"Equal rights means sharing equally the good and bad aspects of life."

A friend from the United States reacted to my blog post yesterday regarding the Oblation Run. Let me share the email with you.

DEAR DAVID: I interpreted the nude women in the Oblation run differently. Although they carried signs calling for equal rights for women, I saw their run as exercising their equal rights as women to join the men in running naked. I say hooray! Equal rights mean sharing equally the good and bad aspects of life. In the campaign for equality, women not only have (in theory anyway) equal rights in the workplace and in the legal sense, but also the obligations. While we don't have universal conscription in this country, should such time come, I expect women to be subject to the draft the same as men. And we have all had to forego the courtesies that men once showed to women when we were seen as "the weaker sex". While I am old enough to remember all those courtesies, I also think that having to forego them is a small price to pay for equal rights. You can't have it both ways. The Philippines, and several other developing countries, are far ahead of the US however with respect to women in political power. Women do well here in state and local office, but lag behind significantly in national elections. When it comes to raising the kind of money you need to run for national office, the good old boy network here still supports their own—with all due respect to Lonnie and David who I'm sure would support an able woman candidate. Merry Christmas to you, David L., and your family.—Judith

DEAR JUDITH: Points well taken, especially that, based on latest information, the ladies actually just gate-crashed the boy’s Oblation run. They were not part of original script. So it’s was actually a case of an old-boys’ network’s activity being hijacked by girls to ensure that they deliver home their own message. So I guess the “equal rights” aspects there is really important. If the boys can do it, why can’t they? And a historical precedent at that! My own old “conservative” instinct told me there were other ways of delivering the message but I guess doing that run at that moment was simply the most creative and probably the most effective way of doing so given the fact that most people are just too preoccupied with the Christmas season. It’s no wonder why most daily papers actually printed all those pictures with positive commentaries in the front pages to highlight the point. Thanks, for that, Judith. I stand corrected. Merry Christmas.—Very truly yours, David