like the Family Research Council feel threatened by women with power beyond the limits that you wish to assign to them. I cannot say much about your research on women, but my research into history has shown many examples of women who have had the aggressive gumption to pick up arms to fight, die and kill alongside men. You should hesitate to argue because you have no real argument other than: "It's wrong because I say it is."
John, I know it is easy to marginalize people you do not agree with by labeling them "radicals" or "Stalinists" (like he supported women's rights). Your misrepresentation of their beliefs however, as working towards a culture of gender warfare with no place for God, in an attempt to scare people into siding with you seems desperate and foolish. I am sorry, John. I am sorry you feel this way about people who do not fit into your outdated restrictive vision of "mainstream" America. Tell me, how do you propose to improve the lives of women if the "radicals" are so morally wrong? Send them back to the secretarial pool? Or worse?
Maybe you should have been born a hundred years ago.
Steven Albert Yarema
History Junior