We Are Not Sheep

I am, perhaps, the last generation of women in this country, who truly had some thoughts about whether women belong in the home, or in the work force, while their children are in their young and formative years. It seems strange that this could be true since my German great great grandmother was a physician before women generally did such things and my own favorite and closest grandmother voted in the election of 1920 as a twenty one year old, very liberated woman. (And by the way, she did not vote for Harding.) Children belong in the best child centered environment that is possible. What that is depends on so many things.

I went to college in 1968 convinced that we could change the world. We were the post World War II boom babies and there were enough of us to make a real difference. We were going to do it better than anyone before us. We would bring plenty to a land that had plenty, but kept a tight fist on much of it. We would bring understanding to a country that was well educated and affluent and capable of seeing that peace comes from people who don't feel down trodden and used. We would end the ridiculous and dangerous practices of racism, bigotry, prejudice and intolerance in all its forms. We were the children of light.

We were not the first people to try this, or want it, but we had the numbers and the youth and what felt like an infinite desire to do whatever it took. Even though we were not the very first, we were still the point guard for ideas that people in all walks of life seem to find threatening. The entrenched idea that the wealthy earned their privileges and place in life through hard work, prudent choices and and a generally better type of personality than those who were not wealthy is hard to disprove. Even though many wealthy people have simply inherited their wealth from doting relatives who may, or may not, have been fine upstanding citizens. Money does speak. Unburdened by the wearing work a day life of trying to put food on the table and keep their children healthy, those with money can grease the way to bigger and better things for themselves if they choose to, or for causes they feel are worthy.

Our generation dealt with free love, still not understanding that the right to something does not negate the consequences of it. We women found ourselves entering a world where we were expected to be good wives and coming out on the other side a few years later expected to forge a world of our own under shifting rules that no one had quite worked out.

It was an exciting and frightening time and I worried about the correct way to rear my children. Like most people everywhere, I wanted the best for them. Many women today are still fighting under an invisible ceiling, but at least they know it is there and they have grown up knowing they have a right to do the very best they can for themselves and everyone else in all situations.

It has often seemed that we lost much of our energy and hope and gained very little after forty years, but that is not true and this year is the best and brightest sign I have seen that this is so.

Four years ago I heard an unknown black man speak at the Democratic Convention and I was extraordinarily moved. This year that same black man and a white woman both ran for president of the United States of America, what a beautiful sign of the times this is! It is important not to forget that they are running, not just against prejudices underlied by deep fears and ignorance, but also against a regime that has made no attempt to cover up its heavy handed and deeply questionable path to a country ruled by the rich and for the rich.

And, if you foster some idea that your vote doesn't count, be sure you understand that soon it may really not. What is now perceived as desperate times will be only fond memories of what happened on the cusp of the new world where the ruling rich become more and more elite. You may think you are a part of them now, but don't fool yourself into sense of complacency. Most of us don't have a clue what rich really is.

As Edmond Burke said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Vote. Vote with your head and your heart, but don't stay home and don't vote based simply on trite sayings and mud slinging commercials. We are not sheep in Orwell's book. We are intelligent men and women who each need to fulfill our part of being a country floundering on the very ideals that created it.