Death to patriarchy
Cokie Roberts was praising the Ursuline nuns who were sent here to New Orleans by the French in the early 18th century to open a military hospital and tend to the men on the battlefield. Instead the nuns came and took one look around and decided there was more work to be done than that and so they opened up a school and began educating not only the Creole children, but the Indian and African American ones as well. To the heads of state back home and the church fathers they said pishaw, we know what needs to be done here. Cokie also said the nuns even in the fifties believed women should be educated and treated their students as if they might become the next presidents of the United States instead of preparing them for housework and child rearing.
Today Maureen Dowd writes about the need for a Nope – a pope who is a woman – one who would not turn her back on 200 young deaf boys getting raped by a Bishop. Similarly, while the church fathers have opposed Health Care reform, the nuns said “Pishaw” back at them and took a stand on their own to endorse reform.
I’m raising a boy here, but I have to say, patriarchy sucks. But most likely a matriarchal society would as well. We need both. One to balance the other. Yin and Yang. There is clear evidence that in third world countries when women have stable incomes, education and health care improve. Yay to nuns, hiss to the pope.