Failure Magazine, that is. I guess an argument could be made that I also like actual failure, since I’ve worked in the volatile field of print media for the bulk of my career. I’ve been on intimate terms with layoffs and shut-downs far more often than I would have liked.
What I enjoy about the online magazine is that it reminds us how often scientists, artists, political movements, entrepreneurs and others failed before they made major breakthroughs.
One of today’s failures of the day is the reminder that the U.S. House of Representatives turned down a proposal to give women the right to vote on on this date in 1915.
Five years later, the 19th amendment was finally ratified, although it came fourteen years after the death of one of its best-known champions, Susan B. Anthony. Had she lived to see the day that her long life of work on suffrage finally paid off, she would have been 100 years old.
You never know what tenacity and a little faith might yield.
Life soundtrack: Beck, Mellow Gold, “Loser”
Copyright Tracy Zollinger Turner, Tinymantras.com, 2008.
Tracy,
My oldest son learned about the struggles that women went through to earn the right to vote when he was about 5. He learned about Susan B Anthony and decided that she was his favorite person in history. But the interesting thing was that he looked me straight in the eyes with tears in his own eyes and clinched fists (because he was sad and angry at the same time) and said “That is so wrong! I can’t believe that people thought women were less than a person.” It took him a while to shake his feelings and move on with his day. Now at the age of 8, he treasures silver dollars because Susan B Anthony is on them.
Wow, L.A.Mama – powerful stuff. It sounds like you are raising a good and compassionate boy.