'Sisters' Debunks 'Weaker Sex' Myth

Review by Bill Doughty

The fight for women's equality in the United States began before the Civil War. Jean H. Baker's "Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists" pumps blood into the story of five key women who fought for women, especially after the war – leading eventually to the ratification of the 19th Amendment August 26, 1920. Baker takes us into the streets, the conference halls, minds and occasionally even the bedrooms of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances Willard, Lucy Stone and Alice Paul.

Baker achieves her goal. She virtually brings to life the women who are otherwise "homogenized into stiff icons of feminized democracy." And, through biographies of each leader, Baker also brings to life the history of the pursuit of equal rights for women in the United States. Why these five activists and why so private?

"There were other prominent suffrage leaders, but I have chosen these five because I believe them to be indispensable. Not only did they found and lead the national organizations that served as surrogate political parties for women before 1920, they also provided a network of leadership that shaped the goals of this first wave of American feminists. The excision of these women's private lives has often made it seem that the politics of organized suffrage summarized the entirety of their existence. For them the political seemingly became the personal."

One or more of the five women introduced by Baker experience imprisonment, are pelted with eggs, have heartbreak in and out of marriage, experience postpartum depression, live with an eating disorder, fight for birth control, and are rejected by clerics and other male-dominated institutions. Yet they stand up, speak out and in later years go out to demonstrate in the face of hate and prejudice.

Often single-mindedly and always with strong commitment, these feminists struggled for a woman's right to vote, which they saw as a universal right guaranteed by the founders in the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. Only the ability to vote, they knew, would guarantee "consent of the governed."

Susan B. Anthony said, "Woman needs the ballot as a protection to herself; it is a means and not an end. Until she gets it she will not be satisfied, nor shall she be protected." Women should have a right to choose their destiny.

Baker quotes Elizabeth Cady Stanton: "In a government that denied women the right to vote, 'All laws which place [woman] in a position inferior to that of man are contrary to that great precept of nature and therefore no force or authority.'"

Liberty as a natural right for all humans propelled the passage of the 15th Amendment, giving blacks the right to vote – but only black males. True equality would take another hundred years with the civil rights movement that culminated under Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s.

Several of the women in "Sisters" were contemporaries of, or knew, Frederick Douglass. Each of the women were either abolitionists or supporters of greater rights for former slaves. In the case of Willard, a faith-based religious crusade against alcohol became as important as the fight for universal suffrage. Yet she had an ambivalence toward the rights of African Americans.

"In the 1890s Willard's limited commitment to racial equality foundered on the lynching issue. She opposed the terrorist, extrajudicial process of lynching black men in vigilante actions in the South. On the other hand she refused to join the campaign of Ida Wells, a young black journalist and activist who worked to arouse sympathy for black victims by making the case that they were innocent ... Willard's aspirations never had room for the divisive issue of race, and for that she provoked the anger of not just Wells but [also] reformers like Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison and Julia Ward Howe."

One hundred years ago in August 1914 President Woodrow Wilson preached for more democracy across the world as the First World War began. But he initially aborted any attempts at equality for women at home. Alice Paul confronted him through civil disobedience, political pressure and logical reasoning and forced him to support women's right to vote.

"Indubitably Alice Paul was the most implacable, the most single-minded, the most original, the most self-sacrificing, and the most overlooked of twentieth century feminists. Implementing the doctrine of the British militants – 'Deeds, not Words' – she became the necessary culmination of what had begun at Seneca Falls in 1848. The day after her parade, while Washington celebrated the ritual activities of a presidential inauguration (though Wilson had declined an inaugural ball, believing it simply an occasion to show off 'feminine clothes'), the indefatigable Alice Paul and a few of her lieutenants were already at work organizing the first suffrage delegations to the White House, 'deputations' that would plague the president."

Alice Paul

Anthony, Stanton, Stone and Willard died years before women received the right to vote, but Alice Paul was only 35 in 1920. She had taken the struggle directly to President Wilson and won. According to Baker, "By his early opposition, later avoidance, and tepid final support on the grounds of expediency, Wilson destroyed any claim on posterity that he had expanded democracy at home or abroad."

