Mike Lang
“Let’s go for a walk.” Frederic Lang
When I was about 10 years old my father, Frederic, would often take us for walks on Sunday afternoon. He had some unusual ideas and he would put a different twist on things. We would go walking on an abandoned, or little used, railroad track near Cedar Rapids. Not always the same one. My father would take my brother and sister and me into the country to “walk the track.” The idea was to walk on top of the rail for as long as possible without falling off.
This is harder than you may think. Like many things in this life, walking the straight and narrow is tricky. Just as you are gaining confidence something distracts you, and you are suddenly off the track. The top surface of a railroad track is only about two inches wide. Walking the rail is like walking on a two by four standing on edge. You must be well balanced. Trains are kept on the track with flanges on the wheel. The wheel stays on top of the track because the flanges ride on the outside of the track. The flanges act like a guard, keeping the wheel on the track.
My father could walk for what seemed like forever without falling off. Me, not so much. My shoes did not have flanges to prevent me from falling and it took a long time and lots of practice before I could “walk the track” as well as my father. We spent many Sunday afternoons walking the rails.
Our society needs to spend more time walking the rails. About 50 years ago, in 1972, Congress passed the “Education Amendments of 1972,″ also known as “Title IX.” The purpose is to prohibit sex-based discrimination in any school, or other educational program, that receives funding from the federal government.
The passage of “Title IX” led to a fantastic increase in both the numbers of women and girls participating in high school and college athletic programs, and in the number of athletic programs designed for women and girls.
I have a grandson who is an athletic department administrator in a state university in Minnesota. They have worked endlessly over the last several years to ensure equal opportunity for women to participate in college athletic programs. This includes not only numbers of different sports available, but numbers of staff and scholarships in the women’s programs must provide equal opportunity with the men’s programs. My grandson says it is like walking the rails. If you are not careful, you lose your balance and fall off the track. “Title IX” acts like a flange to provide equal opportunity for girls and women to participate in athletic programs.
Like so many things in this broken world, the flange of “Title IX” is being worn off and no longer is able to keep women’s athletic programs “on the track.”
Enter the new religion of “gender equity.” This is a fast changing and mysterious world that defies the definition of “What is a woman?” Biology has been redefined. No longer is a woman defined by the chromosomes in her DNA. Now any person can declare what sex that person identifies as being. I am not even sure how to phrase that thought in a grammatically correct manner.
Science no longer applies. Now, any human being can declare, or identify, what gender that human is today. This identity seems to be fluid, and can change at the whim of the owner. There are pronouns associated with the chosen gender, and all others must refer to the pronouns chosen by the gender fluid person. Even at least one member of the United States Supreme Court is unable to define the term “woman.”
Under the new gender rules a person identified as a male on its birth certificate can decide to be identified as a woman. With this new identity, the person can now demand to be allowed to participate in sports on teams previously restricted to person’s identified on their birth certificate as female.
This will affect athletics in the same way that railroads would be affected if all flanges were removed from the wheels. We are no longer on the right track. We are not even on the track! It is a train wreck.
Mike Lang, Chairman, Union County Republican Central Committee