Sunday, October 26, 2008

Suffrage March

Here are some pictures from the suffrage march on Saturday.















































My favorite sign is from the march is the sign about "Idiots" having the right to vote, but not women.

For some reason that sign reminds me of Buck vs. Bell. The 1927 Supreme Court where The Supreme Court concluded it was okay for the state to sterilize a woman because her mother and her daughter were "feeble-minded" and "promiscuous".*

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote the following in his decision:

We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes.

Three generations of imbeciles are enough.


I wonder if the idiots on the sign were related to the imbeciles in the Supreme Court decision.

*Every time I discuss this case, I have to confirm to at least one person that this really happened in this country. Yes! This really happened in this country. Just more than 80 years ago.

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1 Comments:

At 10:12 PM, Blogger iowahawksbob said...

Wow, that parade looks like it was pretty interesting. Wish I could have been there.

 

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