100 Years: Why I Voted

     Like most people on Blogger I don't talk about politics, but after the Women's March on Washington, D.C. yesterday I felt the need to write as to why I felt compelled to vote. As I have stated may times, I am a first wave feminist and that ideology hearkens back to the late 19th century to the early 20th when women sought equality in society. They wanted rights to an education, rights to work in environments where they would not be harassed or harmed by men, rights to their children, rights to voice their opinions, The early suffragette movement was a wonderful, but dangerous time. Women took their lives into their hands and oftentimes they died for their beliefs.

     Due to Margaret Sanger, there was the issue of women's rights to her body. However, Sanger was part of the highly liberal eugenics movement and her views were oftentimes seen as extreme toward the more conservative suffragettes.

     Nowadays, women have been able to obtain those rights that their predecessors once fought and died for. Their have full educations, prominent positions in the work place, rights to their children and so on. However, instead of feminism being a word the represents equality between men and women, it has become a byword for fierce, opinionated, liberal minded policies. Feminism is now defined by  women who can do whatever she wants to her body, show no respect for those in power, show no common decency toward those who disagree with them. Now feminism is a one sided, boxed in set of rules that you have to believe and agree with or you are not a true feminist.

     Women marched on Washington D.C. yesterday because they thought their rights were being violated. However, what Constitutional rights for women can he take away?? 

Can he take away our rights to vote? No. 

Can he take away our freedom of speech? No.

Can he repeal abortion? No. 

Can he deny women an education? No. 

Can he stop two women from marrying? No.

Can he keep women out of the work force? No.

Can he reverse a woman's rights to her children? No.

     100 years ago, woman did not have these rights. 100 years ago, women fought for these rights. 100 years ago, women were beaten for these rights. 100 years ago, women were jailed for these rights. 100 years ago, women lost their families for these rights. 100 years ago, women willingly gave their lives for these rights. 

     100 years later women march because they are angry at a few things that a presidential candidate said in his speeches and from a decade old scandal. Also, I'll guarantee that most of these woman who are marching didn't bother to vote in the first place. Quite frankly, if you didn't vote, you don't have a voice to complain.

     So, why did I vote? At the time I wasn't a fan of either Hilary or Trump; however, I felt that it was my duty to history to vote. To honor those who sacrificed everything just to be seen as equals. To honor women whose only desire was to stand alongside men and be seen as Americans. To remember that these woman were voting for men who didn't support their cause, but still felt that it was their Constitutional right as Americans and humans to do so. 

Ishmael (Lamplighter Books)

     If anyone has been to a homeschool convention (or been homeschooled in general) then you have possibly come across Lamplighter Books. They are rare books written between the 1600’s and the late 1800’s that all contain Christian themes (not to different from the “Elsie Dinsmore Series”). One of its most popular and most loved books is Ishmael.

     I had heard about the book at a Lamplighter Books booth at a homeschooling convention and picked it up. I started reading it…three years ago…and then stopped right in the middle. It was good, but I think I got focused on something else and just kept it in the “to read pile.” One of my New Year’s resolutions is to finish all the books that I’ve started and starting with “Ishmael.” I picked the book back up one afternoon and finished it that night! It was that good! I can’t believe that it took me so long to finish.

     Ishmael is based on the true story of a boy growing up in Maryland in the mid 19th century; and his journey from the lowest rung of society to becoming a renowned lawyer and respectable gentleman. Born unwanted and unloved in abject poverty, Ishmael’s mother died giving birth to him and he never knew his father. He had no one except his spinster aunt who hated him at birth but overtime grew to love him. Ishmael knew from a young age that he wanted to make something of himself and had enough will-power to do so; he does live in America after all.

Left: Steven R. McQueen as brave and noble Ishmael Worth
Middle: Jessica Brown Findlay as selfish and vain Claudia Merlin
Right: Lily James as sweet and generous Beatrice "Bee"Middleton

     At the age of seven he started to work and educated himself. While Ishmael had nothing, he did have the Bible and faith from an early age that was forever his moral compass. No trial was so difficult that he didn’t believe that God’s hand was somehow in it; forever guiding him and leading him onward and upward to a better life. By the time Ishmael is a teenager he has made a name for himself as a deeply moral person who will not stand by and let injustice prevail.