Paul dedicated the rest of her life to promoting the Equal Rights Amendment. She died in 1977.

Read this book to discover some of the personal and private details of the suffragist's lives – as children, young women and iconic leaders in old age. Their story is part of an extended struggle from the American Revolution, to the emancipation of slaves, and through the modern civil rights movement, setting the stage for future successes of women such as Althea Gibson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Mead, Sandra Day O'Connor, Margaret Sanger, Rear Adm. "Amazing" Grace Hopper, Rosa Parks, Gloria Steinem, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, and Adm. Michelle Howard.

The Department of Defense announced that August 26, 2014 is to be commemorated as Women's Equality Day with the theme, "Celebrating Women's Right to Vote." 

Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony statue by Pepsy Kettvong, Rochester, New York.

W20: Put Eleanor on $20 Bill?

By Bill Doughty – 

Eleanor's school portrait, 1898.

Eleanor Roosevelt championed civil rights, equality for women and the role of the Navy in the 20th century. She transformed the role of First Lady and was a key communicator between government and the people through her daily newspaper column, essays and broadcasts.

No wonder she's one of the candidates in a grassroots public effort to see a woman pictured on a new twenty dollar bill. Among those being considered are Alice Paul, Soujourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady-Stanton, Rosa Parks, Rachel Carson and Patsy Mink, among others.

Some of Eleanor Roosevelt's writing is included in "Aunt Lute's Anthology of U.S. Women Writers, Volume Two," published in 2008.

In 1943, as Americans of Japanese ancestry served in Europe and the Pacific while others were imprisoned in camps, the First Lady expressed her thoughts. At first wrestling with the contradictions, she ultimately faced the hypocrisy of the War Relocation Act in this conclusion to her essay:

"Japanese-Americans may be no more Japanese than a German-American is German, or an Italian-American is Italian. All of these people, including the Japanese-Americans, have men who are fighting today for the preservation of the democratic way of life and the ideas around which our nation was built." 

"We have no common race in this country, but we have an ideal to which all of us are loyal. It is our ideal which we want to have live. It is an ideal which can grow with our people, but we cannot progress if we look down upon any group of people among us because of race or religion. Every citizen in this country has a right to our basic freedoms, to justice and to equality of opportunity, and we retain the right to lead our individual lives as we please, but we can only do so if we grant to others the freedoms that we wish for ourselves."

In an essay, "Freedom: Promise or Fact," also written in 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt begins, "If I were a Negro today, I think I would have moments of great bitterness. It would be hard for me to sustain my faith in democracy and to build up a sense of goodwill toward men of other races."

She imagines herself a black man facing the injustices of an unequal and segregated society.

"In a comparatively short period of time the slaves have become free men – free men, that is, as far as a proclamation can make them so. There now remains much work to be done to see that freedom becomes a fact and not just a promise for my people.

Eleanor Roosevelt visits a Works Progress Administration Negro nursery school
 in Des Moines, Iowa, June 11, 1936. (Photos courtesy of FDR Library).

"I know, however that I am not the only group that has to make a similar fight. Even women of the white race still suffer inequalities and injustices, and many groups of white people in my country are slaves of economic conditions. All the world is suffering under a great war brought about because of the lag in our social development against the progress in our economic development."

The Aunt Lute anthology is a mind-opening compilation with works from hundreds of compelling women authors and poets.

For more writings from Eleanor Roosevelt, The George Washington University offers a comprehensive site dedicated to her work.

Within weeks of the end of World War II, on October 4, 1945, Roosevelt wrote: 

"Army and Navy nurses are still on duty in every branch of the service. As of June 30, 1945, 65,216 were still on duty with the services."

"These women know better than most of us what war exacts in blood and pain from all young men, and they will continue to be reminded of it. In veterans' hospitals and in civilian hospitals and homes, they are going to meet the aftermath of war as long as this generation lives. In that respect, therefore, they have a great contribution to make to peace. I hope their organizations will be strong and that they will act not only in the interests of nurses, but take their position as citizens of influence in the affairs of the whole nation."

