You've Come a Long Way Babe

Yeah, you've come a long way babe!

Since, August 26th is fast approaching, I thought it would be entirely right to write an article on Women and their struggle for equal rights.

Their struggle has been extremely hard and long going back for thousands of years. I'm pushing 72 years old and have a daughter and

would like her to have every benefit and right that I enjoyed in my lifetime.

It has been only 90 years since the 19th Amendment was passed on August 16, 1920. Neither of my grandmothers could vote until then.

It's amazing when you realize how recent it has been since women obtained this simple right to vote in the U.S.

Some of you younger women do not know the fight that women have waged over the years for women's rights. You are the beneficiary of their

hard won gains against men who they had to fight and claw every inch of the way.

Women's deference to man has been imbedded in religion and culture for thousands of years and is still embedded in this day and age as

witness the latest Papal encyclical equating condemning pedofilia with condemning ordination of women priests in the same papal pronouncement thus

putting them on the same sin level. The Pope has received a lot of blow back from this by women's rights groups and rightly so.

Even today Mormons practise polygamy in many towns out west even though the church condemned it in order to become a state. The US government

would not annex Utah until the church renounced this practise. If you go to towns such as Logan, Utah where I've been, you'll discover that

most of the local political leaders such as mayor and sheriff openly practise polygamy. This is true all in small towns all over Utah, Wyoming and Idaho.

Polygamy was justified by Mormon's founder Joseph Smith on authority from the Bible, namely the old Testament where many of the ancient figures

in it had multiple wives. This is the same as many modern Muslims being in accordance with the Koran in having multiple wives.

Basically, religion treated women as property.

The three monotheistic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism which arose from the same Book of Abraham(The First Testament) have

enshrined in them women's deference to man. Since our citizens are primarily Christians, I'll confine my words to them. We know how fundamental Muslims

treat their women. They are about 500 years behind us such as in our time in Europe's middle ages where superstition, ignorance and terror were the norm.

We're all familiar with Witches of Salem occurring in the US in the late 1600's. Religious extremest men would deem women whom they deemed to

practice witchcraft. So if a women suffered from dementia, epilepsy etc, they would be accused of being infected by the devil and would be burned

at the stake. Yes, it happened on US soil. However, this was a carryover from the European middle ages where burning witches at the stake

was common in all European countries for 300 years and thousands of innocent women suffered this fate.

When I was a kid and would go spend the summer with my grandparents in the small town of Franklinton, Louisiana I witnessed how the fundamental

Christians treated their women. The women would have their hair in a bun, no make up , head covered with long dresses. These were Pentecostals or

as my grandpa would call them "Bible Thumpers." The women would always walk behind the men. My grandfather was sheriff and on Saturday on

the courthouse lawn, he would listen people who had gripes or needed his help. As a 12 year old I noticed the man would talk and the women would

stand back. When my grandfather would ask the wife for more explanation that her husband had told my grandfather, the women would look at

her husband in askance and he would nod yes or no for permission to speak. This was not unique to Louisiana. It was common in the rural south.

Why were women treated this way. Simple, they were religious Christians who followed the Bible.

The First Testament is clear on the subject:

Wives must submit to their husbands "in every thing" as though they were Christ. "For the husband is the head of the wife." Persians:22-

"Men are superior to women since Adam was made before, and sinned after, Eve. But even though women are inferior to men, they shouldn't be discouraged because they shall "be saved in childbearing." Timothy2:14-15

"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."Timothy 2:11-12

Women are to dress modestly, "with shamefacedness" -- "not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array." Timothy 2:9

But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.Corinthians 11:3

But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. Corinthians 11:5

For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.Corinthians 11:6

In the last days, "silly women" who are "ever learning" will be "led away with divers lusts." 3:6-7 Timothy

Only 144,000 celibate men will be saved. (Those who were not "defiled with women.") 14:1-4 Revelations

Throughout all parts of the Bible, you can find passages replete with treating women badly due to them being essentially evil, causing men to become lustful,

tempting them, being untrustworthy and conniving(ie Samson and Delilah. The Bible treats them as baby makers.

This ethos has not left modern culture entirely. It is hidden to some degree except for the last month's decree of the Catholic Church re ordination of

women priests and the Mormon Polygamy situation.

But, it is part of our culture which has been influenced by religion and has been very difficult to overcome.

Smart and agressive women have been fighting to overcome this for many years culminating with Susan B. Anthony and her friends getting the 19th amendment

passed.

Well, that was a start. Then modern feminist like Betty Friedan pushed for being treated more equally with her book "The Feminist Mystique."

