You know, no one is ever going to accuse me of being a bleeding-heart liberal — frankly, I’m so conservative I make Rush Limbaugh look like Jeanene Garafalo (okay, maybe not, but still…)
That being said — *sigh* — can’t we all just get along? Do we HAVE to turn EVERYTHING into a political and cultural foodfight?
If a group of women ask for some private time in the gym away from men a few hours a week out of respect for their faith and modesty, can’t we find a way accommodate them? I mean, so freakin’ what?
If we want to show the Islamofascists the superiority of our political and social system, we might start with not getting all torqued out about this (like THEY would) and showing a little of that “it’s a free country and you can do whatever you want as long as you aren’t hurting anybody” attitude.
You wanna really tweak their noses? Show their faith a little bit of the respect they’d never show to someone else’s.
I mean, I really don’t think allowing these women a little privacy is one step away from instituting enforced Sharia law on the Harvard campus. Do you?
This assumes, of course, that everyone involved is willing to be reasonable, and accept reasonable accommodations for others as well — like, for example, if male powerlifters want a few hours of men-only gym time to grunt, and strain and drop weights and stuff.
What it doesn’t mean is coming up with every possible ridiculous potential request and accommodating every dumbass “I demand my rights” scenario conceivable.
Let’s just — everybody — take a breathe, or a beat, or a walk around the block — and try to act like mature adults living in a free society here.
