The Tag Says to tell "Why I Think It's Good to be Me"

Brenda, over at Country Romance tagged me with a "Why It's Good to be Me" meme. I've got to be honest with you, the way 2008 has started out, I was sort of struggling with answers to this one. But then I stumbled upon a BIG reason why I'm glad I'm me and I'm glad I live in this day and age. I know that the true spirit of this particular meme is so that we can all take a moment to review our lives and realize what all we have to be thankful for. However, I'm going to take a different tack and use it to make my own humble commentary on life as a woman. And no....before the thought even begins to form in your mind, this is not a "rant". Repeat after me, "This is a Social Commentary". Big difference. Really big. For instance, "rant" has only 4 letters, while "Social Commentary" has 16. Plus a space. See what I mean? Big difference. So, let's get started...
"It's good to be me" because I was born at a time when more women than ever were working and it was becoming more the norm than the exception to have a mother who worked outside the home. Why was that important to me as a female child? Because it showed me that women have options! Women could take the skills that are necessary to run a household and use them to run a company, as well.
"It's good to be me" because the whole time I was in grade school, I thought it was normal for the girls to be smarter than the boys. Now hear me out before you start labeling me as arrogant! Back in the day, all the boys in my classes were into sports almost to the exclusion of all else. That's how it seemed to me, anyway. At the end of every year, when we had award ceremonies for the "Top 3" in each academic subject, it was almost exclusively girls who won those awards. The boys didn't seem to see a problem with that and I certainly didn't. I, and many of my friends, thought it was normal. Of course, once I got up into high school, which had a much larger student body, I came to realize that boys had brains, too. (I should have focused a little more on those brains instead of getting blinded by their prowess on the football field. Yeah. Well. Good memories, anyway...). But the point I'm making is "girls being smart" wasn't always expected, accepted or even allowed up until fairly recently in our country's development.
"It's good to be me" because I can vote! Do you realize that the Nineteenth Amendment was passed less than a hundred years ago??? On August 18, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment, which was specifically intended to extend suffrage to women, was ratified. In other words, some of our mother's, our grandmother's, our great-grandmother's who are still with us today were born to women who did not have the right to vote. Can. You. Imagine??? (And for all you women out there who do not vote, shame on you! Our foremothers, and even some of our forefathers, fought long, hard battles so that we might have this precious right. USE IT!) By the way, in 1893, New Zealand became the first major self-governing country in the world to give women the vote. (Progressive New Zealand. You gotta love that! I know I do.)
Having said that, I must now say that "it's good to be me" because I live in the United States of America and, while we have our problems and our bloated bureaucracies (that's a little shout out to the VA!), it's still a wonderful place to live. I can speak my mind without fear of death squads hunting me down and I can travel freely from state to state without having to fear some Nazi-like border guard demanding to see my "papers". I can worship God in the way I chose (or even not worship, if that was how I wanted to go). I can walk into a grocery store and not have to fight over the last loaf of bread because this is, indeed, the land of plenty. I know that America is not the only great place to live in the world, but it's my home and I know I am blessed to be here.
"It's good to me be" because I live in a time and a place where I can read anything and everything that I get my hands on. I can do this because reading has always been a thrill in my life. Even when I was young, reading was a favorite pastime, right along with climbing trees, playing with dolls, perfecting my softball catch or eye-balling good looking guys. My parents imparted a love of reading to me. They never made a big production out of it, they just read. For pleasure, for higher education, for political edification, for news of the day. They just read. It was good to be brought up in an atmosphere where frequent reading was the norm.
And finally, "it's good to be me" not just because I'm a woman in today's world, but because I am a part of the world of blogging, too. I love having the freedom to say what I want on my very own blog and everyone out there can respond as they see fit. (Or not respond...even lurkers are welcome here!) I can state my opinions, I can gripe about the way the world is treating me, I can brag about my children, I can proclaim how lucky I am in my marriage, but equally as important (and some days, much more important!) I can enter the worlds of others and learn how you live, how you feel, how your world is treating you. I can laugh at your stories, I can tear up when you tell me of a sad or touching event. And I can offer you comfort or humor or sarcasm and I can even commiserate with you when you describe something I'm familiar with. Yep. It is good to be me because I get to know you. For those of you who welcome me into your world, I say thank you ----

P.S. Now I tag Jana at Jana Banana's Babbling and Kari at Alas 3 Lads and Jayme at Scrapper Mama/Jayme's Life and Kathy at Remembering the Moments and Lynne at Lynne's Little Corner and the amazingly funny Sling over at Sling's Domain. These are people that I don't think I've ever tagged before but I absolutely, positively and thoroughly enjoy reading their blogs. If anyone's looking to beef up their blog roll with some good people, these are 6 I would most certainly recommend to you. And I'll end this with saying to these 6 people, if you don't care for meme's, no hard feelings. In addition to wanting to know more about you, I also just wanted to give you a mention to let you know how much I appreciate your blogging efforts (Jana's taught me how important it is to let people know that!!!).