ISawArkansas

One sure thing we can say about people is that we are quick to realize our mistakes.

For instance, in the late 1400s seafarers found that the real fun of sailing the high seas was not knowing when they would see land poking out of endless stretches of water. Sailors also knew that once they got off their boat and looked hard enough, they could find treasure.

The treasure was uncharted and unfenced land, old growth forests, sparkling rivers and better weather than Europe.

But you know how people are – first order of business was to kill the natives in order to get the land so it could be surveyed, deeded and sold to each other or new arrivals.

It took a few years for colonists to understand that they not only violated all biblical morality codes, they also killed off the labor force.

Their solution was to capture unarmed and unprepared people, stuff them on a boat and import them to do farming and mining work.

None of that went well. Even the normally passive Quakers said this is an insane way to live and will come to no good. Enslave no one.

But settlers saw nothing wrong with slavery because it was important to plow fields and reap harvests so that bankers and Thomas Jefferson could eat well while bribing witnesses to see to it that Aaron Burr was tried for treason. OK, TJ did write the Declaration of Independence. We all seem to have that yin and yang, dark and light, cat and dog thing going on.

Heart Month. Colon Cancer Awareness Month. Pet Month. Poetry Month. Pride Month. Guide Dog Month. Bullying Prevention Month. Advent.      

We are up to our wigs with month-long observances glorifying ideals we pay little attention to. Cuz why? Short attention spans? Too much information?

Yes, well, there’s nothing so motivating as guilt. So we honor, or at least acknowledge, other people’s pride as though we understand their plight.

But come on… International Women’s Day? Day? A whole day to acknowledge women who are alive and doing their best not to kill anybody? Is it because if women had a whole month, they would just go harness racing or on vacation?

Women do have a history month (same as Blacks and Confederates) but why oh why can they not have plain old Women’s Year? Mother’s Day times 365.

Colonial women were taught to read but not to write. Why would a woman need rights? She was responsible for spinning, sewing, cooking, cleaning, churning, preserving food, making medicine, and raising animals and children. Why would she need rights she didn’t have time to use?

If a woman truly knew how to heal, she was burned at the stake. Did you know that women accused of witchcraft were considered to have weaker constitutions, therefore it was easier for the devil to inhabit their body? Bet it wasn’t women who came up with that one.

The British have a saying that nothing’s so bad that it couldn’t be worse. Yes, 1,200-year-old monarchies have their share of family spats, and thank goodness they’re having some now so we can stay busy judging and prying so we don’t have to think about creating All Women All Year (AWAY), a holiyear, not a holiday, that lasts 8736 hours longer than March 8.