Change Is

I was born in 1965, and grew up in a working class NJ suburb. I’m feeling pretty old now, and from time to time, reflect on whether the good old days were really so good.

Good old days:

Kids played outside for hours on end, pretty much unsupervised, with little concern about safety.
Afternoon baseball on TV.
Front bench seats, three on the tree.
Gigantor and Speed Racer were so much cooler than current anime.
Fall cleanup ended with a leaf burning.
We walked to school - liberation.
Bunk beds were common.
The sound of a phone ringing.
Moms were home.



Not so good old days:

TV was generally lame, offering little variety.
Air conditioning was a luxury item in most cars, and some homes.
No microwave ovens – I think we ate more food that was boiled or cold.
Cars rusted quickly, broke down more often, got flat tires, and besides looking way cooler, were junk compared to today.
We walked to school – often cold and wet.
Small houses were common – I remember a “family room” as something your rich aunt had.
Needing to untangle the phone cord.


I threw this list together in about 5 minutes, and I’m sure I missed a bunch of good stuff, but what strikes me is that while this is presented as two lists, one good, one bad, it also looks like a single list of things that have changed in the 30 or so years gone by.

Change is sometimes good, change is sometimes bad, but if one thing is certain, change is.

Equal Rights Equal Wrongs

Every so often the same old news is reported about how gender discrimination leads to pay inequity, glass ceilings, etc. Recent articles have pointed out that, at least in higher education, the tables have been turned, and most college and grad students are female - evidence that inequities can be rectified with the proper progressive legislation and attitude. Bravo.

Now it's time to turn our attention to that other institution so many adults enroll in - prison.

The disproportionate ratio of women in prison compared to men is reprehensible. After all of the efforts to change the rules of entry and adjust opportunities in the workplace and academia to ensure equal, or at least sort of equal, gender participation, the penal system is operated like a throwback to the dark ages.

Steps must be taken to ensure equality of gender representation/opportunity in prison. For starters, laws should be analyzed to determine which ones are disproportionately offering prison opportunies to males, and adjusted to be more fair and equitable. Affirmative action might be called for. Perhaps adjusting sentence lengths by gender would help to reduce the disparity as well. I am sure there are plenty of good ideas to fix gender bias in prisons, and it's time to get started.