12.29.2010
Very often we take for granted what we have here in the US. We’re so far removed from the early days of the first immigrants who perished trying to figure out the lay of the land. Years passed, land expanded and laws formed shaping the country in which we find ourselves today.
We women don’t know a world without having the choice to work or voting, and can’t comprehend what suffragettes like Alice Paul and Lucy Burns had to endure. I also don’t think anyone can understand the value of education like the first and second generation of freed blacks did. We, as a culture, don’t (want to) understand pain and hardship because we search for escape whether it’s through medication, food, or shopping. It's also difficult to comprehend that the rest of the world doesn’t live this way.
I read an article in today’s LA Times that made me appreciate living in this country and in the time period. [1] The article was about the lower class of girls in Nepal who are sold into slavery to pay off their parents’ debts. Often these debts are for basic necessities including fertilizer so that they can farm their land. The money they owe is roughly equivalent to $25 and these girls don’t ever have a chance of leaving their positions because one debt leads to another. These girls’ brothers are, of course, not sold into slavery and are allowed to pursue an education. Hearing such news always angers me. Women endure so much regardless of status or wealth and men will never understand. How do explain any simple injustice to someone whose genitalia opens any door from the get go?
Thankfully, the reason this article was in the Times at all is because things are changing there. Various foundations led by the US-based Nepal Youth Foundation are convincing the fathers that there are other ways to pay off their debt. Ten years ago about 14,000 girls were enslaved. Today the estimates are at 1,000. Many girls are going to school and one said she plans to become a lawyer and help girls like her get out of the slums and get an education.
Those of you with daughters hold them near and my humble advice is to keep the memory of women before us alive and in your daughter’s consciousness, and to those with sons my humble advice is the same. History is not meant to be forgotten. It is to be appreciated and learned from because nothing comes for free. Sacrifices were made on our behalf so that we too could dream of reaching for the stars. By remembering the past, we honor those before us.
