"We do not expect our path will be strewn with the flowers of popular applause, but over the thorns of bigotry and prejudice will be our way, and on our banners will beat the dark storm clouds of opposition from those who have entrenched themselves behind the stormy bulwarks of custom and authority, and who have fortified their position by every means, holy and unholy. But we will steadfastly abide the result. Unmoved we will bear it aloft. Undauntedly we will unfurl it to the gale, for we know that the storm cannot rend from it a shred, that the electric flash will but more clearly show to us the glorious words inscribed upon it, "Equality of Rights.""
http://www.greatamericandocuments.com/speeches/stanton-seneca-falls.html
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Seneca Falls Keynote Address Delivered July 19, 1848, Seneca Falls, New York
As we approach March 1, the beginning of Women's History Month, I am reminded of the struggles for equality of rights that specific populations of the United States have had to undertake to receive equal protection under the law. Elizabeth Cady Stanton represents one among millions of faces that took up the banner and held it aloft in hopes that the promises offered by the Declaration of Independence and the rights enumerated in the Constitution would one day apply to all human beings yearning to become or call themselves citizens of the United States of America.
I hope that we can all impart to our students the importance of exercising the rights many have devoted themselves to earning and protecting.
