GIRLS: More power to 'em

Will the aged men please stand down?!? Because the only honorable response to your recent realization of having mostly young women take home the local high school academic awards would have been a STANDING OVATION!

Instead, you rise up and ask that we “educate” ourselves about how our young men might be disadvantaged in finding academic success? I watched your video link from Prager “U” (not at all a university).

What seems ill-fitting to you and Les Atchley feels perfectly right to me, a man born in a different generation and ever surrounded by intelligent and driven women. I barely beat out several women for my valedictorianship, had more women than men in my medical school class, and was routinely dressed down as a medical resident by senior female physicians who had a better command of the material.

We probably all had comparable intelligence, but if these women in my life found their success with a bit more fire-in-the-gut than myself, it may have something to do with them living in a world that still too often graces me with male privilege. Standardized tests may be an academic equalizer, but our world hasn’t always been so fair to these “smart broads,” as I’ve heard them called in too many rooms.

But not for long old chaps! The scales have been balancing themselves. You finally noticed. These women have known their whole life that they are capable of anything… just like men.

I wholeheartedly congratulate every single young woman who took home those academic accolades — because I know first-hand the innumerable quiet hours of dedicated sacrifice and attention-to-detail it took to win them. As even this editor noted, there’s plenty of room at the top for winners, but let’s not make excuses for those that might lack these winning qualities and lost.

NATHAN MELTZER

Coeur d’Alene