Taking The World On With A Smile!

Cedar Falls' Cassy Herkelman, right, and her opponent Joel Northrup, left, of Linn-Mar High, stand at the scorers table.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. ~ Mark Twain

I have a younger brother. We are two and half years apart. We were the best of friends and enemies growing up and did our fair share of fighting, “like cats and dogs”, as my mom used to say. No matter how bad the fight got however, there was always that one golden rule that was never broken: “no hitting girls”. Okay, I admit I took advantage of the fact that I am a girl at times and there’s no doubt, I brought the boy, to the brink more than once or twice but the rule was a steadfast one, in our home, boys did not hit girls.

I’m a huge proponent of equality in education between the sexes, girl power, independence, women being all they can be, couples sharing in the responsibilities of raising families, keeping house and house hold expenses but I’m also realistic. Let’s face it, men and women differ, physically. I am all for women wrestlers, boxers and hockey players but these are very physical sports and quite frankly, I think it’s silly to think our bodies should or could compete equally against each other. We just aren’t “made” the same. Our body parts are different! It’s science yes, but I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure it out. There are certain circumstances where the game calls for girls to play with girls and boys to play with boys. And if there isn’t a playing-field for the girls to play the game on, there should be.

So, “kudos!” to Joel Northrop, the high school, home-schooled, sophomore and stand-out wrestler with a record of 35-4 for Linn-mar High School, for forfeiting an opportunity at the Iowan State Championship, by refusing to wrestle his female opponent, Cassy Herkelman. Herkelman is one of only two girls to make the state tournament in an 85-year history. Hmm.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cassy and Megan and their accomplishments. However, wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times,” Northrup said. “As a matter of conscience and my faith, I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner.”

Wow! Expressing respect for her accomplishments and having the courage not to succumb to the pressure of liberal correctness.

Now that’s a boy, behaving like a man, if I ever saw one.

Photo Credit: AP