Flawed? Yes.

Foolish? Sure.

Self-righteous? Guilty.

Inflated ego? Hardly (drives a minivan, plays soccer poorly, and is only occasionally correct according to his kids).

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get to the meat.

“Woman At War” means a couple things to me.

First, ta-da, it’s the title I picked for my series of four war novels starring sharpshooter June Vereeth. The first book, Endgame, is out. Destruction should be out by the end of 2017. [In a nutshell, the series focuses on Vereeth’s quest to recover her humanity amidst a galactic conflict she didn’t ask to be part of.]

Second, and more importantly, the term symbolizes (to me) the ongoing struggle that women and girls across the globe still face. At war with government, at war with themselves, at war with boys and men who don’t believe in equal rights.

Now, who the hell am I that I feel okay writing about this? Well, I’m me: a liberal dad living in privileged America (and a very privileged, economically-robust corner, at that) who believes what he believes.

I don’t want my daughter (or anyone’s daughter) growing up in a world where ‘wage gap’ is still a commonplace term. Seeing females as less important than males is just plain wrong.

I believe our former First Lady, Ms. Michelle Obama, would do a hell-of-a-lot better job than the top 200 people in our current Government combined (class, intelligence, grace, powers of persuasion, all that jazz). She should be representing us to the world.

Because the Veerni Institute and Heifer International and UNICEF and the ACLU are vital to a healthy world and a healthier future for all.

Because jailing Ugandan anthropology professor and activist Stella Nyanzi for shaming her government is utterly ridiculous. Museveni’s government needs to set her free, admit to shortsightedness (or not giving a rat’s ass) and provide the desired sanitary pads (so pubescent girls can stay in school).

Because girls were ‘kicking ass’ long before President Obama said so (congratulating the 2015 Women’s World Cup winners) and will be for the rest of Eternity. Us menfolk who disagree or add an asterisk to that because of religion or old-world views, it’s time to man up and admit it.

And so on…

Now, I’ll admit that women do not need this page or need a Twitter account of similar sentiment. Some will feel that I, as a man, should just butt out. Okay, fine. Everyone’s got a bone to pick somewhere. For the rest, well, I’m happy to stand with you. Let’s move forward.