Walk On

The Champions Who Walked Among Us

The Champions Who Walked Among Us – Article 2 – The Forerunner


Her body wrecked with illness was robbed of its energy––a young, frail, and tiny little thing, her mother had worried about her existence.  Her weakness and her frailty had people thinking she would never be able to marry and start her own family.  Marriage would happen to the others was a sentiment, which circulated among her family members. Due to her frailness, many thought it impossible she could endure such a robust institution. Not being able to attend school as the other girls in her state, the impulsive and inquisitive young girl found peace in the sanctuary of her grandfather and father’s libraries.  She allowed her mind to wander and stretch beyond the narrow-minded thinking of the people who surrounded her.

  • It was here she examined, read and learned how to reason;
  • here she questioned the role of women;
  • here she discovered her own equality.

In a world where women had sunken down to a level of being brainless creatures whose sole purpose was to propagate the human species, this womanfound contentment in books as she dreamed of what could be. October 25, 1764, her constitution and will to rise above others’ predictions of her station in life had defied all the prognoses that had been proclaimed. It was her wedding day, and once again, she had proven the destiny of a person was not determined by the condition of one’s health or the birthplace of one’s environment, but by each person’s will to believe and struggle against any system which limited change to the privilege few. Her crowning moments, after her marriage, were many, but many of them are forgotten by our modern day society, which unfortunately tags progressive change as some occurrence that originated from us, instead of examining how and when it all began.   For many, the women’s movement began somewhere in the late nineteenth century, however:

  • if it had not been for the tenacity of this woman who spoke out against the injustices and cruelties done to women;
  •  if it had not been for her courageous thinking which challenged the purchase and enslavement of other human beings;
  •  if it had not been for her stoicism that refused to let her be ashamed or feel insulted, when behind her back people called her Madam President;

many of the events, which took place after the formation of the United States, would have probably taken longer to occur or probably never happened. In writing to her husband on March 31, 1776, she wrote the following sentences: “Remember all men would be tyrants, if they could.  If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation. That your sex are naturally tyrannical is a truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute; but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up––the harsh tide of the master for the more tender and endearing one of friend. Why then not put it out of the power of the vicious and the lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity?”[1]This was written by the woman whom no one expected to secure a place in the Annals of History,

  • a woman no one expected to live many years,
  •  a woman with no public education, yet she held her ground with any of the scholars in her time,
  •  a woman who saw the injustices of a young nation and was not afraid to address them;
  •  a woman, like so many other forerunners before her, who saw the impossible happening before it occurred.

On October 28, 1818, three days after her sixty-fourth wedding anniversary, a forerunner took flight, leaving behind a foundation that others would step out and build upon.  For  on August 18,  1920, the nineteenth amendment was ratified, and women had achieved the constitutional right to vote. The woman, Abigail Smith Adams, Madam President, and the forerunner of the Emancipation of Women, and one of the forerunners of freedom for  Afro-Americans had Walked On! Walk On!  I say,  Walk On! Ciao, Pat Garcia


[1] Letters Between Abigail Adams And Her Husband John Adams,  the Liz Library, 1998 – 2011, http://www.thelizlibrary.org/suffrage/abigail.html  (Accessed May 22, 2012).

13 Comments

  1. Raani York

    This is so impressive – well written, easy to understand – and what’s more important – good to sense and feel inside!! Great Job Patricia!

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    • Good morning Raani,
      Thank you very much. Hearing this from you is a sweet salve to my soul. Not only do I enjoy your reading my writing, but I learn from it also. You are a woman with integrity and a sharp eye, and therefore I appreciate all the more your comments.
      Thank you.
      Ciao,
      Patricia

      Like

      • Raani York

        It’s my pleasure – and thank you for thinking so highly of me!! I appreciate it!

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  2. I agree with Raani, Patricia, very impressive. The song Walk On is now stuck in my head, and as I read this for the second time, it sures give a eye watering addition to the song.

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    • Good morning Liz,
      I know the feeling. Every time I think about the great feats of women from all over the world and hear the song Walk On, or think about the poem, Don’t Quit, or listen to Beethoven’s Six Variations (On Theme of Duet from the Opera “La Molinara” by Giovanni Paisiello), I get chills. I play the piano well, but not excellently, and my favorite composer is Beethoven. So, the variation IV from his Six Variations with its dry and melancholy melody makes me relax my mind and think about all the women that I owe a debt of gratitude for the accomplishments that they achieved. Women who have walked on before me and left footprints and opened doors of impossiblities that have made my walk much ligher.
      I believe we are all called to do the same thing. The question is will we?
      Ciao,
      Patricia

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  3. Interesting and inspirational, Patricia. Thanks for educating me on this woman. 🙂

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    • Good morning Peggi,
      Thank you. There are so many women who have opened doors and changed the conditions of women in the world and to these women I have a deep sense of gratitude. I am thankful to have been chosen to write this series.
      Ciao,
      Patricia

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  4. I am so grateful that I am a woman born in a country that offers me the freedom to become anything I want to be. Women who lived before me, like the person you describe, didn’t have this luxury. Also, there are many countries today that still treat women poorly. It is important to remember these things. Thanks, Patricia!

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  5. I will never take for granted my freedom and rights again. You have once again moved me to tears (not very hard to do as I am a cry baby) no less you continue to move me. You have come so far and are such an inspiration to us all. I find your work so touching and it fills me with strength to Walk ON. I will continue to walk on! Thank you so much for another wonderful post! You honestly amaze me, thank you for being you!
    Much love and abundant blessings,
    Kimmy
    http://www.withoutalabel.me

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    • susanscottsa

      Yes, Patricia’s writings are so wonderful aren’t they! I love what you say about ‘with strength to walk on’ .. I feel the same way!

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      • It is the battle cry, Susan, to not give up. Sure, sometimes what we have may be very little, but it is enough to get there, as long as we don’t give up and keep walking on. Thank you for your comment.
        Ciao,
        Patricia

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  6. susanscottsa

    Thank you again Patricia!!! So inspirational. I had not thought of the song ‘Walk On’ but now I am and I want to immediately find it somehow and play it. You’ll never walk alone …

    Like

    • Susan,
      I thank you. What a pleasure it is to get to know you.
      Walk On my sister, Walk On!
      Ciao,
      Patricia

      Like

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