No Country for Men, Old or Otherwise

No Country For Men, Old or Otherwise

Other than Farrah Fawcett (sex symbol, poster icon) and Bea Arthur (Maude, Golden Girls) can you name any famous women who have died in the first eight months of 2009?
I didn’t think so. Now how about the men? For starters:
Don Hewitt - invented 60 Minutes
Les Paul - invented the electric guitar
John Hughes - invented Molly Ringwald (Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, etc)
Robert McNamara - invented the Vietnam War (Sec. of Defense under JFK and LBJ)
Frank McCourt - Pulitzer Prize winning author of Angela’s Ashes, the ultimate personal memoir.
Jack Kemp - Pro football quarterback, Senator, and Vice Presidential nominee.
Paul Harvey - iconic and beloved radio commentator (Good day?)
Ed McMahon - most famous second banana in history (Here’s Johnny!)

And then there are the ones whose passing caused the world to stop and take notice:
Walter Cronkite - The most trusted man in America. Defined the news anchorman.
Ted Kennedy - The last man standing from America’s most famous political family.
Michael Jackson - The King of Pop, the Moonwalk, Thriller, the Nose.

When I taught school, I told my students that 8th Grade American History was the story of dead white men. Women were barely mentioned. The only Blacks that were discussed were tied to the slavery issue - Dred Scott, Frederick Douglass. Native Americans and Mexicans were temporary roadblocks to the Manifest Destiny of Caucasians.
The above list, with one exception, is a litany of the Pale Race. And the exception tried his best to become white.

My own personal world has likewise been marked by a substantial subtraction of male figures. I only had one grandfather, the other having died long before I was born. My only son died at thirteen followed three years later by my father. My first father-in-law passed a few years ago. My two brothers-in-law, Debbie’s brother and my sister’s husband, are also gone.
Debbie and I have three daughters and our only grandchild to date is a precious little girl. I have one niece, no nephews. That niece has one child, a daughter. On our last ski trip to Colorado, it was me and nine females. In our bible study class, the women outnumber the men 9 to 4.

Thanks go to Son-in-Laws Jeremy and Chris for adding some needed testoterone to the diluvian amount of estrogen in my life. Special praise that Cooper Steven will soon tip the scales toward the boys... for two months, at which time Lulu Tulip will tip them back.