On October 15, 1949 – four years after the war, two days after the Navy's 174th Birthday – and in the midst of the Revolt of the Admirals, she showed her support for sea and air power and encouraged joint cooperation:

"I was brought up by my husband to have a great affection for the Navy. As he had been much influenced in his early days by Alfred Thayer Mahan's books, he naturally thought that a strong Navy was essential to defense.

"There was a time when navies were not considered so important. Armies were more important. Later, the navy came into its own and now perhaps air forces have superseded both armies and navies. But no one will deny, I think, that the proper combination of all three is what really safeguards a nation.

"The decision as to the relative power and kind of power to be given to each one of the services must rest with our military chiefs. There must be a joint decision arrived at by the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force. This is one place where personal jealousies, either for yourself or for your particular branch of the service, cannot be allowed to supersede the overall good of the nation."

Adm. Nimitz briefs FDR, Gen. MacArthur, and Adm. Leahy in Hawaii, July 28, 1944.

On February 23, 1960, on the eve of Fleet Admiral Nimitz's 75th birthday, Roosevelt wrote a glowing tribute to the military statesman.

Reading her essay on the former Pacific Fleet Commander, one can imagine Eleanor proposing Nimitz's visage on our money (an idea that would have been repellent to the proud but extremely humble admiral).

The folks at Womenon20s.org argue that the $20 bill is the perfect choice to honor women on our paper money. The number 20 has significance as the centennial of women's right to vote approaches in 2020. Also, with respect to Andrew Johnson, currently depicted on the $20 bill, the W2 site notes:

"Andrew Jackson was celebrated for his military prowess, for founding the Democratic party and for his simpatico with the common man. But as the seventh president of the United States, he also helped gain Congressional passage of the 'Indian Removal Act of 1830' that drove Native American tribes of the Southeastern United States off their resource-rich land and into Oklahoma to make room for white European settlers. Commonly known as the Trail of Tears, the mass relocation of Indians resulted in the deaths of thousands from exposure, disease and starvation during the westward migration."

The proposal to replace the face of President Andrew Johnson with that of a woman would be a sea change, since U.S. paper money has featured the same individuals – all white men – since 1929.

Pictured at right: Eleanor Roosevelt and Navy/WWII veteran (and future president) Senator John F. Kennedy in New York, New York, October 11, 1960. (Photos courtesy of FDR Library)

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

A Woman's Place...

Review by Bill Doughty

... is "Serving Proudly."

This "History of Women in the U.S. Navy" by Susan H. Godson (Naval Institute Press, 2001) shows how women's roles evolved in the sea service, especially at first in Navy medicine.

Women served in defense of the nation even before there was a United States Navy, but women like Clara Barton (for the United States in the War of 1812) and Florence Nightingale (for Britain in the Crimean War) proved the value of women near the battlefield in the early and mid 1800s. By the end of the century, during the Spanish-American War, the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps was created (1898). 

The book opens with an epigraph by Rear Adm. Grace M. Hopper: "The highest award I have received is serving proudly in the U.S. Navy."

"By the end of the nineteenth century, the U.S. Navy had developed into a world-class naval power with fleets to sail and colonies to administer. The Navy's evolution had been uneven and sporadic, and growth had depended on external threats or, by the 1890s, on markets to open, colonies to supervise, and primitive people to uplift. Concurrently, training and requirements for officers and men had become professionalized... But the Medical Department still lacked a vital element: professionally trained nurses – those women who had taken two- or three-year courses in hospital training schools. Nursing, along with teaching and social work, was one of the few professions open to women. During the nineteenth century, many women emerged from their prescribed sphere and went into reform movements, clubs and associations, and higher education. And they were no strangers to the seafaring life; they had been in virtually all types of vessels, both private and naval. The Navy needed professional nurses, and such women had proven their worth during the Spanish-American War. Could the two, in fact, be mutually beneficial?"

In 1908 the Navy Nurse Corps was born. Esther Voorhees Hasson, Lenah S. Higbee and J. Beatrice Bowman were the first superintendents.

Godson examines the Navy's influence in breaking down walls, promoting education and progressing toward greater equality for women throughout the 20th century. 