People like Gloria Steinem who pushed extremely hard for equal rights at every opportunity which earned her the name of a "FemNazi" by Rush Limbaugh.

There are to many smart and aggressive women to mention who in the last century have brought about a sea change in women's rights and every single

one of you females owes them a great debt.

Conservative men and a few conservative women have fought equal rights. But the fight has not been successful because as America has morphed into

modernity, culture changes. As the Muslim countries march into modernity, they will change also. There are Arab Muslim feminist talking out as we speak.

In conclusion, I decided to pen this writing due to the fact that the notion hit me that this month of August celebrates two happenings re women's rights.

A women named Kagan has been appointed to the Supreme Court and will become the third woman on the court and it was 90 years ago that

women acquired the right to vote. You have to thank President Reagan for the first women named and President Obama who named two within

a year.

Just think Sandra Day O'Connor was the first female appointed and this was in 1981. So your numbers have risen to three in just 29 years.

Yeah, you've come a long way babe and don't forget to give thanks to the feminist (some men also) who worked over the years for gender equality.

Below is a timeline I researched this Saturday afternoon reflecting the various laws enacted in acquiring gender equity.

I hope everyone enjoys this article and has learned a little about the situation.

Bob White

August 7, 2010

19th Amendment passed in August 26, 1920 "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

1937 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds Washington state’s minimum wage laws for women.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 required equal wages for men and women doing equal work

In 1964 Congress passed Public Law 82-352 (78 Stat. 241). The provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing

1971 Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corporation, 400 U.S. 542 (1971): The U.S. Supreme Court outlaws the practice of private employers refusing to hire women with pre-school children.

Supreme Court gave women power over their own bodies with Roe vrs. Wade decision in 1973.

1974 Housing discrimination on the basis of sex and credit discrimination against women are outlawed by Congress

1975 Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522 (1975), denies states the right to exclude women from juries.

1978 The Pregnancy Discrimination Act bans employment discrimination against pregnant women.

1981 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that excluding women from the draft is constitutional.

Kirchberg v. Feenstra, 450 U.S. 455, 459-60 (1981), overturns state laws designating a husband “head and master” with unilateral control of property owned jointly with his wife.

1984 In Roberts v. U.S. Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609 (1984), sex discrimination in membership policies of organizations, such as the Jaycees, is forbidden by the Supreme Court, opening many previously all-male organizations (Jaycees, Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions) to women.

Hishon v. King and Spaulding, 467 U.S. 69 (1984): The U.S. Supreme Court rules that law firms may not discriminate on the basis of sex in promoting lawyers to partnership positions.

1994--The Violence Against Women Act funds services for victims of rape and domestic violence, allows women to seek civil rights remedies for gender-related crimes, provides training to increase police and court officials’ sensitivity and a national 24-hour hotline for battered women.

1996 United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996), affirms that the male-only admissions policy of the state-supported Virginia Military Institute violates the Fourteenth Amendment.

1997 Elaborating on Title IX, the Supreme Court rules that college athletics programs must actively involve roughly equal numbers of men and women to qualify for federal support.

My Servi-Cycle

I traded my Doodlebug motorscooter and a few dollars that I gleaned from helping an older guy deliver newspapers in his Cushman

motorscooter with a side car for a Servi-cycle. I would help in folding the newspapers and later I would ride in the sidecar throwing out the newspapers and he would pay me about 25% of the gross that he earned. I don't think they fold newspapers in a triangle anymore.

Anyway, I acquired the Servi-cycle. It was the direct drive model and had no clutch. In other words the belt ran directly from the drive shaft

to the rear wheels. To start it, there was a compression release lever mounted on the handle bars. You had to run with it holding the

compression release and when it began to fire you had to jump on it. Yes, my friends. Each and every damn stop you made you had

to repeat that procedure. If you were out of shape, you were screwed.

I've often thought about the Simplex Company who made this dinosaur. Hey, we're talking about ancient technology in the fifties.

It was a simple vertical two cycle one cylinder engine with a flywheel. No battery was required as it ran off a magneto. The tank held two gallons

of gas and as a rule of thumb we mixed a six ounce coke bottle with oil and added it to the gas.

This company was stuck in 1920's engine technology. It never progressed and eventually bit the dust.

Mine was constantly breaking down and I would bring it to an elderly black man who always had a stub of a cigar

in his mouth. The gentleman was located in that part of Baton Rouge termed "Nigger Town." That's just the

way it was in the later forties and early fifties. He always managed to get me up and running and would charge me

a buck or two. The points and condenser were located behind the flywheel and that was a job in of itself to remove.

I can still see myself sitting on a large paint can next to him as he was working on the engine and smelling the cigar he

always had in his mouth. If I had to guess his age now, I would say he would be around 70 at that time.

