We Open Doors for Others to Walk Through

I bought a big ole' Rand MacNally Atlas at Barnes and Noble the day I decided to buy Tin Shrimp.  If I was ever without my GPS in the car, my 6th grade education in map making would certainly come in handy.  I bought it for the middle pages, where all the big national parks were pictured and listed. Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Zion.  What it also had in the maps of each state were all of the smaller national park sites in green.  

While plotting my way across the states, I found other, more interesting stops.  Which brought me to the Women's Rights National Park.  

(Pardon the finger in photo)

During the unprecedented times of the political climate we are all facing in the US, I was drawn to stop at the birthplace of the 19th amendment.  It was here that The Declaration of Sentiments, written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was signed.  Simply, it proposed the right for women to have equal rights as men.  What was incredible was the year was 1848, signed by 68 women and 32 men.  It wouldn't be more than 70 years before women would vote.  

At the same time, I am reading The Frozen River, a historical adaptation about the life of midwife, Martha Ballard in the late 1700's.  What was incredible was that women had to pay 75 shillings to the court or the midwife, when an unwanted child was born.  Now, I don't know what a shilling would be in 2024, but 75 of them, seemed an awful lot when Martha was given chickens and lard after she delivered a baby.  At that time, more than 35% of women were sexually assaulted.  Women had no rights, no choices except to stand before judge and jury like Hester Pryne and be admonished from her own community.  How backwards it was for women to pay for a crime, as it was, when someone took the right to control their body away from them.  

Back to the 1800's and this incredible park.  You are moved by the waterfall made of marble that has the sentiments written in the stone.  The park is so peaceful.  The meetinghouse that sits next to it, is very puritan.  To see the photos of all the very courageous people that took to stand up for their freedoms; should simply have been there to begin with.  I was moved.  

In present day, and Roe v Wade overturned, I hope for this country to not further turn back time.  I understand that my great grandmother was a midwife.  I wonder what stories she could tell to back up these moments. History has provided to us the opportunity to correct mistakes and move forward. I hope our democracy up-stands a simple choice to choose what to do with one's body.  On this election day, I'll remember that meetinghouse in Seneca Falls and of the important right of votes for women.  

Miles Driven from previous destination:  178

Dinner Made: Salmon, Quinoa, GreenBeans