"During World War I, the U.S. Navy grew in men and ships to address the demands of the European conflagration. How it met wartime requirements depended largely on Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. Because of his vision and boldness, the Navy embarked on the temporary and unprecedented wartime expedient of bringing women into its enlisted ranks as yeomen (F) and Marine Reservists (F). Those women who entered the naval service had no idea that they were pioneers. They joined the Navy because the country needed their talents."

The author relates the early influence of civilians Margaret Sanger, who "launched the birth control movement, which gave women the knowledge and ability to control family size;" Alice Paul whose party proposed an equal rights amendment; and Eleanor Roosevelt, who championed social-welfare causes.

"A dramatic breakthrough for women" came during the Second World War, when some 350,000 women served in the military ashore. Women throughout the nation saw greater opportunity serving in the industrial sector. Of course, it was in WWII that  WAVES – Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service – was created, in the face of quite a bit of resistance to change.

The Marine Corps, part of the Department of the Navy, was most recalcitrant about integrating women into its ranks. Although only a small number of women Marines were allowed to serve temporarily during the First World War in the Reserves, they were welcomed back in 1943, again in support roles, separate but unequal.

WAVES march in a parade for Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Medal of Honor veterans in New York City, Oct. 9, 1945. (NHHC)

After the war, pioneers like Cmdr. Joy Bright Hancock "firmly believed that women should be allowed to serve in the regular Navy as a regular career." She traveled around the country, coordinated with the newly formed Department of Defense, and lobbied Congress, causing the "House Armed Services Committee to run up the white flag."

Women were in a "holding pattern" mid-century, but the 60s brought about great change in civil rights, including for women, and the Navy was in the forefront of the changes. A small number of WAVES served in support roles in Vietnam, but "the Navy never hesitated to dispatch nurses to the war zone," according to Godson. The 70s brought more demonstrations, class-action lawsuits and a "new brand of feminism," resulting in the Equal Opportunity Act and the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade (1973), which "represented another victory for equality."

"Guiding the Navy from 1970 to 1974 was CNO Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., who undertook to modernize both the fleet and personnel policies... Zumwalt issued the famous (or infamous) Z-116 on 7 August (1972), giving equal rights and opportunities to Navy Women," Godson writes.

Zumwalt opened the U.S. Naval Academy to women and opened avenues for women to be able to achieve flag rank. Once again, Navy Medicine was in the lead with the first women allowed to serve aboard ships going aboard the hospital ship USS Sanctuary (AH-17). The Navy's newest warship in early 2017 is named for the visionary Navy leader. According to the Navy, "USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) is the largest and most technologically advanced surface combatant in the world."

The 80s were a period of entrenchment, with greater participation and new roles for women in the Navy, leading to the early 90s and the repeal of combat exclusion for women, thanks to Rep. Patricia Schroeder, DACOWITS (The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services) and Secretary of Defense Les Aspin.

Vice Admiral Nora Tyson, Commander U.S. Third Fleet.

Godson's book ends on a hopeful note as she wonders about the "long-term impact of these sweeping changes" (initiated more than twenty years ago). She reflects on women's achievements in the first Gulf War, at sea, in aviation, at the Naval Academy, and of course in the Navy Nurse Corps.

"The story of all Navy women is one of dedication and valor. They proudly chose to serve their country as part of the U.S. Navy and pursued their goal with dogged determination. They would not be denied such an honorable calling. As in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women's familiarity with maritime matters and their nursing skills have made them essential to the naval service. Tributes to their service have been many. One of the most touching came in 1996, when the Navy named the guided-missile destroyer USS Hopper (DDG 70) in honor of Rear Adm. Grace Hopper, who had led the Navy into the computer age. And in the fall of 1997, a lasting monument to Navy woman, as well as to all 1.8 million women who have served in the military was dedicated: the women in Military Service for America Memorial at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, which stands as a fitting reminder of all women who have volunteered to defend American freedom."

Working with renowned Navy historians such as Jan K. Herman, Robert J. Schneller, Dean C. Allard and Edward J. Marolda, Godson provides a wealth of information and some great photos in "Serving Proudly."

