I’m clicking around trying to get the latest election news and on MSNBC I find this gem. I thought I’d offer it as a break from the number crunching excitement that is buzzing around here.
Harvard gym tests Muslim women-only hours
Men excluded for 6 out of 70 hours; some not so sure they like plan
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
BOSTON - Harvard University has banned men from one of its gyms for a few hours a week, a move to accommodate Muslim women who, for religious and cultural reasons, cannot exercise comfortably in their presence.
While some might be tempted to nod their heads and agree—let’s just change one or two facts:
Let’s pretend that a small minority of, say The Knights Party, attended Harvard. Now, these Knights Party women consider it a ‘pretty big breach of their moral and religious code for a black man to see them...and it's just not possible for them to be in a mixed environment.’
In response, Harvard has enacted a White’s Only hour for these pour sensitive souls who honestly believe that they will burn in hell for working up a sweat in the same room as a man with more natural pigment than they’ll ever hope to buy from their tanning salon in their lifetime.
How about Muslim Men who are so turned on by the sight of an uncovered female head of hair that they demand a ‘female free’ environment at the gym so they can concentrate on working out and not the bulge in their pants? They get their Men Only Hours. And while they’re at it, they demand female free cafeteria hours, female free library hours, female free classroom hours. Or demand that all women out in public cover so as not to seduce them with their hair, i.e. Saudi Arabia.
Let’s pretend a small minority of Mormons attended Harvard. And both the men and women, who reportedly wear very special and sacred underpants, ‘consider it a pretty big breach of their moral and religious code for anyone to see them in their sacred underpants and it's just not possible for them to be in a mixed environment.’ In response, these modest men and women of the sacred underpants are given a few hours a week to change in a dressing room bereft of curious onlookers, i.e. Mormon Only Hours.
And what about those poor fundamentalist Christians who chose Harvard over Bob Jones University? Like the Muslims and Mormons and the Knights Party, these women and men demand an ‘interracial free’ environment because they ‘consider it a pretty big breach of their moral and religious code for a person of a different race to see them...and it's just not possible for them to be in a mixed environment’.
I want to see Harvard create a color bar for all the ensuing arguments about who is and who is not allowed in the gym during any of those "This Race Only" Hours. Then let them create a grid based on race and gender AND religion.
Because I haven’t even started in on my Kosher demands.
No, my fellow Americans, your private religion has no place in my public/paid for arena. You can be a pork eating, beer swilling Catholic or a devout Hindu who believes that every bug that smacks against your windshield is going to cost you one more cycle in this life. I don’t care.
Just keep your crazy religion as private as you would, say, your private sex life or bathroom habits. I don’t want to know. I certainly don’t want to show up some day at a facility that I am paying for and find out that I’ve been restricted from using it because my penis/breasts/day of worship/diet offends you.
I submit that the woman quoted in the article who agreed with Harvard’s new Policy was not intending to sound ironic. Supporting the restrictions, she said "I think that’s just basic courtesy. We must show tolerance and respect for others".
Yes; that is my point. Men and women both; Muslims, Mormons, Jews, Christians, Racists, Hindu’s, Buddhist’s, Democrats and Republicans; everyone who attends Harvard should have access to the gym.
We all must show tolerance and respect for others.
Peace. Now back to my obsessive vote watch.