(I had never seen this picture before today. A girlfriend shared it and a powerful message along with it. She said, “When it comes to women’s rights, to really see change it is going to take men to step up for their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters.”)
This is Kathrine Switzer, running the Boston Marathon in 1967. As she runs amongst other racers, one man leaps out of the crowd to try and stop her from running. Another leaps to help while, still, other men, continue on with their race. It isn’t their problem. And so I pose this question to you, guy readers, which man are you?
See, I don’t believe there is an in between here, you really can only be just one because either you are helping or you’re not and if you’re not then you have to decide if you are the guy actively trying to stop her or the guys passively doing nothing. The saying doesn’t allow you to be part of the solution, part of the problem, or part of the innocent bystanders. You are, as the old adage says, either part of the solution or part of the problem. So which is it? Which are you?
We teach kids that it isn’t ok to be a bully, but more than that, we tell them to stand up to bullies. We tell them that standing by and watching or saying nothing is just as bad as being the bullying. But how many of you actively stand up? How many of you stop running to face the problem?
I ask this not to blame but to rally because it is an important question that I believe you must all answer for yourselves. Which man are you? Where do you stand? How do you help the struggle that your mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters have faced for decades and continue to face in all countries, in all continents, all over the world. This isn’t just our race and it isn’t just any race. This is a race where we all have a responsibility to each other regardless of border, color, and gender. It is a race where putting your personal gain on the line for someone else’s chance at a fair shot is grander than the finish line.
This isn’t just a powerful picture about one race; it is a powerful picture symbolically representing the most important race of all: the human one – the one where running together makes us stronger than running alone. Kathrine Switzer wasn’t the first woman to run the Boston Marathon race; another woman ran it the year before but Switzer was the first to finish it and I can’t help but wonder if this man made a difference. So, again, I ask: which man are you? And are you willing to make the difference?
Photo Credits: Kathrine Switzer