She presents controversial issues such as sexual harassment, sexism, discrimination against lesbians and uniform issues. And she gives a wide-ranging history of the progress women have made in and out of the Navy, acknowledging that the history of women in the military is still being written.


Commodore Grace Hopper, special assistant to the commander, Naval Data Automation Command, gives an autograph and a length of wire representing distance an electron moves in an nanosecond during groundbreaking ceremonies for the Grace M. Hopper Navy Regional Data Automation Center at Naval Air Station, North Island, California, Sept. 27, 1985. Photo by PH2 Michael Flynn, Naval History and Heritage Command.

Angels, 'Soul of America' Battle Fear

By Bill Doughty

"Peacemakers" Sherman, Grant, Lincoln and Porter, painted by George Healy, 1848.

The United States Navy is an unintended undercurrent running through "The Soul of America" by Jon Meacham (Random House, 2018). It starts with the book's front endpaper as soon as you turn the cover.

There is Admiral David Dixon Porter sitting next to President Abraham Lincoln and Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman in George Healy's painting "The Peacemakers," memorializing a meeting aboard the War Department's commissioned steamer River Queen.

The War Between the States was a crucible, an identity-defining event for the United States. Sailors of the Federal Navy played a key role in saving the Union and securing liberty for all, as they had done in fighting the British in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812.

Subtitled "The Battle for Our Better Angels," from Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, where the sixteenth president sought to unite a divided nation, Meacham's book shows how the United States has made progress when its leaders and especially its citizens focused energies on hope, optimism and inclusion instead of fear, hate and rejection of others.

"Progress in America does not usually begin at the top and among the few, but from the bottom and among the many," Meacham writes. He shows how good presidents like Lincoln, Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson were instrumental in America's progress, while other presidents like Woodrow Wilson, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon were moved only after being pressured by the American people into expanding human rights and protecting civil liberties.

After every action, there is a reaction and sometimes unintended consequences.

In the aftermath of the Civil War came Reconstruction and "extreme, racism, nativism and isolationism, driven by fear" – a stormy period in America's past that included lynchings, white supremacy and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.

President Andrew Johnson

President Andrew Johnson undermined the legacy of Lincoln in years after of the War Between the States.

Meacham reports how Johnson "delivered an angry, self-pitying speech" Feb. 22, 1866 at a campaign-style rally on George Washington's Birthday.

"Resentful and impassioned, Johnson also riled up the Washington's Birthday crowd with claims that his opponents were considering having him assassinated. Rather than offering reassurance to an anxious public, then, Johnson chose to foment chaos and promulgate fears of conspiracy."

According to historian Eric Foner, who Meacham cites, Johnson made "probably the most blatantly racist pronouncement ever to appear in an official state paper of an American president." In Meacham's words, Johnson "asserted that blacks were incapable of self-government."

Andrew Johnson, who "never seemed entirely stable," was later impeached, but one vote in the Senate trumped his conviction.

President Grant, on the other hand, "in contrast to Andrew Johnson, appreciated the bigness of his office and of the times." Grant supported the 15th Amendment, granting the extension of voting rights to African Americans. And he cracked down on the KKK's reign of violence and terror in the South.

Confederate naval officers James and Irvine Bulloch, TR's uncles.

A president who continued championing human rights, Teddy Roosevelt, was a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy and a man who, ironically had two uncles who served in the Confederate Navy. One was an admiral who helped build the warship CSS Alabama, and the other was a midshipman who served aboard the Alabama.

A flawed but passionate defender of freedoms, including the First Amendment, TR said, "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."

Yet, during times of national stress, particularly during wartime, the "better angels of our nature" have been silent, and leaders have resorted to fear, hate and exclusion.

One hundred years ago President Woodrow Wilson and the Congress enacted the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 during World War I, "restricting freedom of expression in the name of national security." Wilson's Justice Department indicted and put on trial the Industrial Workers of America.

"Speech itself was under siege. It was illegal, according to the 1918 legislation, to 'utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States.'"

Thanks to strong women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Carrie Chapman Catt, Lucretia Mott and Alice Paul, women received the right to vote over the intransigence and foot-dragging of President Wilson.

