We have so much to worry about these days.
The worldwide pandemic featuring a bat virus developed in a shadowy Chinese lab with the possibility of U.S. money involved moved to the top of my “OMG” list in 2022.
And, of course, we’re fooling around with World War III in Europe. Nuclear weapons are in play.
Yet, our self-absorbed American culture remains stuck on what makes a boy and what makes a girl.
Meet Lia Thomas. She’s 22 and one helluva swimmer. This month she smoked the competition to win the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division 1 title in the 500-yard freestyle race. It wasn’t close. The next best girl touched the finish wall 1.75 seconds later, which is an eternity in swimming competition at that level.
Here’s the rub. For three years before she competed for the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swimming team, she competed as a man on the university’s team.
This raised objections from women advocates who say the NCAA rules for transgender men make no sense.
They say that Lia transitioned after she fully developed as a boy, therefore giving her an unfair advantage.
Look, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t understand all there is to know about transgender issues. The older I get the broader of mind I become. So, I’m willing to listen.
But, it must be said that when you see the pictures of Miss Thomas in all of her “snips, snails and puppy-dogs’ tails” body next to her “sugar and spice and everything nice” girl competitors the average person will be compelled to say:
“Damned, that ain’t right.”
Let’s have that discussion, assuming, of course, we manage to survive nuclear war and another worldwide pandemic.
REMEMBER THE FLU
If you’re an avid reader of this newspaper, you probably already know about the “Pages From The Past” feature – blurbs about Marin history from the pages of the Novato Advance.
Over the last two years you’ve read about how the flu epidemic 100 years ago ravaged the people here. Take a look at today’s column (Page 6B) for this gem of a quote: “Now that our little community has just recovered from the flu, we hope nothing worse will come to us.”
CATS WIN!
In the “I Kid You Not” file comes the ruling from the U.S. District Judge Edward Chen stipulating that a homeless man in Sausalito can be allowed to use his own tent in the city’s homeless encampment because … waite for it … he wants to live with his pet cats.
Marinship has a “no pet” rule in city-owned tents. But this homeless cat-lover bought his own tent for 300 bucks and wants to set up in Marinship to work-around the “no pet” rule.
The judge ruled that was reasonable.
Purrrrrfect!
ONE MORE THING
– Memo to whoever’s been sending in the clowns: You Can Stop Now!
– For our theologically minded readers: Can Jesus microwave a burrito so hot that he himself could not eat it?
– Some bathrooms are more interesting than others.
That’ll do for today. Until next week, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.
(Sherman Frederick is the publisher of Marin’s community newspapers — the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. He is co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
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