A paper from my class

From the desk of Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A letter never sent.


To the Honorable Frederick Douglas -

I am honored and pleased, dear sir, to have made your acquaintance this past July 20th and to have heard you speak enobling words of support at our convention for the rights of women in Seneca Falls, New York. I thank you for your eloquence and encouragement in our ongoing struggle to be equal participants in the elective franchise.

Too long have the voices of women been silenced in matters that require the strength of numbers, be those matters about the ownership of property, profitable employment, the pursuit of education and intellectual nourishment, or the struggle each of us makes for confidence in our own power, self-respect, and willingness to lead a life of independence.

My steadfast husband Henry and dear friend Lucretia Mott (her husband James you remember of course presided over the second day of the convention) had faith in all of the resolutions I proposed, save that most important one regarding the right to vote. They believed that that motion went beyond the boundaries of prudence. And until your response, ‘right is of no sex,’ I believed that we may have faltered in our cause. But your response helped sway the convention to pass this resolution. As a fellow reformer and courageous soldier in the cause of abolition, you are all too aware that our disenfranchisement can only begin to be undone when our voices are heard and accounted for in the vote. Your voice, heard and accounted for this July 20th, helped to persuade the Seneca Falls convention to pass all of the resolutions found in the Declaration of Sentiments. It is our mutual hope, our shared dream, that every man and woman of every race and creed shall one day soon be heard and accounted for in the assemblies of men. In echoing the righteous words of our Declaration writer Thomas Jefferson and living heroes like your self, Mr. Douglas, the voices of many fortify as one. Though we may hope to see the results of change and reform before the end of our mortal lives, we can be proud to walk the narrow path of freedom, making broad the way for others to follow. Too long have the voices been silent in matters that require the strength of numbers. Too long have the voices been silent.

With sincere admiration and gratitude,

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

I saw this article in the Rolling Stone while flying out to Seattle last week, and then again on D. Joseph's page. A good article, all about being a Marine in Iraq.

Yeah, initally I stood (and marched) in opposition to the war in Iraq, mostly because I wasn't effectively convinced by the WMD story, because there are other motivations at work that we are not publicly aware of, because of my concern for our troops, and because the occupation after-bits are a soggy seat we must sit in on the blustery ride home. I still maintain a respect for different cultures, and for our troops, but I have been convinced that Saddam, as Matt Stone and Trey Whoz-his-face say, is more evil than Satan.

Up until Friday, I had a theoretical / academic / network-television-Tom-Brokaw-watching distance from this whole Iraq thing. Then it became much more personal for me. Friday night after the Sondre Lerche / Ed Harcourt show at the Club Cafe (it was good), I geeked out and played my own songs on the street. After about an hour of playing, three old friends of mine from grade school and high school happened by and insisted on dragging me off to Mario's for some beer. Jon lives up the street from me, but the last time I saw my buddy Mark, a Marine veteran from Afghanistan and Iraq, was maybe five years ago. It's probably been even longer since I saw Matt, who's in the Coast Guard. And as the night went on and we had fun, the reality of what has and could've happened occurred to me. Matt, patrolling the coastline, was probably not in so much jeopardy as Mark, but somewhere in there, in the landscape of terror and fear propagated by the mass media, was a real war that my buddies were part of. Now they are back, obviously changed, but seemingly none the worse for wear. That really put a lot of the stupid stuff in my own life that I've been tangling with into sharper perspective. Thanks fellas, for the wake up call, for hanging out, for the beers and thanks especially for your service to our country.