I had a couple of issues with this reading; firstly, I felt that it was stereotyping men as violent, unemotional shells of human beings. Not only this, but the message was very broad. It had complaints about issues we face in society today, yet it suggested nothing that could be done to help alleviate it. I think a lot of the message in this selection, which was a good message calling for peace and unity, was obscured by these various oversights.
The author states that it is the "imperial arrogance of the white male power that has separated us from the suffering and wisdom of our sisters in Asia, Africa, South America and in our own country" (p. 527). This statement is very bold, if not ballsy; it is isolating men as a dominant and oppressive force. In my experiences, when you are trying to convince someone to think the way you do, you definitely do not isolate them and single them out to the point of discomfort and frustration. To be fair though, it's practically impossible to protest something without isolating certain people. Is it fair though, that these women cite all white males as being oppressive and dominant in society? I definitely don't think so. I think it's an arrogant statement, and it's blatant stereotyping. Personally, I don't want to listen to a group of people that are that ignorant.
Another problem I found in this reading was the fact that these women are calling for an end to military drafts. Granted, no one wants to be drafted; but in a period of wartime, it's of the utmost necessity to protect your nation. Without these soldiers, we have no protection. If we are vulnerable, it is only a matter of time before another nation takes hold of our valuable resources and assets. Is this what these women really want to see? The fall of a great nation?
The Women's Pentagon Action also claims that "We want the uranium left in the earth and the earth given back to the people who tilled it. We want a system of energy which is renewable, which does not take resources out of the earth without returning them. We want those systems to belong to the people and their communities, not to the giant corporations which invariably turn knowledge into weaponry...We want an end to the arms race. No more bombs. No more amazing inventions for death" (p. 527).
....So does everyone else. In case these women haven't noticed, people don't want to live in fear of weapons of mass destruction; people don't want to deplete all the natural resources of the earth; people don't want businesses in the hands of greedy investors looking to line their own wallets. Nobody wants these realities, yet they are very real. Complaining that we don't want to live with these facts does nothing to solve the problem. Rather than ranting and raving about how terrible the world is today, give suggestions for the common person to make this world better. Complaining gets no where; in fact, if anything, it just pisses a lot of people off. For lack of a scholarly term to describe this reading, I would simply call this bullshit.
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