Sunday Sermon - Women

This week's Sunday Sermon is a sermon that is very close to my heart. When Q-Ball and I were little puppies and we were taken away from our biological mom, we were placed in a little kennel in a store far away from anything that was comforting and familiar to us. Far away from our mother who fed us and kept us warm with our other siblings. Q-Ball and I would cuddle with each other so we wouldn't be scared in this new environment.

Then one day a human woman walked into the pet shop we were in with her male friend and from what she said, "It was love at first sight!" We being Maltese puppies were quite cute I must add, I don't blame her for loving us on sight. She brought us home that day and although we were a little scared to go into her world we quickly realized that we had found a source of love, food, home, comfort, fun and family. We had a new mom and a brand new life.

That was the first day of my love affair with women. Since then I have been lucky to have so many great women in my life (I call them Aunty's). Women have been a big part of my happiness and I can't tell you how many of them connect with my heart instantly and form a bond. It is a number too big for me to know. Q-Ball was my main female, she was also the boss of me. I miss her so much. However I am a lucky dog to have so many wonderful women around me and to see how they make the world a wonderful place to live.

Yeah sure, many are a little bit of a pain in the neck. They can take forever to get ready while you want to go for a walk now. They can sometimes run a little bit late, or talk on the phones forever about nonsense. They can be a bit hormonal sometimes and make you scratch your head (or ear in my case). They can be temperamental, a little bit jealous and take far too long to shop in stores when you want to be in a park chasing city squirrels. Some are even called the female counterpart of my species when people think they are mean (why I have no idea). However for the love, care, comfort and support I get from them it really makes living in this world a much better place to live. I would hate to think of this world as all male. That would be one smelly, rough, messy, brutal world.

So it saddens me greatly when I hear of the abuse that still runs rampant on this earth of women. It's a world wide epidemic that runs in every country, every culture, every class, every race on this earth.

This pass week we heard of the scandal of the R&B singers Rihanna and Chris Brown. Here is a strong, independent, beautiful, talented, successful, young woman and she is allegedly brutally beaten by her equally strong, talented, successful boyfriend. This shocked the world because this is behavior you don't expect from such a high profile couple.

However what shocked me more was what I read on blog comments from this story. While of course there were many people showing compassion for Rihanna there seemed to be an equal amount of people making comments that she probably deserved it or did something to provoke the beating. I couldn't believe this! What hurt my doggy feelings even more was reading some comments by women who didn't support Rihanna and were siding with Chris Brown. Is this the result of decades of rap music and their misogynist (yes I may be a small dog but I know big words) lyrics and videos? Have generations of women been brainwashed into being anti-woman? Is this some ironical left over residue from slavery where you have to feel you have to subjugate someone to feel superior? In this case, women? Would you want your mother, sister, daughter, friend treated like this? This makes me sad that in a developed country, what many say is the best country in the world, we still think this way and accept abuse against women. I am hoping that when all the facts come out and if Chris Brown is found guilty the public will vote with their pocketbooks and Chris Brown will accept the consequences of his actions, get help and spend the rest of his life campaigning against violence against women.

This week women, actors, and activists converged in Washington DC for the "Turning Pain to Power Tour" which spoke out against violence against women worldwide, especially certain nations in Africa, primarily The Democratic Republic of Congo where widespread rape is used as a weapon of war.

Do you know if you got your DNA analysed that you would be very surprised about how diversified your gene pool is. While some of this comes from migration many DNA analysts will tell you that one of their main theories for seeing such diversity in your gene pool comes from thousands of years of rape being used as a weapon of war. It is the year 2009 and this is still prevalent today in some nations.

We here at the PPP are big supporters of "Raise Hope for Congo" which strives to help end and bring awareness of the violence occurring in the Congo against their people, children and especially their female population. To know more about this organization please see http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/

Actress Kerry Washinton said it best at the conference when she said, "If we talk about violence against women, my hope is we don't talk about it as petty gossip but as a social illness that must end. So if that's what's going on, then we need to all be aware this is a problem that goes from the Congo to Hollywood and everywhere in between," said Washington."

If anyone was to try to hurt my mother or any women they would see that even though I may look like a little, white, flurry toy I have the mean mentality of a pit bull and I would defend her till the death. However I am at heart a lover not a fighter so I hope that our world becomes a better place to live in and we honor and love this gender that carries us for months inside their body, has unconditional love for us, feeds us and takes care of us so we can become strong, loving, independent individuals on our own. I am Powder Puff and I love women. Chow for now!