    While Ishmael may seem too good to be true at times, his imperfect human nature is most definitely brought out in the obligatory love story between himself and Claudia Merlin who he is madly in love with, but she is incapable of loving him back. Meanwhile, Ishmael is completely oblivious to the secret affections of sweet Beatrice Middleton, who loves him dearly, but does not make herself a martyr for Ishmael’s unrequited feelings.

     Ishmael believes that his pursuit in life is a career in jurisprudence or becoming a lawyer. And he sets out to do just that. He eventually makes history as the first lawyer to defend a woman’s rights in court. A young mother is fighting to keep her children from her estranged husband who has financially ruined her three times. When she refuses to return to him, her husband threatens to take her children away as a means of coercion. Ishmael is asked to defend the husband; however, the young lawyer (use to seeing suffering and pain from the low of society) defends the lonely mother during a time where women had no rights at all.

~ ~ ~

     I don’t want to give anything away (love story or trial), but I will say that Ishmael is a wonderful and profound story of an all-American boy who epitomizes the term ‘rags to riches.’ Yet, not with the stereotyped ideals of ‘follow your dreams’ or believe in yourself,’ but rather in the traditional faith he was raised in and following a God that was there for him when no one else was. And just to clarify, the story is neither overloaded with Christianity nor too preachy in any way at all. There is a good balance of everything that makes a good story and a worthwhile read.

Snow Day 2017

      2017 started off with a great snowfall! Virginia hasn't seen a heavy snow like this in a couple of years and it's wonderful. It's so beautiful and there is such a peacefulness right now; I love it!

New Layout and Some Announcements

     Happy New Year everyone! I changed my lovely Christmas layout into a very classy vintage/Edwardian themed header and layout and I love it!

     The last couple of years have been great for my site, but also very busy and very wearing. While I have enjoyed the multiple series that I've done, Little Things, Appreciation Posts, Vlogs, Royal Families, Women, A History and The Character Sketches, I realized near the end of last year that I was doing far too much. I loved writing them, but the constant deadline (and procrastination) was taking away my love for them. I'm of the personality that if I start something I need to finish it. And I don't want to write a post just because I need to finish what I started. 

     So, this year, I'm not going to do any series at all. The movie reviews will continue of course! I could never stop those. Also, I'm having computer problems and we have limited internet access here, so I may not be able to post as frequently. My blog goal for this year is to focus on writing in general. I promise, promise that I will pick back up with The Phoenix!!! And that it what I really more than anything want to focus on. 

     Also, I'm beginning to start on my own original fiction, but I won't be publishing on my site; not yet at least. I can't go into too much detail now, but I will say it's a romance that takes place in a fictionalized city in Virginia and is set in the early 90's. If anyone ever read those romance novels that just dealt with everyday life, the decisions we make and the consequences we are left to deal with, then that's basically what I'm working on. It's not a Christian romance exactly, but there are some Christian elements in it. I'm really excited for it and I'll keep updating on it and give little previews from time to time. 

Happy 2017, everyone!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Now the year is dying fast...

All his children stand around...

Twelve there are: I dimly mark

All their figures in the dark,

Hovering near the patriarch...

Pressing the year's death-cold brow,

I rose up with many a vow.

~Caroline May (1820–c.1891), a.k.a. Caromaia, 

"The Dying Year's Counsels," in The Christian Treasury, 1880

Character Sketch: Rebekah Mikaelson

     It's difficult being a teenage girl. It's even more difficult to be a teenage girl who is immortal and one of the oldest vampires in history. Rebekah Mikaleson waltzed onto The Vampire Diaries scene in season 3 after eighty years in a coffin. Beautiful, intelligent, naive and also possessing a selfish and vengeful nature, Rebekah is constantly battling her  vampire immortality with the desire to be a normal human girl.

     Rebekah was born over 1,000 years ago to a Viking family hailing from Norway. Before her birth, her mother and father left their homeland and traveled to North America where they settled in what is now Virginia. Rebekah grew up as the only girl surrounded by five brothers. She was a sweet and independent girl who adored her powerful mother and felt that her father underestimated her. For years her family and their small settlement lived in peace where they were protected by the servants of nature (witches) and were friendly with the native people who transformed into werewolves every full moon.

