A Fairy Tale

Not long ago in the vastness of time, a little girl was born in a valley in the the most powerful kingdom of its time. She was one of many born during these years. The little girl lived in house with her parents and siblings. She wore dresses to school and changed into play clothes when she got home. Her neighborhood was full of children both boys and girls and they all played together. These were the innocent days of a childhood not cut short by work as childhood had been for her grandmother a  few decades earlier. The little girl’s parents both worked hard to provide her and her siblings with experiences they had never had. The mother of the little girl was the only mother on her block that worked. Because of that, the family did things of which most of her friends never dreamed.

As the little girl became a teenager she began to be aware of injustices in the mighty kingdom and a terrible war that raged beyond the kingdom’s borders.  At the dinner table each night the television news reported riots and unrest on college campuses and body counts from the war. She learned that women didn’t have the rights and opportunities that men  did although her parents told her she could do or be anything she wanted. 

Over time the powerful kingdom was forced by its subjects to correct injustices and to end the bloody war. For many years women rose into positions of power and peace ruled the land. The little girl grew up and had a daughter of her own whom she taught to be smart, independent, and cognizant of her rightful place in society.

Sadly, by the time the daughter was grown, times had changed. The kingdom was again mired in a decades long  war far beyond its borders and there was a movement by the rich and powerful to turn back time, to limit the civil rights of all the kingdom’s people.  Women were  targeted by those whose religions preached the supremacy of men. 

Would-be kings harkened back to what they identified as the golden age of their kingdom.  They pointed to low crime and happiness in a society where everyone went to church and mothers stayed home with their children. How wonderful it used to be before teenaged girls got pregnant and women went to college and on to jobs displacing men from their rightful role. If only mothers would stay home again and raise their children with a firm and godly hand the kingdom could once again enjoy the idyllic times so many remembered.

But these were lies the would-be kings told the people. They knew the people had forgotten or never learned about the injustices and crimes carried out by the king’s ministers when the little girl was small. The prejudices and rights violations that marked that era were conveniently forgotten. The dukes and earls that ruled the many royal states began to proclaim the end of certain rights especially for women. Incredibly the people applauded the reactionary policies comforted by the lords’ assurances of better lives for all if injustice for some prevailed. No one rioted in the streets or demonstrated or seemed to care about the coming end of liberty and justice for all. 

Just as the little girl had become an adult infused with hope for the future she now grew old disheartened by the return of prejudice and unjustice in a kingdom once revered for its freedoms.  The greedy lords of the kingdom grew richer and more powerful than ever, despoiling the land and disenfranchising the citizens. The little girl, now old and forgotten hoped to live long enough to see the people again rise up and demand that peace and justice rule the kingdom once again. How long, she wondered, would it take?