Not that long ago, it seemed a stretch to refer to the men and women of something, like the military (especially combat) or police, for example.  Now it just rolls off the tongue; indeed, it is natural and proper as we recognize the great contributions of women, not only in their traditional roles, but also in various front lines that benefit society and our economy.  Nevertheless, it strains credulity when Democrat representative Emanuel Cleaver bizarrely ended his preposterous prayer opening the 177th Congress with "Amen and Awoman."

Cleaver was not even clever.  Not only is his virtue-signaling heavy-handed, but it requires a suspension of disbelief: amen is not about sex, but represents an expression of strong agreement.  More literally, it means "verily," "truly," and "let it be so."  Truly, it has nothing to do with the words man or men.  So be it.

Representative Cleaver didn't even get the grammar right.  According to his perverse mental concoctions, shouldn't it be "Amen and Awomen"?  Or is it all men and only one woman?  I thought we're all equal, so I prefer he get it right.  After all, with hubris-laden progressives policing our culture and infesting many of our intuitions, his P.C. monstrosity will inexorably infiltrate the liberal lexicon.

It beggars belief, so before that happens, before Cleaver's contrivance gets enshrined by the wordsmith overlords, maybe we should cancel that.  At least get some subject-verb agreement, for goodness's sake.  Surely it's disrespectful to refer to a single woman amid a mass of men.  (Mass — get it?)

Perhaps Cleaver unwittingly hinted at a truth: since there are relatively fewer women of the cloth, maybe amen and an occasional woman should indeed be shortened to "Amen and Awoman" to more closely reflect reality.  Maybe he's on to something, so let's extend it: the men and a woman of the Army Rangers?  The men and a woman of construction-related and electrical professions? The men and a woman of automotive services?  To be even-handed: the women and a man of nursing?  The women and a man of preschool teachers?  The women and a man of childcare workers, etc.?  Seems a bit awkward at first, but so is just about everything the P.C. police foist upon us.  They may be dumb, but all too often, we inevitably succumb.

Or will we?  The ghastly visage of Democrat decay herself — that'd be Nancy — insists that gender-neutral terms be used in the House chamber.  For example, don't dare call a deckhand on a ship a seaman.  Nope, he — and the occasional she — is now a seafarer.  By the same logic, to the extent they are capable of such, we really should cancel "Amen and Awoman" altogether.  Instead, by injecting nasty Nancy's gender neutralism into Cleaver's prayer, it would end like this: "We ask it in the name of the monotheistic God... God known by many names and by many different faiths.  APerson."

By the way, someone ought to tell Microsoft to update its Word application's spell check algorithms — each time I type "Awoman" it gets flagged as misspelled; conversely, amen fits in nicely.  Verily I say unto thee:  cancel "Amen and Awoman."  Let it be so.

Image: Pixabay.