     However, Rebekah's happy life ended when her younger brother was killed by a werewolf during his transformation. Overwhelmed with grief (and already burdened by a lost of their oldest child back in Norway), Rebekah's parents defy the natural order and use magic and blood to make their family immortal. However, immortality and strength came at a cost and the whole Mikaleson family became slaves to their insatiable blood lusts. Soon, Rebekah and her brothers became hunted by their own father who seeks to destroy the evil he created.

     For as long as she has been a vampire, Rebekah has forever been on the run from her father. Fear can make people deny goodness and mercy in order to survive. In the beginning of The Vampire Diaries, Rebekah is just as cruel and inhumane as her brothers, but the overwhelming kindness and discipline from the residents of Mystic Falls (also her former home) begin to sink into Rebekah. Overtime, she begins to see that she can be good, decent and sacrificial. Once away from the influence of her brothers, Rebekah becomes the independent woman she always longed to be and know that her choices, her life and heart are hers and hers alone to control.

Women, A History: Emmeline Pankhurst - Forger of Women's Equality

Emmeline Pankhurst

Forger of Women's Equality

(1858-1928)

      Many women paved the way for social equality between men and women, but no one left such a mark as Emmeline Pankhurst. Any woman who voted in the Brexit and the election of the new prime minister last summer; and even women in the U.S. who voted in the presidential election, all owe a great deal of gratitude to Emmeline Pankhurst. She revolutionized women's suffrage and was not afraid to go beyond the boundaries of the law to make herself heard. 

     Born in Manchester England in 1858, Emmeline Goulden was the daughter of a modest merchant who provided well for his family.  The Gouldens were all active politically and socially. They were fierce abolitionists and Uncle Tom's Cabin was a frequent bedtime story to the Goulden children. Oftetimes abolitionists from the United States were frequent visitors to the Goulden household. Unfortunately, Emmeline's parents did not see much of a future for their daughter for advanced education even though they supported women's suffrage. 

     When Emmeline was fourteen she went and heard known suffragist, Lydia Becker speak. Emmeline was so movied by her speech that she declared herself a suffragist that day. When she was twenty, Emmeline met Richard Pankhurst, a forty-four year old barrister and supporter of women's suffrage. Despite her mother's objections, Emmeline and Richard were married a year later on December 18, 1879. Together they had five children; two of her daughters Christobel and Sylvia accompanied their mother during her suffragette travels. 

     In 1898, Richard Pankhurst died from health problems and Emmline was left to care for her large family with considerable debt. In 1903, Emmmeline founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) which separated itself from political parties. The WSPU was known for its violent activities such as breaking windows, bombings and public disorder all in the name of women's suffrage. Many women, Emmeline included, were arrested and faced abuse, humiliation and public disgrace. While in prison many women went on hunger strikes, became ill and even died.

     Eventually, the tactics of the WSPU were becoming too controversial and soon united with several other moderate organizations to become the National Union of Women's Suffrage Society (NUWSS). Arrests and hunger strikes still continued for the Suffragette movement, but was put on hold due to WWII where Emmeline believed the war should have the aid of all people. During the war, Emmeline traveled to the U.S. to give her aid and support to the Suffragette movement. 

     After spending time in Russia where she was well known due to her autobiography and where she urged the people not to side with Germany, Emmeline returned to England after the war ended and continued with her work. In 1918, the political atmosphere started to turn in favor to women's rights. Emmeline tried to put together an all women's political party, but was unsuccessful. Eventually, she became more active in the politics of British Unity than in women's suffrage but still continued to support the cause. 

     Years of travel and campaigning for different causes as well as issues with her daughter, Sylvia, began to wear on Emmeline's health. On June 14, 1928, Emmeline died at sixty-nine and is buried in London. She left behind an incredible legacy that is paralleled by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It wasn't just her role in women's suffrage, but her role in politics in general that defined her as a formidable women with the intelligence and integrity to take on anyone who challenged her position, her thoughts and her beliefs.