My Servi-cycle would do only about 30 mph. There were some of my friends who could do 45 mph on their. I often thought

that it was my dad who talked to the old black man to fix it so I couldn't do more than 30 mph. Who knows? It would really

piss me off that a little Cushman Highlander could out run me on the straightaways. But, I could make it up on the curves as

I knew no fear and they would slow down and I kept going wide open.

I witness this all the time even today. Just last summer, Carmen and I were leaving a town in South Dakota on my Harley.

I was cruising along about 80 mph on cruise control on the straights. This guy buzzed by us and at each and every turn in the highway

he would slow down and I would catch him and pass him and so on. I never altered speed, but he was afraid of curves

and would slow down. In my years of riding this is not uncommon. Most riders are brave on the straights but scared

like hell on the curves. This is especially true in the mountains.

I vividly remember riding in a group of Servi-cycles and Cushmans when we were about 12 years old. It was a thrill

when about five of us were tearing through the streets of Baton Rouge late at night. We were the wild ones long before

Marlon Brando.

I had it a couple of years and later acquired a Harley 125cc two stroke.

That's another story.

bob

PS Just going through the history of my bikes. Below is the history of the damn Servicycle.

HISTORY

Information source: Simplex Servi-Cycle: America's Premier Lightweight Motorcycle, by Gary L. Wollard
Simplex was the brainchild of J. Paul Treen, a Harley Davidson dealer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the early 1930's who recognized a need for a small, lightweight motorcycle. After developing several prototypes, Treen started production in 1935, producing twelve to fifteen units a week. Over the years Simplex added more space and air-conditioned the entire production facility in 1944, making it one of the most up-to-date manufacturing concerns of the time. Music was broadcast at short intervals during the work day. Several articles have been published regarding Treen's ability to prove the South a viable production location.

The basic Simplex design changed little over its twenty five year life span. The first models were "direct drive", with a belt running from the end of the crankshaft directly to the rear wheel. Starting was accomplished by straddling the machine and taking a few brisk steps. The motion of the rear wheel turned the motor over, and you were on your way. A rocker clutch pedal was added in 1941, and the Automatic model was introduced in 1953. Along the way, other upgrades were incorporated, including a kick starter, magneto-driven lighting, and more. There were also several three-wheel trucks, used mostly by delivery services. The company stopped building the Servi-Cycle style models in 1960, and later produced scooters, go karts, and lawn mowers, powered by proprietary engines rather than their own.

More detailed history on each model can be found on the Model History pages.

My Doodlebug Motorscooter

I, from a very early age, dreamed about a Doodlebug motor scooter.

There was never a night or day that I didn't fantasize about it.

My dad owned a bar named Bob White Silver Dollar Bar on

N. Boulevard in Baton Rouge. A couple of blocks down the street

was the Jolly Inn Bar owned by Sicilian Immigrants named the

Jolly Inn Bar. Russell Barcelona was the son and he was my age.

His parents had bought him one. I would ride my bicycle down there

and Russell would let me ride his Doodlebug. I was in heaven.

When I would go to City Park swimming pool, I would see Russell

there with his scooter. All the kids would be gathered around he and

his scooter as if he was a rock star. Hey, I'm talking 10 to 12 years

old.

I bugged my Dad incessantly about buying me a Doodlebug.

Finally he did. It was a used one without breaks and he paid

$60. I will never forget the night the seller brought it over to our home.

I hopped on it and was transported to another world. I remember the seller

said that there was a wire running to the carburetor that if you

pull it, it will give you a little more speed. He was right.

The normal top speed was 20 mph but the wire pulling would

get it up to 25 mph.

Since it didn't have breaks as the drums were worn out, I used

the kill switch and my feet to stop it. Naturally, you developed

anticipation of what you had to do long before you had to

do it.

I rode that Doodlebug all over Baton Rouge. In those times, you

didn't need a license plate or headlights , etc. Day and night I rode

it.

I clearly remember leaving my friend James Robertson's house on

Cloverdale Ave. and the front axle breaking causing me to go over

the scooter and rolling front to back. Thank goodness I learned to

protect myself from so many rough games in grammar school. I

was scraped up from arms to legs and bleeding like a pig.

I remember going to the sixth grade class and coming up real fast

in front of a lot of students and sliding the scooter up to where I

I parked it. I felt like a rock star. No one else had a motorized

conveyance in grammar school.

Later on, I traded the Doodlebug for a Servicycle which is

another story.

Below is a photo of an exact replica of my Doodlebug.

It was my first love and left an indelible imprint on my mind.

Bob

Reasons to Write

Just thinking again.

