Reading Time: 7 minutes
Originally published by Network for Men for International Men’s Day, 2018.
I am happy to share with you that there is hope.
As high as that mountain may seem, I must tell you:
I have a dream.
And my friends,
there is a tunnel at the end of the darkness,
yet beyond that twisting tunnel I see a time,
when angry men will sit down with their current tormentors
and talk about the weather
or even of love for one another.
Employers, educators and even politicians will proclaim,
“We don’t care that you are boy or man,
you too have human rights
and you too can be a part of this great nation
that your fathers before you built.”
Three score years and ten ago,
a great united nations organisation proclaimed
that all peoples should be equal
and that discrimination against them was wrong.
But seventy years later, men are still not equal
the human male lives in isolation from equality
amidst an abundance of talk of rights.
He languishes in the corners of society,
each year more exiled from the people and country he loves.
I have a scream
every time someone tells me that men have privilege
yet they cannot tell me what use is this privilege.
I see a time
when words like ‘positive discrimination’
will be seen in law for the lie within it.
And people all over this great country of ours
can go swimming, or running for a charity
at a time and in whatever company they choose.
And in that time all police officers and child welfare officers
Will be armed with the knowledge
that the natural family is what’s good for society
And that an accusation is not the same as a conviction.
I have seen a time
and I have a scream,
waking sweating from a dream, or a nightmare.
I could see thousands of men on the dole
being told how privileged they are,
while yet another program to help only women
is launched by the government those men voted for.
I have seen a time when no man may stand for election
because women are so much better at government
even though wars and famine
are created by females just as much as males.
I have a scream:
when men are denied a good education
because someone proved that women need more;
when the whole medical profession
was stripped from their figures
just to prove that few women are in STEM.
And my scream went on as politicians who do know better
claimed that fathers were just a waste of time
unless, that is, it is time to pay.
I have a scream
coming around from a dream which was more like a nightmare
to find that I was awake the whole time.
It was no dream that a boy has his whole body protected by law
except that part which marks him clearly male.
I am here today my friends to tell you
that the time is coming
when all people, regardless of genitals or colour or class,
will have equality before the law
and victims will see justice done
even if their assailant is a pretty white female.
And children throughout the land will live
with the security and comfort of both natural parents.
I see this time coming
because this time must come
though I may never see it happen.
The time is coming –
I may not be there with you –
but I have seen that time,
and as a fighter for a sane and cohesive society
it pleases me
to give you this opportunity
to share my vision of hope that men and boys
will be allowed their basic human rights.
And I just hope you can find it within you
To work forwards to a goal where
men and women are no longer social enemies
but live in harmony and joy.
