America’s biggest state is Texas. However the biggest state for Americans is the state of denial, a state we all live in varying only by degree and, of what?
Failure to make peace with alternating limitations is a common state of denial which can be good to a point, but detrimental when graduating into a fault. Expanding existing limitations may require some degree of exceeding them but too much, too soon, too often can create irreparable damage. Failing to surrender some of the ways of one’s youth is a most common denial–especially among men who insist in proving to themselves and to others that they are “the man” they have always been. But the most devastating denials are those realities refused to be faced by the kings and rulers of the earth who insist on waging war on perceived weaker, safer targets for reasons other than the real cause.
In an old World Book Encyclopedia I was struck by the definition that war has a cause and a reason that are usually distinctively different. The cause is usually one which is unpopular and unreasonable which has to lay in wait of a reason which will be more acceptable to the thousands upon thousands of people upon which it must inevitably take its toll. This, too has historically been of masculine mentality.
A statement by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahai’s of the United States, entitled “Two Wings of a Bird, (issued 1997) begins thusly:
“The emancipation of woman, the achievement of full equality between the sexes, is essential to human progress and the transformation of society. Inequality retards not only the advancement of women but the progress of civilization itself. The persistent denial of equality to one-half of the world’s population is an affront to human dignity. It promotes destructive attitudes and habits in men and women that pass from the family to the workplace, to political life and ultimately to international relations”
The statement further asserts: “The world in the past has been ruled by force, and man has dominated over woman by reason of his more forceful and aggressive qualities both of body and mind. But the balance is already shifting; force is losing its dominance and mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual qualities of love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining ascendancy…So it will come to pass that when women participate fully and equally in the affairs of the world, when they enter confidently and capably the great arena of laws and politics, war will cease…Now is the time to move decisively toward the promised future.”
There can be no denial that the discriminatory and injurious result evidenced through the annals of history from keeping women socially, economically and politically disadvantaged must now change if this scientifically and technologically advanced society is to survive.
