Oliver North quoted an Iraqi governor who in just a couple sentences captured the transforming power that women hold: “Women voting will change everything. No woman who carries a child for nine months wants that child to grow up to be a suicide terrorist. They want the politicians to give their children something to live for, not die for – and we will have to do it.”^{1/a/sup/font Women, who safe-guard life in its earliest moments, have the power to shape society like no other. Beyond moments such as this quote refers to, I am reminded of the homily I heard at St. Veronica’s last week. Guys are very simple; we want to be in relationship with a girl. And, for the right girl, we’ll do anything in our power, and some things we would have thought impossible, to keep her in our lives. This gives girls an unique chance to influence the world. They get to set a standard for the men in their lives, for the men they choose to date, the man they choose to marry, the children they raise. Men are of course not absolved of responsibility, it is a poor man indeed who does not exceed common expectations for morality, decency, honor in today’s society, but it is women who define what is “exceptional” and what is “expected.” God help our girls to set high standards once again.}

1)North, Oliver. “Of bombs, bullets and ballots” January 28, 2005/a