Emma Lazarus & Immigration Ban by Diane Burton

Last week’s news about the ban on Muslims hit Facebook like a firestorm. But this is nothing new. Too many times in our nation’s past, there have been shameful incidents, for example interring Japanese Americans during World War II. 

Unless your family is Native American, we are all the sons and daughters of immigrants, or maybe immigrants ourselves. Our ancestors were not all welcomed with open arms. “Irish need not apply” once graced Help Wanted signs. Foreigners were given derogatory epithets. Still are.

I do believe in strongly, thoroughly checking out those who want to come to America. We have laws in place to do that. Those charged with that responsibility should do their duty. But a ban on people because of their religion or ethnic origin isn’t morally right. Isn’t it against our Constitution?

Just because reviling of newcomers is part of our past doesn’t mean it should be our present and future. Aren’t we better than this? Is Emma Lazarus’ poem on the Statue of Liberty a lie?

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I am so grateful that my father-in-law, my sister-in-law, my great-grandparents, and the rest of my ancestors came to the U.S. and were allowed in.

Because I blog on the 30th of the month, I'll see you again in March.

A Woman's Role by Diane Burton

When my mother was growing up, a woman’s role was pretty much cut in stone. She graduated from high school, got married, had kids, and took care of her home and family. If her family was wealthy enough, she went to college after high school, then the rest followed. It was relatively rare that a woman had a career. If she didn’t get married, she worked as a secretary, telephone operator, maybe a nurse or teacher. If her family/husband were well-to-do, she had Junior League and her volunteer work. Her life was planned out for her.

During World War II, women were told to step up. Remember Rosie the Riveter? What about A League of Their Own about women’s professional baseball? Women had to do “men’s” work because the guys were off fighting a war. When the men returned, it was “get back to the kitchen, ladies, you’re not needed anymore.” I often wondered how those women felt. They’d gotten independence, earned a good living, then—wham!—back to the old ways. I would've resented the heck out of it.

Television in the 1950s showed what life was like for a woman. Father Knows Best, June Cleaver, Harriet Nelson. Mom wore an apron and high heels while keeping an immaculate home.

Everything changed in the 1960s. Women decided to plan their own lives. Many of those who came of age in the 60s were torn, confused. We’d been taught (by our mother’s example, television, etc.) a certain way of life then expected by our peers to raise our sights higher. As if raising a family wasn’t enough. As if that job had no value.

I certainly don’t want to return to the days of my mother. Where women had no choices. What is great about these days is choice. Our careers are unlimited. Want to be an astronaut? Go for it. Want to be a teacher? It’s your decision. If you want to be a stay-at-home mom, your choice.

When my daughter was growing up, I taught her she could be anything she wants. As my granddaughters grow up, I hope their opportunities will be even greater.

Diane Burton writes romantic adventure . . . stories that take place on Earth and beyond. She blogs here on the 8th and 30th of each month and on Mondays on her own site: http://dianeburton.blogspot.com/

Women as Secret Weapons

We’re all familiar with the photo to our left. “Rosie the Riveter” was one of the weapons of World War II. While our men were off fighting, women back home left their kitchens and worked traditionally male jobs in factories. But there were “Secret Rosies,” too. And the more I read about them, the more I’ve come to respect their unheralded contribution to the war effort.

In 1942, a secret US military program was launched to recruit women to the war effort—female mathematicians who would become human “computers” for the army. The Rosies in the factories made the weapons; the female computers, the Secret Rosies, made them accurate.

These women worked in top-secret areas, which made it difficult for their actions to be publicized. One of the most significant areas of contribution was in mathematics. Large numbers of women trained in mathematics were recruited to do highly classified work in computing gunnery tables.

They did what we now would call number crunching and were largely unheralded, but their work was perhaps even more groundbreaking than those that used their muscles and were immortalized as Rosies, for it demonstrated that women were the intellectual equals of men, capable of being logical and precise.

Don’t ya love it?

In today's world we think of a computer as a thing, but back in World War II a computer was a person, and in many cases it was a woman.

My journey into awareness of these computers started with Ben, a World War II pilot, who sometimes comes to me at night, whispering to me about his girlfriend, Pearl, and would I tell her story. (No, I am not nuts, this is how my mind works. Or as Calvin would say, “I’m wired differently.”) When I asked Ben what made his Pearl so special, he just smiled and told me it was a secret.

What secret?

 

One night Calvin downstreamed a video from Netflix about female computers. We were only 5 minutes into watching this PBS documentary made by Professor LeAnn Erickson when the gears clicked in my mind. Possibilities meshed. My heart rate kicked up. Ben’s Pearl was one of those computers! Not really, but don’t we often take a historical fact and run with it to create our stories? Thus, my research of those fascinating women began.

When the war ended, a small group of those women went on to be the first programmers of the original ENIAC computer, as well as the next generation of computers.

 

Unfortunately, once they did their initial work, they were ignored, not even receiving invitations to attend the party celebrating the initial success of the machine. So, what else is new? Their story is told in great detail in this video, which consists of images, newsreel video, narration and interviews with the women that did the job. The women clearly loved their work, deriving satisfaction from having made a significant contribution to the war effort as well as helping make technical breakthroughs.

 

Wouldn’t this story be of enormous value in courses in women’s studies, the history of computing and technology, the history of World War II, and the history of mathematics?

 

It is hard to overstate the significance of the contribution of these women to the Allied victory in World War II, a fact that few people are aware of. Lipstick wearing computers who left home and traveled to strange cities to use their brain power to help win the war. Female pioneers we can all take pride in. Thank you, “Secret Rosies.”