I Thought the Major Was a Lady Suffragette

If my daughter had been born many decades earlier than she was, I have no doubt she would have been a suffragette. Would have marched down the street shoulder to shoulder with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton. Instead, she arrived in an era when women have the luxury of taking their right to vote for granted.

Jessica turned 18 a couple of months ago, and one of the first things she did as a legal adult was register to vote. We had talked about the candidates (beyond how annoying the campaign ads were) and where they stood on the issues. She had expressed dismay at how boring politics can be. I explained that politics is not the same as "the issues." The day to day realities of your life, your family, your community, your country . . . the world. Things that you don't have to worry about when you are eighteen years old and your future is so bright you have to wear shades.

My children grew up in a world without war and mostly without fear. There were no duck and cover drills, no looming communist threats, no cold war, no Viet Nam, not even a Berlin Wall. Unfortunately, their children will likely be raised on a planet that is scarier than the one on which they were raised. So I am happy that my daughter is taking an interest in the direction our society will go, despite the boringness (and boorishness) of it all. I believe that, if she has children one day, she will appreciate the fact that she does have a say in how the world turns out.

After we voted, I asked one of the volunteers if she had a sticker. She said she had run out, but I could have hers, and she pulled it off her sweater and handed it to me. I stuck it to my daughter's jacket and said, "It's her first time. I'm so proud!" Thanks, Susan.