Why didn't we learn about Georgia O’Keeffe, the Mother of American Modernism, who painted flowers in New York as if they were seen through a magnifying glass. She once said "I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do"
OR: Allyson Felix, American track & Field sprint athlete; Anuradha Koirala, founder of Maiti Nepal-a non-profit organization in Nepal that is dedicated to helping the victims of sex trafficking; or have heroines held up as examples of womanhood such as Irena Sendler, who worked in the Warsaw Ghetto (Poland) & smuggled 2500 Jewish infants in the bottom of her tool box & larger children in a burlap sack in the back of her truck to save them from the Nazis; Corrie ten Boom whose book The Hiding Place provided graphic examples of life in the Nazi prison camps and the many times God answered their prayers... Yes we watched the movie and we have read the book, but why do we not instruct our girls in having the courage to be their best instead of accepting whatever comes their way?
Audrey Hepburn was one of my favorite actresses, but I never really knew her. Ms Hepburn, who through UNICEF programs increased public awareness of the challenges facing the world's children (ahepburn.com) She spoke before the American Congress on Hunger in '89, and 91, seeking aid for Africa. She is an amazing woman our young women need to know about in order to emulate!
The blog, EVE (Equal Visibilty Everywhere) has created an alphabetical list of 100 Great American Women you can find here. I hope you will help your young women choose a woman to emulate, whether the woman comes from our history or the Bible, sometimes I believe I could have become something better if I had been able to imagine it.
We have Daniel Boone, Benjamin Franklin, Davy Crockett, Abraham Lincoln, George Patton, Louis Armstrong, Ronald Reagan, Joe Montana, Audie Murphy, but why do we know so little about Lady Deborah Moody, a respected community leader who brought settlers seeking religious freedom to Gravesend (which became New York); Ann Bradstreet, a poet in the mid 1600s; Molly Pitcher, who hauled water to Continental soldiers at the Battle of Monmouth; Sarah Josepha Hale, Editor of Godey's Lady's Book, which promoted the betterment of women; Harriet Beecher Stowe, writer of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was based on her own experiences; Harriet Tubman, who was a Conductor on the Underground Railroad, where she let 300 slaves to freedom and served the Union forces in South Carolina; Clara Barton, Started the American Red Cross; Florence Bascom, the first woman and female geologist to earn a PH.D from Johns Hopkins, who pioneered microscopic viewings of minerals & Rocks.... For more on these and many more, go to u-s-history.
Let's help our youth to choose a hero or heroine to follow and help them emulate that hero/heroine through the teachings of service, selflessness and fortitude (going beyond duty to do what is extraordinary). CMB
