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| Bettejo Dux, a resident of Kauai for over forty years, is an award winning writer, columnist, novelist, peace and environmental activist who knows, and loves Kauai with a passion that shows up in her work.
Above photo; Bettejo signs her novella for a fan at her recent book signing
and 84th birthday bash at Birdies in Kalaheo.
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Chattel
It’s kind of a silly sounding word, isn’t it? It does not roll trippingly off my tongue. There’s a sense of darkness about it. It means possession of something. Cars, cattle, or women…
…Today is such a wonderful time for women, at least in the West. I would not care to be a Muslim woman in a long black robe- in which she can vote with a green thumb if she can see through the slits. A little less disturbing Sharia law, her hair must be covered and you shouldn’t see her feet. Allah commands. Ever wonder what the guy’s got against hair and feet?
In our country today, many women are speaking out. I think they are more concerned about the future-the children, the environment, the health of the planet-than men. What do you think?
Women on Kauai are quite vocal in complaining about GMOs, air borne toxins, over-crowded, wrongly sited milk factories, and mass extermination of what ever’s in style to mass exterminate today.
I appreciate what articulate, intelligent, out spoken women have-or had- to say. I love their involvement in the goings on. “This world crisis came about without women having anything to do with it. If the women of the world had not been excluded from affairs, things today might have been different.” That’s a quote from Alice Paul before the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave us the right to vote. I strongly suggest you find the film Iron Jawed Angels and watch it. Share it. We owe so much to this courageous young woman. We certainly need more like her. If you must identify with a female figure, identify with Alice.
Today, of course, women often play important roles in politics and law. Think of Sarah Palin- EEEEKKK-an example of a female evangelist who tried her hand at public office. Failed, thank goodness. Hope you watched her exorcism ritual on the tube. It was an insult to human intelligence.
Which brings us back to chattel.
Some biblical quotes will work here. Here’s one: Ecclesiasticus 25:18, 19 &33. “And a man will choose…any wickedness, but the wickedness of a woman…Sin began with a woman and thanks to her we all must die.”
Really?
The history of women as chattel is woven into many legal codes and cultures. In the Old and New Testament as well as the Quran. Women are property. There’s a world- wide dominion over women by men. In fundamental patriarchal religious societies that live by the word women are valued as objects. A husband owns his wife...
…and she better shut up and do as told.
A quote from Thomas Aquinas is enlightening: in Summa Theologica, he wrote, “As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex, while the production of a woman comes from the defect in the active power…”
Thomas is a Catholic Saint so I assume he resides in a Catholic heaven. As a devout nonbeliever, who does not believe in either heaven or hell, I might pen a brief note:
“Dear Saint Augustine, to spend all eternity with you would be hell.”
What do you think?
P.S.
Go to www.hoike.org scroll down and on the right of your screen click on Arts and Entertainment-
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| Bettejo speaking on her weekly TV show on local public access TV. www.hoike.org |
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| Go to www.amazon.com and your order copy of "Children of the Extinction!" |
Hana Hou, (Encore) Shared from Facebook...
