Lansing Marathon - Second female - at the 14-mile mark
Lansing Marathon - first female - 14-mile mark
Lansing Marathon - first non-elite male runner @ 14-mile mark (please give me the name if you can)
Lansing Marathon - first two runners @ 14-mile mark
Lansing Marathon - 14-mile mark as the two elite Kenyan runners approach
Our yard in the mist
During a phone call with a former Canadian police commissioner Robert Lunney recently, he predicted eruptions of civil unrest this summer in the United States, particularly as we get closer to election day.
The conditions are ripe, in his view, because of the severity of the economic crisis for young people who cannot find that all-important first job when they graduate high school or college. He says the Occupy movement was dormant during the winter, but it will likely spring back to life now that the weather is good.
He graded U.S. policing on a scale from excellent to appalling, depending on which response to Occupy you were looking at. In some places, police acted with great restraint and civility. In other places, they behaved like thugs.
From my perspective as the former associate director of the National Center for Community Policing at Michigan State University, the biggest threat to our tranquility stems from moving further and further toward militarizing the domestic police, which is a far bigger risk to our democracy than we realize. Not only does it erode our right to protest peacefully, but it risks putting a lid on a boiling pot that will then be more likely to explode.
My crocuses normally do not bloom when it’s 80 degrees outside.
My $.02 - good girls finish last
I have talked with a number of women 50 years old and older for one reason or another during the past few days. From my perch at soon-to-be-68, they still seem like kids, but most are joining me in confronting what it means to be a woman who has fewer years ahead of her than behind her.
And what I felt so strongly is that those who tried to be good girls were angry, if not bitter, about what they felt was the hand that life had dealt them. If only … if only… I should have.
On the other hand are the women who thumbed their noses at any constraints, the ones who long ago adopted a basic screw-you, this-is-who-I-am approach. Not only did they seem happier today but they were optimistic about the future. One friend is embarking on an entirely new creative career. Another is using some down time to organize a food backpack program for local schoolkids who might otherwise go hungry on the weekend.
Yes, dealing with a bulging disk or recovering from shoulder surgery remind us that advancing age brings with it inevitable physical challenges. But the women who seem better equipped to take those setbacks in stride are the ones who have tried to live life on their own terms, whether society approved or not. (You’d never know that one of them used to sport an orange mohawk.)
The women who felt cheated were the women who “settled.” Settled for staying at home with the kids. Settled for a “woman’s job” instead of pursuing the career they wanted. Settled for making less than they knew they were worth. Doing what the grownups said to do.
As many of us ponder how we can help younger generations deal with the realization that the war on women never really went away, perhaps the best thing we can do is to support them in aiming for the stars. Even if they fall short, they will learn how to keep trying.