Vice President Joe Biden Needs A Little Dose of Reality

Earlier this week, America celebrated Women’s Equality Day, a holiday designated by U.S. Congress in 1971 at the behest of a Democrat Congresswoman from the state of New York. Naturally, those who like to perpetuate the myth that women have it terribly rough in these United States were out in full force - most notably, the White House.

“On #WomensEqualityDay, we continue the righteous work of building a society where women thrive.” —President Obama: http://t.co/Gl6KNF4mnc

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 26, 2020

Let’s keep working to give every woman the chance to realize her dreams → http://t.co/kVbmadRix0 #WomensEqualityDay pic.twitter.com/vfBaTeFfeE

— The First Lady (@FLOTUS) August 26, 2020

“I will not rest until my granddaughters have every single right my son & my grandsons have.” -VP #WomensEqualityDay pic.twitter.com/QyLQojYpTd — Vice President Biden (@VP) August 26, 2020

I could combat the rhetoric with a plethora of facts we’ve all read a dozen times, but many others have done that beautifully. I’d simply like to share from the heart for a moment.

One week prior to Women’s Equality Day, late in the evening on August 19th, I boarded a plane in Lome, Togo. I was returning home from a 2-week trip during which the Mentor Leaders team I was a part of spent most of our time in a remote village located deep in the bush of northern Togo, West Africa. Abandoned by their own government, the people of Gbentchal (pronounced ben-jal) have been left for many years to survive in harsh conditions with no clean water, no access to medical care, schools, or even the most basic modern conveniences. So, you can imagine my reaction to statements released Tuesday by the administration, but most bothersome to me was the statement tweeted by Vice President Joe Biden - “I will not rest until my granddaughters have every single right my son & grandsons have.” It’s funny how statements like this are never followed by a list of the oppressions under which the women being discussed currently live. Let’s be honest here…that’s because there are none.

I don’t know the Vice President personally, nor do I know his granddaughters. I’m sure they’re lovely people, and I’m going to assume that they live a relatively comfortable life financially. I assume that they live under the roof of a well constructed home, lay their heads on a pillow each night as they rest comfortably in nice cozy beds. I would imagine, given Grandpa’s standing in our society, they attend the best schools and wear the latest trends money can buy. When they are old enough, if not already, they’ll have every opportunity to vote, to attend college and earn a degree in their chosen field of study, to marry a man of their own choosing, and to live a life of their own making. Unless Mr. Biden’s granddaughters are living under the oppression of a religion that doesn’t allow some of the things I’ve mentioned above, they are afforded every right that boys and men are in this country. Let’s face it ladies, that is a fact that simply cannot be argued. There may be variations in pay that depend far more on qualifications than chromosomes, and there may be jackasses along the way that treat women as the lesser sex, but generally speaking women have no leg on which to stand in this country when bellyaching about inequality. To do so simply makes one look incredibly weak, ignorant, and sounds eerily similar a whiny toddler who hasn’t gotten her way.

I know the Vice President wasn’t comparing the lives his granddaughters lead to that of women in far away West Africa, but his comments shed light on something that has been bothering me for some time now. Can we not have just a tiny bit of perspective when we discuss issues like inequality for women, or the plight of women in our nation, when compared to the way women live in many other parts of the world? While this has bothered me for a long while, I didn’t fully understand just how deeply I would be affected by witnessing the conditions firsthand. The impact was immediate, before I ever left the door of the airplane. I looked out the window as we came in for a landing and, strangely enough for this non-crier, tears began to flow. Even the poorest among us are so incredibly blessed in America.

The beautiful women in the village of Gbentchal lead extremely difficult lives. A woman will rise well before dawn to begin cooking over an open fire, squatting while she uses the most primitive of tools to prepare food for her family. There is no electricity, no sink, no running water, no refrigerator in which to store fresh goods. Chances are she’s a farmer, but she’s also a mother, and will often work until well after dark with a baby tied to her back. Sometime during her day, she’ll travel many miles on foot to gather contaminated water for her family to drink, because it’s the only water she has access to. If she’s not one of the more fortunate villagers, who haul theirs with a donkey/cart, she’ll gracefully carry hers atop her head, spilling nary a drop. Her children don’t have the luxury of attending school, unless they are one of only 200 so far that have been sponsored to attend the only school in the village of more than 11,000, built by an organization called Mentor Leaders. Young girls are expected to do the work their mothers do, often carrying small children all day themselves and married off by the age of 13 or 14. A pair of shoes seems to be a luxury, and even then, most often a simple pair of flip-flops. Women and girls wear modest clothing made of beautiful, brightly colored fabric woven by locals, and will often wear the same thing for many days. Laundry is done by hand, in water that is already dirty, but the best they have. When a woman finally goes to bed at night, she’ll stretch out on a mat probably shared by several - a mat that lays on the dirt floor of her neatly built hut. She won’t have the luxury of enjoying a late-night shower before bed, and when she goes to the bathroom, she’ll simply find a spot in a nearby field, where she will squat. It’s likely that she is one of several women married to the same man, and custom allows that he can beat her if she gets out of line or displeases him.

I could continue painting the picture and sharing details about life in the village those two weeks, but my point is this: when discussing women’s issues, please do so with a smidgen of perspective and consider how blessed we are in the United States. I know Americans cannot solve all the world’s problems, and all the money we have to offer wouldn’t fix the poverty in even one country, let alone the many that live under such conditions. But, there is plenty we can do to help improve life for women like the ones I describe…Mentor Leaders has already built one well on land the government determined was bone dry, and made the lives of women and girls in that immediate area WORLDS better. If you are unable to go and personally help, research organizations like this one who use 100% of the funds for the purpose you’re giving, and change the lives of those in need. Can’t afford to help? That’s understandable, but please pray.

We may not be able to do much individually, but if women in America would begin operating with hearts of gratitude, with some perspective about life and a heart for women outside our borders, imagine the difference we could make. We might complain far less about our own imagined inequality, and have a much greater impact on the world around us.

Images courtesy of teen Smart Girl Anna Nantz, Clickity Split Photography.