Federal Hall in New York City served as the first Capitol building of the United States. George Washington took his oath of office there. Today, it is a monument to a woman - his mother, Mary.
President Washington's words, "All that I am I owe to my mother," suggest that valor is a quality that women impart to their children. If this is true, then mothering must be one of the most important missions a woman can perform. Why then, one might ask, are so many women clamoring to be equal to men?If I may have the attention of those ladies who assembled at the Museum of Fine Arts at the University of Utah Dec. 5, I should like to tell them that Thomas Jefferson said that "an equality of condition is the antithesis of an equality of right." The law must be seen to equally protect the differences between people.
The differences between men and women were important to the founders of the U.S. government. The majority of them were wealthy, aristocratic and pure of heart. American women were honored as few women have ever been honored previously, as mothers and wives.
Wakefield, Shadwell, Montpelier and Hyde Park are the homes in which George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were born. The women who ruled over these houses of our foremost statesmen would never have wanted to be a "top gun" in the Air Force, and none of our presidents thought for a moment that a woman should share the obligations of combat.
Most of them testified, at one time or another, that the strength of mind and spirit which enabled them to encounter danger with firmness was a gift from their parents, especially their mother.
I hope that our Utah ladies acknowledge how wrong it is for generations of infant children to be in day care while their mothers toil in the marketplace.
May they also be blessed with the understanding that their mission, though different from that of their husbands and their sons, is equally blessed.
Mary Jean Freebairn
Salt Lake City