This Women’s History Month, Celebrate the Resolve of Jeannette Rankin – Antiwar.com Original
Posted by M. C. on March 31, 2023
“As expected, Jeannette Rankin remained a staunch advocate for peace until her death at the age of 92 in 1973. At a sp(r)y 87 years old she led her group, the Jeannette Rankin Brigade, on an anti-Vietnam War march in Washington DC holding her banner, “End the war in Vietnam and social crisis at home!””
Do we have a shortage of female heroes in this country? Are virtuous women that scarce? Or is it simply that Women’s History Month, by eliminating women from the conversation who don’t fit the narrative of the State Department and the Pentagon, failed to achieve its goal? Why would Secretary of State Antony Blinken post his admiration for a group of women who have killed (estimating conservatively) millions of people? Why wouldn’t he instead promote women like Jeannette Rankin and the ideas for which she stood? Probably because she would have defied and vehemently opposed every foreign policy decision he’s ever made.
Jeannette Rankin is a true American hero who lived her life based on the principles of pacifism. Although I may not agree with her views on social welfare, she was clearly sincere in her motives, and she was unwavering in her antiwar stance and belief that everyone has a right to vote in a democracy.
By 1910, a thirty-year old Rankin had joined the suffrage movement, lobbying for legislation to give women a say in how they’re governed by giving them a vote. In 1914 her and other suffragettes were successful in her home state of Montana. Unfortunately, a few months prior to this success, the Great War had broken out in Europe, and she knew that the United States was at risk of becoming entangled in the conflict.
She ran for Congress (with the help of funding from her brother, Wellington) on a platform of nationwide suffrage, protection of children, and neutrality in the European war. It was these policies that propelled her to Washington as the first ever female member of Congress. This was so unprecedented, the establishment had no idea how to proceed. While they debated on whether or not it was appropriate to admit a woman into legislature, President Woodrow Wilson began to beat the war drums.
On April 2, 1917, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. Citing the Zimmermann Telegram – a leaked diplomatic cable sent by Germany to Mexico proposing a military alliance against the United States – the president said:
“The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.”
[Editor’s Note: This article previously mentioned the sinking of the RMS Lusitania as the proximate cause of the U.S. declaration of war. This was incorrect. We apologize for the oversight.]
(How many times are we supposed to allow them to take us to war in order to make democracy safe?)
Jeannette Rankin didn’t buy it.
Be seeing you
MCViewPoint 
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