Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Recently I have longed for the days of Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, and Betty Friedan.  I am feeling somewhat bereft that young girls and women have no earthly idea what the women before them achieved.  I can go back to Susan B. Anthony, Helen Keller, Harriet Tubman. Great women who didn't give up.  

The new generation seem like they are walking through entitlement clouds. Not listening to the climate of the country. Not noticing that with shifts in laws, women's rights are being chipped away at. Not noticing.  How can we shake them awake?  When they realize what's happening, will it be too late? Look what's going on all around the country.  The new Virginia law which requires women who want an abortion to first get an internal vaginal probe?  Why?  For what reason? That one of the front runners in the Republican Presidential race is pro-life and anti-contraception, is beyond my capacity of reason.

For far too long, women have been used as political fodder. For many of those years, there have been women pushing back, but the women pushing back are getting older. We need the young to take up the fight and the torch, to keep what is rightfully ours: our bodies. I find it so upsetting the quietude from the young women. What's going to happen? Can you see a country that goes back in time and not forward? I can. It's slightly unbearable. Does anyone know how to light a fire under the bums of women?  

Why is this generation so different from past generations?  Is it that they haven't had to suffer through the Vietnam War or the assassination of a President or a Senator or a Civil Rights Leader? We have survived through an attack on our soil by terrorists, two wars, and hate mongering.  This generation seems like teflon. If it doesn't effect them, not that important. If the internet is down, there is bloody hell to pay. Is that really where we are now?  

I feel so very lucky to have grown up through the 1960's and beyond. I think that I have a great appreciation for what has come before me and I don't take it for granted. Why can't that be instilled in today's youth?  Any ideas? This is not going away for me. It makes me deeply sad. 

Sidebars: Okay, The Biggest Loser is now officially a loser. It's time to take back the time I have wasted. Sorry, to those who hadn't seen The Bachelor yet. I will remember to put spoiler alert from now on. Well, I will try to remember. Senior moments and all. 

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