National Endowment for the Humanities composite of Roosevelts.

Teddy Roosevelt's fifth cousin Franklin, also a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, witnessed the aftermath of a terrorist bombing attack by an anarchist on the home of his neighbor, Attorney General Michael Palmer.

As president, FDR faced twin existential threats to the nation – the Great Depression and the Second World War, brought about by Nazi fascism in Europe and Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

FDR feared a military coup by General Douglas MacArthur on the right and Senator Huey Long on the left.

The threat of a coup was real, especially from "America First" isolationists who opposed FDR's behind-the-scenes help to Britain's Winston Churchill, including trading U.S. Navy destroyers for bases and conducting an "undeclared naval war in the Atlantic" during Britain's fight against Hitler's Germany.

American hero Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC.

In fact, a "small group of rich Wall Streeters" actually attempted to put together a coup. They tried to recruit retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler to remove FDR by force. Butler, ever the hero, reported the plot and plotters to the FBI.

After WWII started, acting out of fear, FDR committed his greatest error when he imprisoned more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese Ancestry.

But FDR, followed by Truman, took a huge step toward integrating the military, instituting the GI Bill of Rights, setting up the New Deal that led to the Fair Deal, and setting the stage for the formation of the middle class and greater prosperity for millions of Americans.

"The product of both government action and of market forces, the creation of the post-WWII middle class was one of the great achievements in history," Meacham writes.

FDR, who designed the porch of his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia to resemble the prow of a ship, was about the Navy's USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) for a fishing trip, when he came up with the Four Freedoms speech: Freedom of speech, freedom of religion,  freedom from want and freedom from fear.

Navy Chief Graham Wilson expresses grief at FDR's death in 1945.

When FDR died in 1945, Navy Chief Petty Officer Graham Jackson became America's face of grief, weeping openly.

Fortunately, Presidents Truman and Eisenhower and especially Navy veterans John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson righting the residual racism and discrimination of the Lost Cause of the Civil War, pushing for greater equality and voting rights for all. Once again, the people, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., pushed for progress and LBJ listened.

LBJ was "Determined to preach the gospel of inclusion," Meacham writes. "Now was the time, the president said, to rise above racism. 'Whatever your views are, we have a Constitution and we have a Bill of Rights, and we have the law of the land. (LBJ said,) I am not going to let them build up the hate and try to buy my people by appealing to their prejudice.'"

MLK and LBJ meet in the White House Dec. 3, 1963 (Photo by Yoichi R.Okamoto). LBJ Library.

Johnson created the Great Society and signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"Leadership is the act of the possible, and possibility is determined by whether generosity can triumph over selfishness in the American soul," Meacham writes.

Meacham quotes Senator Daniel Webster: "When the mariner has been tossed for many days in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course," Webster said in 1830. "Let us imitate this prudence, and before we float farther on the waves of this debate, refer to the point from which we departed, that we may at least be able to conjecture where we now are."

"The Soul of America" revealed some "found haiku," one by Meacham himself:

The things we hope for

can come to pass. The things we

fear can hold us back

Here's another Abraham Lincoln found haiku (see also Navy Reads Lincoln's found haiku blog):

Cherish a just and

lasting peace among ourselves

and with all nations

And this reflective unintended haiku comes from LBJ:

A president can

appeal to the best in our

people or the worst

In Meacham's conclusion he offers five prescriptions for achieving progress and enlisting "on the side of the angels" in a time of crisis: enter the arena (use your First Amendment rights), resist tribalism (hear and listen to all sides), respect facts and deploy reason (recognize and reject lies), find a critical balance (being humble and open), and keep history in mind (read books and practice critical thinking).

Meacham was inspired to write this book after seeing the white supremacy demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 that caused the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer and resulted in the the deaths of two Virginia state troopers.

In a rare move, the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff responded to the Charlottesville tragedy with statements condemning the racism and violence.

Navy Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, was the first of the military chiefs to respond. On Twitter he said the events were "unacceptable and mustn't be tolerated." Richardson then called the events "shameful" and said, "Our thoughts and prayers go to those who were killed and injured, and to all those trying to bring peace back to the community. The Navy will forever stand against intolerance and hatred. For those on our team, we want our Navy to be the safest possible place — a team as strong and tough as we can be, saving violence only for our enemies."

