Posted on 12/19/2002 1:58:30 PM PST by NorCoGOP
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Power. Control. Privilege. Old, white, straight, Christian men. These are the power-holders in our society.
It's funny. Just a couple of weeks ago, my "feminist" best friend made the comment, "I don't understand why I act more like a man than he does." She was referring to another friend of hers whom she felt was becoming "over-emotional."
"Why does he have to act like a man to be strong? Why can't women be strong?" Ding. The light went on.
Driving ever so slowly through Old Town last night, I looked at the sparkling lights and the Christmas trees put up in storefront windows. I saw Candy Canes, plastic Santa statues, and Christmas wreaths. Then it hit me. What if I wasn't a Christian? How would I feel walking alone in a crowd? Ding.
Just for fun, I browsed www.senate.gov and looked at who our senators are. Did you know that there are 11 women senators? And only 3 of them are Republican? Considering the Senate voted 99-0 to support a resolution to keep the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, I would speculate that most of the Senate is Christian with only one Jewish member.
There are no "out" senators, the first woman wasn't elected until the Depression Era, and the first Asian-American to serve in our Senate wasn't voted in until 1959, and he was from Hawaii.
Did I also mention that our past presidents have all been White Protestant men, only one being Catholic, and he was assassinated? So where are our people of color? Where are the women and non-Christian people? Doesn't it seem strange to anyone that women, who make up 51 percent of our country, are considered a minority? So where are all of the minorities?
They must have missed the memo stating that they can pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
So for fun, I decided to put together a little representation of what our Senate would look like should it actually represent the people it is representing.
Out of 100 members, there would be: 51 women, 49 men. There would be 12 people of Hispanic/Latino decent, 13 African-Americans, four Asians, Ben Nighthorse-Cambell would retain his job as the only Native-American, five would not declare their race, two would be bi-racial and the last spot would be occupied by a Pacific-Islander.
Of our 100 senators, 10 would be gay, lesbian, or bisexual and we would have one transgender senator who would most likely be from Colorado since this state performs the most sexual-reassignment surgeries in the nation.
Only 63 senators would actively affiliate with a faith-group, 23 of them would be Catholic. 36 senators would be Protestant, representing 220 denominations. There would also be one Muslim and two Jewish senators. The sixty-third seat would belong to the Eastern religions and a whopping 14 seats would go to the atheists and agnostics. The remaining seats would be a toss-up between those who do not subscribe to any particular religion, and only one out of three of our senators would actually attend religious services.
20 of our senators would have a disability.
So back to what our Senate actually looks like: 99 to 0, 11 women, one African-American and no "out" senators. I'm sure that our government will remove themselves from office by making it easier for minority groups to actually attain power and have a voice in our government. Right.
I guess until that time, we're all just going to have to grab hold of our bootstraps and pull real hard. I just wish I had some boots.
But we still get your point - and I'm amongst those who reject it. The Senate is not meant to be an Upper House Of Representatives.
Michael
So good, in fact, that we should apply it to other fields of endeavor. Journalism, perhaps.
You, being the fair minded journalist you are and going by the results of the last election, would probably say that out of 100 journalists, there should be a roughly 51/49 split rep. to dem.
What's that you say? 89 of the 100 voted for XXXlinton? Gee, I'd guess you've got some work to do then in your OWN profession - before you stick your nose elsewhere.
Jewish people are athiests? You learn something new every day. < /sarcasm>
That's what she said when I let her up...
If we could only return Senate elections to state legislature where they belong, get rid of this publically elected foolishness, perhaps there wouldn't as much ignorance of this issue as there is.
It isn't supposed to -- that's the House's job. The Senate is supposed to represent the States.
-PJ
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