Common Sense Tells Us

This might be an appropriate time to look back at another time when it appeared that the rights and aspirations of black men were in conflict with the rights and aspirations of both white and black women.

In 1866, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the American Equal Rights Association. The organization was dedicated to universal suffrage, voting rights for white and black women and black men.

The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868 extending protection to all citizens against unjust state laws. Furthermore, the Amendment defined "citizens" and "voters" as "male."

In 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment enfranchised black men. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA, led by Elizatbeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony) refused to to work for the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, insisting that it be scrapped for a Sixteenth Amendment which would have provided universal suffrage (to include black and white women as well as black men).

However, Frederick Douglas, who had previously seemingly supported voting rights for not just black men, but also black and white women, broke away from Stanton and Anthony over the NWSA's position of universal suffrage, in order to secure ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, voting rights for black men only.

In 1872, both Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth showed at up at polls to vote (in New York and Michigan, respectively), but were turned away. Anthony was, in fact, arrested and brought to trial for attempting to vote.

Several women attempted to use the Fourteenth Amendment in the courts to secure the right to vote, but they were unsuccessful. The Women's Christian Temperance Union became an important force for women's suffrage, but would see no immediate results of their efforts. (The liquor lobby feared if women had the right to vote, they would prohibit the sale of liquor.)

In 1878, a Woman Suffrage Amendment was introduced in the United States Congress. The wording remained unchanged but it wasn't until 1919 that the Nineteenth Amendment finally passed both houses and was ratified on August 26, 1920 ... This was fifty years after Frederick Douglas broke away from the women's suffrage movement in favor of securing the vote for black men, leaving black and white women still without the rights of citizens.

I admit that my nerves are rankled by a history past and the one forthcoming. Can't we all just get along? ... at least long enough for common sense to prevail? Common sense and a sense of fairness seem to have once again been overshadowed by self-centered arrogance.

Is it Barack Obama's assumption that he is entitled to be the presidential nominee at this time? ... rather than a woman with more years of experience working for all Americans and working for us since Obama was in high school in Hawaii? ("Barry" in the multiethnic classroom and "Barry O'Bomber" on the basketball court.)

Is it also an assumption that women will someday have their first woman president ... perhaps fifty years after this election? Oh, golly, I can hardly wait!

The Blogs of Others

As I was considering what I wanted to write, I looked at the blogs that a couple of other folks have imposed on the cyber-psyche and I have to admit that it was a little scary.

One of the blogs that caught my eye was a gallery of doodled-on post-it-notes. That was kind of cool but then I realized that post-it-notes are most readily available to a person while they are at work or sitting in a classroom. So, this blog was an admission that when they were supposed to be doing something productive, they were doodling on post-it notes. It was probably during this "work-time" that he/she decided it would be cool to post them on a blog.

Further into the blog, I saw that other people were also contributing their doodled-on post-it-notes most likely doodled and posted during their "work-time". Is there a growing epidemic of doodling? Have we become so bored with, first, computer solitaire and ,then, video games that we are now reverting back to a simpler, more basic vehicle for avoiding work ... doodling? Will we next take up carving wood chips to avoid work? Or will we just browse the blogs of the doodlers?

That reminds me. I need to shop for a pocketknife so I'm ready for the next cool trend.

Post-Super Tuesday Notes

I confess to being a recovered Republican. I was in a mixed-race family: one Democrat and one Republican. That made every race interesting. But that was back in the days when Republicans were compassionate and not just in word but also in deed. It was actually possible to be a fiscal conservative and a social moderate. My Republican step-father cried when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assasinated and it broke my step-father's heart to see the rioters burn themselves out of their own homes. He was my example of a kind, but cautious Republican.

However, the first Bush and the first Gulf War rehabilitated me. Somewhere, I had been told that Democrats start wars and Republicans end them; I am a pacifist through and through and I believed that lie. Now, I know better and I have been a Democrat ever since.

When Obama first announced his intention to run for president, I was excited for my own state's senator. I was happy with his anti-war rhetoric. The rhetoric continued but without much substance. He said he was the voice of change but the rhetoric hadn't changed. It was still more style than substance. So, I got over being angry at Hillary for appearing to support Bush the Sprout.

I also remembered my roots. I didn't mention that I managed to balance my Republican-leaning with my strong feminist principles. It didn't make sense to me that women could become automonous individuals while still depending on Big Brother in Washington to take care of them. (I'm now older and realize that we all need some help; sometimes we needs lots of help.)

So, yesterday, even though I knew that most other Democrats in my state would be voting for Obama, I proudly went to the polls and voted for Hillary. Once I was alone in my car, I started to cry. I thought about being in high school in the 1960's when the length of a girl's dress was deemed acceptable or not by the male coaches. After lunch, we all went to the gym. If the length of a girl's dress was suspect, the male coach would have the girl get on her knees on the gym floor. If the dress didn't touch the floor, he made the decision to send her home to change to a longer length. That might sound trivial but I haven't forgotten how demeaning it was just to watch that happen to another girl.

It was also during that era that a man could beat his wife without interference from the police as long as it happened behind the doors of the man's "castle". If an employer asked for sexual favors from a female employee, she had better agree to it if her income was needed at home, which it almost always was.

I am proud, so I cry. Hell, I am thrillled to have voted for Hillary. I understand why she gets the votes of women over 45 years old while Obama gets the votes of the younger women.

We remember. So does Hillary. The girls in the class of '68 thank you, Hillary!