Differences

I was sitting at my desk yesterday and someone who I worked with until last week walked passed and asked how I was and then she said “We miss you, it’s so much quieter without you about”. I asked if she was suggesting that I was really loud and she replied “no, you just used to laugh a lot and we miss that”. I thought that was rather a nice legacy to have left.

I have nothing profound to say about the debate that is currently raging about gay adoptions, but I am currently reading Alan Alda‘s biography Never have your dog stuffed, which is a nice read. I have actually been reading it for ages, which is no reflection on the book, as I am enjoying it. Anyway… I read something in that book yesterday that rather struck me. Many year ago the US was considering amending the constitution which would mean giving equal rights to women by amending the constitution to say “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex” Alan Alda was one of the spokespeople in support of this amendment and one day had the opportunity to speak before the Illinois State Legislature.

“I hadn’t meant to make an actual speech, but I went on for a few rousing sentences, and the more I warmed to the subject, the more restless the legislators became. It didn’t occur to me that since the [supporting measures that had recently been passed in Illinois] had just squeaked through, almost half of the people in the room were opposed to it. They didn’t just disagree with the [Equal Rights Amendment], they hated it. And it became clear that they hated me for mentioning it. Catcalls started, then booing and whistling. Then yelling and screaming. Like an idiot, I kept talking. The political consultant who had brought me there crawled on her hands and knees to a place behind the podium where she could pull my pants leg. I looked down and saw her looking up at me with an urgent expression on her face. “Let’s get out of here” she said.

I thanked them for their kind attention, a gesture that went unheard in the din of hoots. We had to walk through the chamber to get out, and people were coming up to me, denouncing me angrily. I wondered how the measure had managed to pass at all in this group of people. A short, thin man in his eighties squared off in front of me. He spoke rapidly, in a voice pitched with fury.

“I was in World War One” he said, a little bit of white showing at the corner of his mouth. “Do you know what war is like? Have you seen it? I have. I’ve seen what mustard gas can do to you. Blistered lungs, blindness, agonising death. You want women to go through that?”

I am not trying to suggest that the chap’s argument was good or right, but I just thought it was an interesting take on the issue and one that just really surprised me when I read it. Sometimes the opposing sides can become so polarised that there is an assumption that everyone arguing for a particular outcome thinks exactly the same thing. Alan Alda then continued:

“I told him I didn’t want men going through it either. I could understand his feelings. But I could also understand the feelings of the women who said they wanted full citizenship and the responsibilities that went with it. He walked away in disgust”

The amendment never did make it on to the statute books.