Mother’s Day was Sunday, but in reality, Mother’s Day should be every day. Mother’s endure a nine month pregnancy to ensure a birth of a healthy baby. They nuture the little one for months until the baby can fend for itself to some extent. Mothers are the first parent most kids seek when they are hurt or just need a hug to reassure them. In short, mothers are huge in our lives and deserve all the love, respect and adoration we can give them everyday. In short, they should be on a pedestal apart from any man in this world.

Some sorry individual, probably a man, has figured out that women are worth $145,000 a year. I think women, especially mothers, are priceless and I resent someone figuring out how much they are worth annually.

I know there is a risk of putting women, especially mothers, on a high level of esteem, as some will take advantage of their elevated status, but I still think they are deserving of that on the whole.

Some women, by their actions, cheapen their status in the human food chain, but women still deserve our overall elevated respect. Society also lowers women’s stature by allowing them to have “Women’s Lib,” whatever that is. Women were allowed to only do certain activities decades ago, but with “Women’s Lib” they were able to enter into jobs and activities they had not been welcome in previously.

The military is one area where women have been allowed a great deal of latitude as far as the jobs they can do. The Iraq war has seen more women put in harm’s way in combat than they previously had been exposed to. Women still cannot be assigned to actual combat military occupational specialties, but some of the non-combat jobs take them into harm’s way anyway.

I think when it comes to women in actual combat military occupational specialties, they should never be allowed into these jobs. I think women should be held out of harm’s way. I don’t want to see a dead woman soldier on the evening news. It’s bad enough that men have to do these jobs, but women need to stay out.

Having done time in combat, I think women need to be home. Men in combat need someone who they hold in high regard and can look forward to coming home to. The men need someone they can look forward to hugging and kissing on their return home.

In the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese were allowed to have their women with them on their firebases. I can’t tell you how many times we would go on a combat assault with the Vietnamese and one of their soldiers would be hunkered down on the ground crying as we took off on that mission. I never saw an American soldier crying. They all went, whether they wanted to or not and I believe it was due in part to the fact that the women were not with us. Not to be Rambo-esque about it, but I think the lack of women in combat keeps the GI a lean, mean, fighting machine.

Besides, something in our lives needs to be special and I can think of no better thing than all the women in this world.

Larry Wilson is a 50-year resident of Sparks and a retired elementary school teacher. You can contact him at lawilson16@ aol.com.