Today we mark another International Men’s Day, a celebration of men that began in 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago.  This not just a celebration, it is a day to take pause for a moment and consider where we have come from as men, and where we have yet to go.
And for the first time since I heard the words “Men’s Rights,†there is a good deal to consider and for which to celebrate.
In roughly the past year we have seen two major court decisions in the states of California and West Virginia that made the first cuts into the corruption and destructiveness of a domestic violence industry run amok. We have witnessed the almost incomprehensible event of a fathers rights march in Mexico City. The men in the country of India have risen up and made their presence known with clarity and power. Dads on the Air, a pro male radio program has become the most successful community radio program in Australia. And we have seen a prolific rise in internet activity and activism related to men’s issues, including mensnewsdaily.com® celebrating eight years of carrying the message to the world at large.
In short, there are now some signs of momentum in this sometimes stuttering movement. And I have to say it looks right good on us.
Clearly we have a long way to go. There is still too many people who get confused when hearing the word “misandry,“ and men are still discriminated against harshly in nearly every aspect of their lives. But every journey starts with the first step, and this looks to be the time in our lives that we can actually begin walking with a purpose.
So let’s take some time today to honor and appreciate men; just a moment to set aside the troubles in this world and admire the miracles of every day life brought to us by our fathers, sons and brothers.
Those miracles can be seen in the roofs over our heads, the cars we drive, the planes that take us across the world in hours, the medicines that heal us, the computers and cell phones we can’t seem to live without and too many other things to mention without writing a book.
And let’s be sure to thank the men who walk into burning buildings to save our lives and the lives of our children, and the men who patrol our cities in the dead of night and those that stand against a wall for us 10,000 miles away. Yes, women do some of these things, but it remains overwhelmingly our men who brave smoke, flame and bullets to keep us safe and secure. They have earned their recognition without the patronizing and perfunctory inclusion of others.
Let us also not forget this day the men who suffer; who languish in prisons over false charges; who have been stripped of children and property and civil rights by corrupt forces in our midst and who endure the ongoing hatred against them for nothing more than being a man.
Let us honor the men who have given us everything and who now find themselves being taken forcibly for more.
And above all else, let us work together toward the goal of justice for everyone, knowing that justice for anyone is not possible till it is a given in every mans life.