There are other reasons to write besides wealth, fame or political activism. Writing as a medium of exploration and inquiry has its own reason for existing, its own rewards. Surely a writer needs readers and cannot forever write in a vacuum only for himself. But the exercise of language as a medium of thinking and experience exists for its own sake and does not require rewards of a material nature. The pursuit of truth is its own reward as the practice of any art can be its own reward. Instead of accepting the limits of the fishbowl of thought, one can allow thought to take wing and follow it anywhere it may go. And though one's body may be imprisoned, one's spirit may soar.

So there is writing as a means of financial security and recognition, writing as a force for social change, and there is the pursuit of the exercise for the sake of the art, for the exploration of the human spirit. The latter does not mean writing only for oneself. The act of writing presumes a reader, though it may be far removed in time and place from the writer. But like a sculptor or a painter or an athlete, a writer can draw great pleasure from the exercise of the medium itself, from the practice of the art.

I refuse to give up the integrity of my own mind and march in lockstep with the mediated masses and will always
attempt to view the vox populi from all angles, distances, color, shapes, hues

Let whoever wants to read what I write and what I've written and to delete if they so please.  It's the act of
writing that I'm really interested in. It forces me to actually think and since I'm basically lazy, writing is a form of
exercise to counter my laziness.

bob

Idle Thoughts on the Well Trained Consumer

Ya know, I've been thinkin'.  I'm a thinkin' man ya know.

Just a few thoughts on our no money down culture.

Hey, what a country we live in. Why you don't need money or good credit to indulge yourself
by shopping till you drop. We are a country of well trained consumers and now you don't
need to have any money to do it.

"No-money-down furniture, no payment for three years!" Yeah, three years later you owe
$30,000 on $7,000 worth of furniture. Don't worry, the finance company will let you pay
it off at 24% interest in a 4% inflationary economy.

No money down for big screen TVs, cars, boats etc. Yeah, no money down on a car that
your finance for 72 months. Hell, after 3 years of payments , you owe more money
on the car than it's worth. Even though you would have to come up with money to
sell it to a private buyer, don't worry because you can trade it in and get the finance company
to finance your negative equity plus get a new car.  Isn't that grand?

I've figured out that people with no money will buy anything. They are so well trained
to buy stuff they don't need with money they don't have. These well trained buyers are becoming
bipolar. When they buy the stuff, they're happy for a week or two. Then the monthly bill comes
in and the become unhappy. Then , in order to be happy again, they go out and buy again and so
goes the cycle of mental ups and downs.  Truly bipolar.

Don't you just love the way the credit card companies suck the dumb downed in on their scam.
You go out and charge $2,000 and at the end of the month they say you owe the minimal payment
of $19. The idiot doesn't realize that even if he never charged again on his card, the amount he
owes will increase astronomically with 18 to 24 percent these robber barons charge.

Which brings me to the present problem of sub-prime loans. The inarticulate, uneducated,
dumb person without a job, bad credit and no money has been able to buy a home and furnish
it at the same time with a liar loan that some crooked mortgage broker filled in the application
because the idiot couldn't fill out or understand a loan application.  The closing costs were even
included in the loan for the home that was worth a lot more than it really was due to a dishonest
appraiser on the payroll of the home builder and whom the home builder had a relationship
with Slippery Sam's Mortgage Company.

Then these loans were packaged and the brilliant Wall Street executives who are and were
making millions in salaries and commissions while heading up Hedge Funds
bought these packages. Now the whole scam has come crashing down but everyone
along this sad tale of transactions got their piece of the pie in commissions and kickbacks
and the poor sucker who acquired the home had a chance to enjoy the wonder American
experience of living in a nice home before it was foreclosed on and now our tax money
or rather our borrowed money from China, Germany, Russia, Japan, etc is now bailing
out the last ones to hold the debt.

What a great way to do business. Only in America.

Remember the ads: No money no problem, bankruptcy OK, credit shot OK, zero down
no payment for 12 months. etc

The average American has forgotten how to get ahead in life.

There used to be a stigma for taking bankruptcy. You took pride in your signature. You took pride
in keeping a good credit score. You never incurred credit card debt because you paid
all you charged at the end of the month and you only used the card to the extent that you
could pay if off each month.

Generally you didn't buy "toys" unless you could pay cash that you had saved up for.
You always tried to save and invest at least 10% of your income each year. You always have a
rainy day fund. But the most important trait of people who get ahead in life is
they defer gratification.

Would it be too much for the average Joe and Mary to ask themselves the most important
financial question , "Do I really need that stuff that the ad bombardment is saying
I need?"

I'm through thinkin' now.

Bob