November 3.

I wonder if a single day can know how much is riding on it. If that were even possible, I suspect THIS day would be feeling unimaginable weight. We have lived through other November 3rds, some good, some painful. Check here:

https://www.onthisday.com/events/november/3

Some of us may seek to maintain status quo. Long live MAGA. Long live the destruction of a mostly free country into something I can’t imagine, even if I wanted to. And I don’t.

Some of seek a return to dignity in our democracy. As we ushered in Superman every week: Truth, justice, and the American way.

The Universe has been leading me somewhere, and I have been following. (Note, I use Universe when I actually mean God lest someone think I am a God-freak. Or, perhaps, come to the realization that I am.)

So, I am the perfect age to have been caught up in the Woman’s Movement of the 1960s-plus. Except, somehow I missed all of that. Now, I am on a quest to educate  myself regarding that movement.

I kicked off the quest following the recent death of Gloria Steinem by reading her book, My Life on the Road. Now, I’m starting the book that many will say started it all. The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan.

Much was accomplished for women in those years of active work. But it should be seen as a cautionary tale, lest we get too comfortable thinking all liberties have been secured. Whatever has been gained is always subject to reversal, re-shaping, new enemies.

While researching for this blog, and searching through historic events of significance that occurred on November 3, I learned a new name: Olympe de Gouges.

She supported the abolition of slavery, fought for equality between men and women, campaigned for the right of free union and divorce, and defended democracy threatened by the Reign of Terror. Guillotined on November 3 at the age of 45 for federalism and anti-Robespierrism, de Gouges (1748-1793) believed that if women had the right to go to the gallows, they should also have the right to “go to the podium.”

A female writer at the time of the French Revolution, she initially supported its ideals:

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

In English:

Liberty – Freedom from oppression and tyranny

Equality – Equal rights and treatment under the law.

Fraternity – Brotherhood, solidarity, and a shared responsibility among citizens.

But ultimately she had misgivings about the way the cause was going,  which led to writing the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen in 1791, challenging the exclusion of women from the political and legal rights being proclaimed by the revolution.

Though I had never heard of her, I can now never forget her. Some injustices repeat themselves in history. She was dying proof as to how far some will go to keep all the good things for themselves and those who agree with them. Who always find someone to look down on, to keep out of the house, to bar from a free and bountiful existence.