Speak Up For Your Beliefs
This time of year always reminds me of my experiences at WSU, then called Washington State College. I want to share these experiences to show how much things have changed and yet how little things have changed, too.
It was the late 1930s and we had a dean of women who was very strict. She was also a prude and had some odd rules when it came to dating. We’d often go out on dates, crammed into one car. Women were required to take a pillow to sit on, if they happened to sit on the lap of a young man. It was also forbidden for us to take a blanket on a date. We had to be in at 10 every night.
There was a very popular guy at the college named Jerry. He decided he’d had enough of the dean’s rules. He organized a protest. Jerry would go in the middle of the football field and ring a cowbell. We were called the cow college, after all. He led the protest but he set down some rules for those of us who participated: No drinking. No rowdiness or destroying things. We were to walk in single file, all around the campus and into downtown Pullman.
There were a couple of places to drink beer along the route but we resisted. We did the protest walk twice a week for a while. We were quiet, just walking through the town. But people knew we were protesting about the dean’s funny rules.
It worked. The dean finished the school year but didn’t come back.
I loved the protest. It helped me learn at a young age that if you get involved, you can make a difference. I worked in politics all the rest of my life. I was strong for women’s rights. My dad was part of that. He told my sister and me: “Because you’re girls, don’t think you can’t do what you want to do. If there’s something you want to do, work toward it.” So, in the 1970s I worked very hard for the Equal Rights Amendment.
The young women I meet now who are involved in causes say, “I’m all burned out.” I’m thinking, anybody who works hard for something will get tired.
Jerry died recently. He was a colonel; I wasn’t surprised. He was sharp as a tack.
That 1930s protest taught me something. I would encourage young people to get involved. You can’t get anything done unless you speak out.
MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a Your Turn column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write Your Turn, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615.