I still cannot believe — and am deeply stunned by — what I read. And I read this stuff at an institution of higher education.

And what I read is that a whole lot of folks, a whole lot of ’em womenfolks, are saying things that “sound” rational and, therefore, “justifiable,” but things, nonetheless, that are simply not — and never were — TRUE.

Then…a real piece of truth does jump into my mind (as it did again this morning upon reading the Iowa State Daily) — that beautiful phrase of my adolescence and young adulthood that still holds true for all of us today because apparently “everything” has not been understood, even though Ms. Kelley Powers writes that everything has been said (letter to the editor, 12 September, and all other letters like it), “IIIII aaaaaammm wooooommmmaaaaaannnnn. Hear me ROAR…”…and I am a white woman.

Carrie Chapman Catt did not, did not, Ms. Powers, help get women the right to vote. She helped get only her definition of “woman” the right to vote. Your mom and my mom and, later, I … fit that definition.

But in my lifetime (which just blows me away every time the “product of my times” theme is used as justification since I’m a product of my times), Meron’s mom and Allan’s mom and Vanessa’s mom and Phyllis’s mom and Celia’s mom and Dan’s mom and a whole host of ISU and other students’ and staff members’ moms did not get the right to vote UNTIL 1964.

I was 18 years old — and, therefore, just, just, old enough to be of “woman” voting age because I fit the definition — before these moms got the right to vote here in the “U.S.” of A.

Really, really think on that, Ms. Powers. Please, just fathom that, will you? Catt meant white “woman,” not black ones, not Native American ones, not Chinese ones. As to the justifications, “American heroes” and “products of their time,” I can only beseech you to know, really know, your history …. especially the history of your own, probably and certainly my, education. `Cause surely, surely we all know what happens when we do not really KNOW our history, don’t we?

When persons tell me, “but Washington and Jefferson owned slaves,” I immediately set straight my knowledge of history, “No, they did not; they did not own slaves. When I was 6 and 10 and 11 and 7 and 14, the Jefferson and Washington I knew as heroes did not own slaves. They simply did not.” …because …. you, my adult community of educators knew that my age had nothing to do with my knowing right from wrong.

You taught me nothing of this because you knew I would know right off they were not heroes, that slavery was wrong.

I was not enlightened with the truth as to their other “heroic” behavior, i.e., their slave ownership, until long after the “times” of Rosa Parks who also happened to say, “no.”

Furthermore, as I have written before, there were plenty of white persons, both female and male, who did not buy into and continue to perpetuate the bad things happening in their daily lives, from St. Francis to Jesus Christ to George Fox to many of the 9,000,000 burned, European (not a typo; it is 9 million = the Women’s Holocaust), alleged witches — from whence cometh that other familiar phrase, “given the third degree.”

Over that white continent during the 300 years of the Middle Ages and the “times” of the Inquisition, this many women physicians and healers burned trying first, in their lifetimes, to do the right thing, then later, just trying to save their daughters, their mothers, their sisters, their neighbors and themselves.

Ms. Powers writes that my brick has been removed because I wanted it that way. Ms. Powers, you did not ask me before writing your letter for my truth on the matter of the brick my three sons had hoped to honor me (not Catt) with.

The truth is that I, approximately 12 hours before its removal, asked the university for what I really wanted from them and, ultimately, what I really wanted … from my sons.

What happened and what I wanted is the following: I specifically stated on the telephone to a very high university official with a direct line to the university president that I wanted my brick in … and the name on the building to be something like Old Botany Hall or Heroines Hall or, for that matter, Lois Tiffany Hall.

We women are a moral-compass gender on the earth, a gender imbued with keeping the conscience of the day, whatever day it is, on course.

If it were not for “woman” and “woman” on all continents, with the technology long available, my belief is that the planet would long have been annihilated by now ‘cept that “woman,” including Mexican American moms and African American moms and Chinese American moms and Native American moms and Female American moms of all genre, ultimately have not, by our complacency and apathy and knowledge and know-how of evil and wrong — and will not — let our kids destroy, especially soulfully destroy, other moms’ kids. Or will we?

Catt did nothing to further so many women after 1920, let alone, the destruction she wrought to them before 1920.

Which will we do? Active or passive destruction, we women are still all accountable.

So, what do you want your kids to know about you when last you breathe?

The truth is what I want them to know about me. I’m workin’ at that now.

Blue Maas

Secretary

Graduate College

Iowa State University