Elmer and Gerry

My paternal grandparents would be 96 years old if they were alive today. One generation from me (thanks to some long pauses between their children's birthing and also to my being born of the youngest) are people who were born in 1912. 1912. Do you know what happened in 1912?

I didn't. But Wikipedia believes that:
The Republic of China was established.
New Mexico became the 47th state in the Union (on the day that would become my birthday and having missed out on all of the fun stuff like July 4, 1776, 1812, Lincoln, whatnot, by being covered in Natives still).
Arizona became the 48th state (same stuff).
Ye Olde Titanic sank and took Leonardo DiCaprio with it (I mean, I wish it had).
Tiger Stadium opened in good old DEE-troit (so did Fenway... psshhhh).
Jackson Pollack was born. So was Hitler's honey Eva.

January 17, 1912: The second expedition EVER reaches the south pole. Elmer William Koster is born. He doesn't know yet that he'll marry this chick named Geraldine and their names will be beloved but never re-bestowed by their granddaughter.

May 7, 1912: Geraldine Veronica Stanton is born to an Irish mother and an English father (!!). On the eve of her birth there is a famous suffragette parade in New York City.

A suffragette parade.

On August 26, 1920, women could finally vote. Well, white women anyway. Geraldine was eight years old. She had actual memories of this occurance. Conscious memories of someone who was person enough to HAVE memories of WOMEN gaining the RIGHT to VOTE. One generation.

People of all other colors gain the right to vote WITHOUT insane limitations/fear of scare tactics 44 years later. 44. Years.

Sixty-four years later: Another Geraldine becomes the first female Vice Presidential nominee representing a major American political party. The Democratic party. It did not go well. Her Vice Presidential debate was with a certain George. H. W. Bush. I think we know his son. In a landslide loss, Bush and his prez take all. (Except Minnesota and D.C. Oh, but they won 59% of the popular vote--a landslide on a much smaller scale. This Electoral College is still in place. You knew? Why don't you want to kill someone?)

Eighty-eight years later: The Republican party becomes the second (and currently last) "major American political party" to nominate a woman to be Vice President of the United States.

Sarah Louise Heath Palin.

You betcha.

It occurs to me that the women (and men!) marching in my very own home city--on the day before my grandmother was born to an Irish woman and an English man, eight years, 3 months and 21 days before white women nab the right to vote--might be disatisfied with the amount of progress their grandchildren have made.

It also occurs to me that the women and men marching on the streets of this very same city every day might want to consider these things. And what the true meanings of "change" and "progress" are in October of 2008 as we experience something that I'm told is looking like a certain long, hard period in Elmer and Geraldine's young adult lives. Oh, and that they (the citizens of this country--really, that's all it takes) can do something about it.