LIBERAL TRIAGE

      I just want to state for the record that I actually don't care about what these girls have done nor do I have any personal opposition to it because I'm really not one to stand in the way of other people's fun provided it synchronizes with the general dictum: "Your freedom to swing your arm ends where the other fellow's nose begins." That having been said, I like the moral conundrum it puts upon liberals...

      Not too long ago, the New York Times ran an article about Muslim girls in Hamtramck, Michigan and their desire to have a prom of their own "...which conforms to religious beliefs forbidding dating, dancing with boys or appearing without a head scarf in front of males." Now while I personally feel it is customs such as these that have been hampering strict Muslims around the world from properly assimilating into their adopted lands (and pretty much any overbearing religion...I don't need to pick on Muslims here seeing as how ultra-Orthodox Jews, the Amish, and probably Mormons and Scientologists too, would also qualify), that's not what I found so amusing about this all-girls prom.

      For me, the prom posed a lose-lose scenario for liberals who praise diversity and denounce bigotry and sexism and such among their many other stances. I mean, as a liberal, can one really support this all-girl prom being held? It wasn't being paid for by the school, but through fund-raising on the girls' parts, so I don't want to hear that it was a private affair arguments otherwise why don't liberals in general denounce others for protesting the practices of the Boy Scouts who find homosexuality to be contrary to the principles they espouse? Why would they clamor for women's rights in countries under Islamic or Shariah Law when those laws clearly permit such heinous practices?

      On the surface, the prom is openly sexist: no boys allowed. Don't tell me because it's girls-only that it's okay especially with the annual brouhaha over Augusta National's policy on not permitting women to join their organization (among other things). If it's wrong for a golf club to forbid women members for no other reason than they are women, then how is it right to permit a prom which forbids participation from men for no other reason than they are men?

       But if you oppose these girls having their prom due to its sexist nature, you are then effectively preventing them from expressing themselves in the name of their religion which goes against the liberal creed of espousing diversity. It amuses me because there really is no answer which does not produce hypocrisy. I love it.

       It's liberal triage. What do you do? I guess if it were me, I would have to oppose the prom on the grounds that women's rights would supercede religious rights seeing as how being a woman is not a choice whereas being a Muslim (or Christian or Jew or Hindu or Shintoist or Atheist or etc.) is.