Women Who Don't Wait / dot Complicated

Review by Bill Doughty

It's complicated (but doesn't have to be) according to authors Randi Zuckerberg and Reshma Saujani in their books from 2013.  Be authentic to "untangle our wired lives" and "break the mold, lead the way."

Zuckerberg's "dot Complicated" is filled with ideas for achieving tech-life balance in the brave new world of super-smart phones, instant communication, hyper connectivity and changing definitions of privacy.

Like a lot of business books, "dot Complicated" has personal anecdotes and easy-to-find highlighted lists. You'll see tips for achieving tech-life balance with self, friends, love, family, career, community and future.

"Strive to find personal peace, friendship, love, fulfillment at work, and good in your community, and use the Internet to improve your life, not control it," she advises. And, "don't be a jerk."

Think of that when you're having a face-to-face conversation with someone and they turn to check their tweets; or you look in the rearview mirror while stopped in traffic and notice the driver behind you is obviously texting; or you read hate-filled troll droppings in anonymous online comments. Again, "don't be a jerk."

Among Zuckerberg's simple and common sense advice: know how to break digital addiction, learn how to achieve balance, and think about how/what/when/where/why to post or repost information. She applies the Golden Rule of life to social media: "Repost unto others as you would have them repost..."

This book is easy and fun to read. As the sister of Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, the author has the bonafides to describe social media and the do's and don'ts of navigating the new millennial landscape where "technology seems to make things both easier and harder at the same time."

Reshma Saujani mentions Randi Zuckerberg in her groundbreaking work, "Women Who Don't Wait" published last year, praising Zuckerberg's work-life balance and willingness to be herself.

"Randi is right. The more open women are about the richness and multidimensional aspects of their lives, the more acceptable it will become to simply act like ourselves -- and the more effective we will be as leaders."

Saujani's book is filled with provocative chapter/subchapter titles: Fail Fast, Fail First, Fail Hard; Unapologetically Ambitious; Don't Worry If They Don't Like You; Jump the Line (Wear What You Want); and Building a Sisterhood for the Twenty-First Century.

Her biggest advice, like Zuckerberg's, is: "be authentic." She discusses her transformation and encourages the reader to "free yourself from believing that you have to behave like anyone other than yourself."

YN1c Marjorie Daw Adams (right) with Mailman 2nd Class Harrison, 1945.

While her insights are relevant for everyone, her target audience is, of course, women.  She calls for a strong community of support, or sisterhood, but writes, "And guys? We aren't hating on them; we are looking to men to be our allies. We no longer see them as a barrier to our success."

"I have worked with and been inspired by others, every day, to help create the world I want the next generation to live in. As women we must have the humility to see the world as it is, but the audacity to envision it as it could be. To apply a new lens of female leadership and reinvent, reshape, and retool the traditional system. To realize that we can learn from the poorest of women and the richest of women. We can and should be talking to one another about what this new model should look like -- and about how we can build it together."

Saujani dedicates her book "For all the women in my life whose shoulders I stand on, and for all the women who will stand on mine."

Since the 1980s March has been National Women's History Month, a time to recognize the women who didn't wait and who shouldered the struggle for freedom and equality, including the right to vote.

Future President Jimmy Carter readies to graduate from Naval Academy, 1947.

The first National Women's History Week was proclaimed by President and Commander in Chief Jimmy Carter, a former naval officer.

Here is Carter's Message to the nation designating March 2-8, 1980 (sixty years after women won the ability to vote) as National Women’s History Week:

   "From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.
   As Dr. Gerda Lerner has noted, 'Women’s History is Women’s Right.' – It is an essential and indispensable heritage from which we can draw pride, comfort, courage, and long-range vision.
   I ask my fellow Americans to recognize this heritage with appropriate activities during National Women’s History Week, March 2-8, 1980.
   I urge libraries, schools, and community organizations to focus their observances on the leaders who struggled for equality -- Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, and Alice Paul.
   Understanding the true history of our country will help us to comprehend the need for full equality under the law for all our people.
   This goal can be achieved by ratifying the 27th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that 'Equality of Rights under the Law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.'"

