the passion of the takers

okay, this is my first ever "rant-on-the-spot", by which i mean the first time that i've ever written a rant immediately after being enraged. but i'm so inspired that i didn't want to pass up this opportunity to comment on stupidity.

i was watching a news report this morning about the "take back the night" rally that recently took place in winnipeg. now, i'm all for taking things back, but the organizer of the rally said things that just didn't make sense.

"we're here to protest against more than just physical and sexual violence against women. there are other kinds of violence against women in society. there's economic violence for instance."

now, before i continue the quote (yes, i paraphrased, but the words "economic violence" are direct quote), let me just say this. my immediate reaction to that statement, as perhaps many of you are experiencing right now, was "what the hell is economic violence?" no, i don't think it's people throwing money or shooting money or otherwise assaulting other people with money, who would complain about that?

"for example, 60% of single, widowed, or divorced women over the age of 65 are living in poverty." (okay, i don't remember the exact percentage in the statistic, but the rest is actually what was said, emphasis mine.)

uh...what? yeah, i don't think it's just women over 65 lady! it happens to, some would say, the majority of senior citizens, male and female, black white red yellow or any other skin color. it's called the "pension plan" okay?! anyone who retires at the age of 65 that didn't invest in RRSPs (which, let's face it, didn't really become popular until the early-mid 90's and so is less common among people retiring today), any of those people are poor. there's no way that, statistically, a person would actually have the money to live on a regular pension alone and actually have all of their needs taken care of.

look, just stick to your outcry about physical and sexual violence against women, alright taker?! those things are realistically bad enough to protest, you don't need BS like "economic violence" to solicit empathy from the rest of us. actually, if i were less intelligent, i might actually be inclined to lose interest in your cause because of that statement. you're certainly not doing the fight any favors by rallying against "economic 'violence'".