Did Susan B. Anthony die in vain?

[SidneyCarton]

(Let's see if a slightly more controversial title gets attention???)

Abigail Adams wanted women to have the right to vote in 1783, they had to struggle until 1920 to achieve this.

Abolitionists argued against slavery since the foundation of this country, the 13th Amendment wasn't passed until 1865.

In spite of the abolition of slavery, formalized legal segregation and discrimination wasn't effectively overruled until the 1960's.

Nelson Mandela spent over two decades in prison and the ANC spent over four decades fighting Apartheid.

Despite massive protests and antiwar sentiment, the Vietnam War continued until 1973, lasting over a decade.

Abigail Adams, Susan B. Anthony, John Brown, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Sophie Scholl, Stephan Biko, and unnumbered others died never having seen the fruits of their labors, but they labored nonetheless.

Our nation currently lies in the grasp of nearly 30 years of misrule, beginning with the ruinous government of Ronald Reagan, and culminating with the near cataclysmic regime of George W. Bush. We have known ruin, trouble, injustice and frustration. We have seen much of that which was good and noble in our nation smeared, wrecked and defiled. And we have been angered. We have seen our freedoms eroded, and we have been enraged. We have appealed over and over to our elected officials, and been disappointed again and again, most recently in the current FISA bill. Some have stated that democracy is dead, and threaten to give up. To those who have currently lost hope, I direct to the names mentioned above, so many of which never saw the fruits of their labors and died frustrated, alone and often ruined in body and spirit, men and women of which their times and nation were unworthy, but they lit fires that grew and enlightened the world. We must go on, our fight will yet be long, we will yet suffer many disappointments and sorrows, but our goal is to make a better world, not necessarily for us, but for our children and grandchildren. If we do not make it to the promised land, we may yet make it possible for them to do so.

[yellowdogintexas]

1. Good Thoughts, there. I have always held to the belief that while we might get close

to killing our democracy we would never actually go that far because we know what this place is supposed to be like when it grows up.

HOWEVER: I don't remember when exactly but sometime after I finished high school, the teaching of Civics, or American Government was removed as a required course from schools.

We had an introductory Civics class in 8th Grade when I was growing up in KY, one semester. The other semester we had some sort of Geography as I recall, and American History the whole year. So we were taking American History concurrently with the Civics. It wasn't super complicated, just the basics of how the government was set up, what the states control, what is national, VOTING and how important it is,
The pride that (at the time) only two states allowed 18 yr olds to vote: Kentucky and Wisconsin; how long it took for women to get the vote etc. We left that class and went on to high school well versed in the basics of how things work and totally psyched by this teacher that it was essential that we vote. (She was a good Dem, by the way and her sister was our local state legislative rep for a long time..my cousin is running for that seat this year..as a DEM of course)

I contend that the ending of this type of class as a requirement in schools was the beginning of the apathy. Even a six week session of this would be better than the nothing they seem to get now. At least based on my daughter's educational journey.

Another really encouraging thing this year: The whole Obama/Hillary thing got a whole bunch of folks excited about voting who had never voted before, especially in the African American and Hispanic groups where I worked. They were shocked to find out that if they hadn't registered by Feb 10 they couldn't vote in the primary...so us more mature types were all over them to get registered so they COULD vote in November and I hope they do. Obama winning the nomination is going to pull voters out of the woodwork and produce some surprises, I do believe

[SidneyCarton]

2. Thank You.

I agree with your post about civics education, I actually never took an actual civics class in High School (graduated 2000). Being an honors student I got some dumb "world studies" class instead that taught me exactly jack squat. Hence I've learned things the hard way. We would appriciate our freedoms more if we knew what they were, and what was suffered in order to achieve them.

[Muttocracy]

3. I thought dying in vain went along with dying while on duty / working / protesting / whatever.

How did SBA die? Was she killed during a protest? :shrug:

[SidneyCarton]

4. No, as far as I know she died of old age, before women got the vote.

The argument here is that in long struggles we don't always live to see the fruits of our suffering.