Congress passed a joint resolution proclaiming a Women's History Week in 1981.

The National Women's History Project and Department of Defense theme for this year's commemoration is, "celebrating women of character, courage and commitment," clearly mirroring Navy core values.

The books by Zuckerberg and Saujani in this review build on the gains of women in the past with a focus on the future, whether achieving tech-life balance or workplace gender balance -- with equal pay for equal work. It's not complicated.

'Invisibles,' Led Zeppelin and Loving Your Job

Review by Bill Doughty

Led Zeppelin both opens and closes this remarkable book about "the power of anonymous work in an age of relentless self-promotion" (subtitle of "Invisibles," a 2014 book published by Portfolio/Penguin).
You'll want to crank up "When the Levee Breaks" when you read about the role of sound engineer Andy Johns, who is responsible for the sound of John Bonham's drums, Eric Clapton's and Van Halen's sounds, and the Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers."
Johns is one of several invisibles profiled – people who work behind the scenes and find satisfaction in what they they do and create, not in fame, fortune or recognition. 

Invisibles are new master craftsmen who value artisanal workmanship over the limelight. Think of some of the best staff non-commissioned officers, executive officers and assistants, boatswain's mates, and special operators. Their focus is on team success and quiet competence.

David Zweig, author of "Invisibles" quotes a former Navy SEAL who said he prefers the anonymity of the early 90s – prior to the explosion of the Internet – over the "seemingly incessant fascination with the SEAL Teams."

Zweig evaluates three traits of Invisibles: ambivalence toward recognition, meticulousness in their work, and a savoring of responsibility. He shows how "flow" – "the trance-like state mental that occurs when a person is completely immersed in an activity" – brings them joy, satisfaction and pride.

"If you have a pride and confidence in what you do, as Stumpf so clearly does, the rewards you reap come from within, which are, perhaps, the only true and lasting rewards. In this regard pride – and I'm not talking about the biblical connotation of pride as sin, but pride as respect for yourself, your work, your effort – is just an extension of the Invisible core treat of drawing fulfillment from the work itself, not outside acknowledgment of it."

Author David Zweig

Zweig's eclectic examples of Invisibles include a New Yorker magazine fact checker, airport wayfinder, U.N. interpreter, cinematographer, perfumer, architect, guitar technician and piano tuner. He makes references to Homer's "Iliad," Susan Cain's "Quiet," David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest," Alice Marwick's "Status Update," Adam Grant's "Give and Take," and Jean Twenge's "The Narcissistic Epidemic," as well as other texts and literature. And he takes the reader to Atlanta, New York, Shanghai and places in between.

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Taking a global perspective, Zweig compares the United States, where the focus is on the "vertical individualist," with much of the rest of the world, where the emphasis is on the overall collective, the entire team.
In the "so-called Confucian Belt" (which includes Korea, China, Vietnam and Japan and other nations in the region), self-promotion and attention-seeking are frowned upon and seen as immature, Zweig reports. The Japanese phrase en no shita no chikara mochi means, loosely, what's beneath the stage has great strength or power. Those behind the scenes make those on stage successful.
Zweig's insights would be useful to any student of innovation, and "Invisibles" would fit nicely on the book shelf of supporters of Secretary of the Navy Mabus's new Task Force Innovation. Zweig shows how countries that shy away from flashy individualism value soft power and quiet influence over aggressive bullying. 
His insights generate questions:

John Paul Jones met by President Obama after Kennedy Center Honors in 2012.

Is narcissism at the root of moral decay in society? Does extreme individualism fuel the wealth gap and crush the middle class? Could growing self-promotion and the need for more election money be damaging the political system and preventing consensus-building? What happens when the levee breaks?

Zweig has his own epiphany while writing this book, finding joy in the work and not in the accolades.

He wraps up with an unintentionally ironic mention of John Paul Jones – not the flashy, flamboyant and forlorn hero of the early American Navy, but the creative British bass player who, along with John Bonham, backed up Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.