Decades ago, as a 9-year-old girl, I stood with my friends outside a Catholic church in Colorado, asking Father Pat why only boys could serve the priests during Mass.
My friend, Marty, was an altar boy. Why could he do it but not us? The priest’s answer didn’t satisfy my fourth-grade mind.
When we moved to a small town in southeast Colorado, girls served during the Mass, but they weren’t officially allowed to do so by the Vatican until 1994.
During the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, so-called “radical” women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul fought for women’s suffrage, the right men enjoyed to cast votes that determined the leadership in the United States. The first gathering focused on women’s rights took place in July 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. After the Civil War ended, passage of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave Black men the right to vote Feb. 3, 1870. Brave women continued to battle an intractable system to earn the right to vote, which they finally achieved Aug. 26, 1920—72 years after the first meeting—with the passage of the 19th Amendment.
During World War II, Rosie the Riveters broke the industrial glass ceiling when they proved that women could excel as welders, mechanics and riveters.
As a conservative woman, I was thrilled during the 2008 presidential campaign when Republican Sen. John McCain selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. What a triumph it would be for a mother of five to serve in the nation’s second-highest office. I even organized the Lewis County Republican Party’s office that year hoping that we could make history.
Unfortunately, McCain lost the election to Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who made history as the first Black United States president. Obama earned nearly 53 percent of the vote compared to 46 percent for McCain. In that election, 69.5 million people voted for Obama, 60 million for McCain.
In 2016, Sen. Hillary Clinton ran at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket with Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate but lost to Republican Donald Trump and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Clinton won 65.8 million votes compared to Trump’s 63 million, 48.2 percent to 46.1 percent, but he won the Electoral College.
Now former Sen. Joseph Biden, Obama’s vice president, appears to have won the 2020 election, which would make his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, the first woman elected vice president of the United States. She’s also the first Black woman.
Although recounts and lawsuits seem inevitable, at this point it appears the Democratic ticket, which so far garnered 75.4 million votes, has defeated Trump and Pence.
Whether you voted for Trump or Biden, the fact remains that electing a woman to the White House marks a significant moment in history. With the election so close, I hope Biden and Harris govern from the center and not the left. Only time will tell.
On a local level, the first woman elected to serve as a Lewis County commissioner was Joanne Schwartz, who served from 1985 to 1992. Edna Fund, who just lost her bid for a third term, was the second female county commissioner, serving from 2012 to 2020. And voters made local history this month by electing Winlock veterinarian Lindsey Remund Pollock as the third woman to fill a county commissioner seat. All three women ran as Republicans.
Eagle Scouts
Last week I wrote about two young women from Chehalis—Allison Hilliker and Brianna Powe—who recently joined the inaugural class of females to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout in Scouts BSA, formerly the Boys Scouts of America.
When Corbin Mansker erected the new Toledo High School sign as his Eagle Scout project in 2014, I realized we’ve benefitted for years as a community from teenagers completing service projects to achieve the highest ranking in Scouts.
Eagle Scouts are held to the Scout Oath and Scout Law throughout their lives, said Sarah Prok, committee chair for the Chehalis BSA Troop and Venturing Crew.
In fact, earning an Eagle Scout ranking is such a high achievement it’s often mentioned in the obituaries of people when they pass away—either those who became Eagle Scouts (Christopher “Chris” R. Johnstone, Alan James Kiser, Jerrold Clifford Johnson, Christopher Randall Hankins, Edward Grant Kidrick, Alex Goedhard, James Douglass ‘Jim’ Vander Meer, Dr. Wayne Maurice Smith, to name only a few) or parents proud of helping their sons achieve the rank, such as Anne Marie Talley and Dr. Carl Birchard.
Scoutmaster Jon Guyer, who became an Eagle Scout in 1995, wire-brushed all the threads on the fire hydrant caps in Chehalis and helped identify those that needed repairs. He said Eagle Scouts usually volunteer 75 to 100 hours to their service projects.
“I enjoy working with the youth and teaching them to become leaders,” said Guyer, who is stepping down in December after 16 years as an adult volunteer. “I enjoy watching the kids grow in their leadership skills and in their teamwork skills.”
Thank you to Lewis County Eagle Scouts who have orchestrated, promoted, and implemented service projects benefiting the community. I appreciate Prok for tracking down details about these recent projects and apologize if I overlooked anyone:
• Allison Hilliker created 100 toiletry kits for teens in foster care
• Brianna Powe erected a flagpole and cleaned headstones at historic Fern Hill Cemetery south of Chehalis
• Isaac Morris upgraded and secured the front and back entrances to the Historic Scout Lodge in Chehalis to prevent further water damage
• Cameron Kunz cleaned and renovated the concession stand for the Chehalis Little League
• Jacob Blomdahl installed benches on the Chehalis-Centralia airport trail
• Kyle Braun replaced the flag pole at the Chehalis Scout Lodge
• Thomas Even repainted every fire hydrant in the city of Chehalis
• Alec Ibanez built a chicken coop for Community Co-op
• Tom Koenig installed address signs for first responders in the Salkum Fire District
• Christopher Powe removed the skylights, reroofed and painted the outside of the bathroom at Penny Playground in Chehalis
• Noah Layton repaired, painted and installed new gravel for local baseball fields
• Joseph Powe built shadow box display windows in the Chehalis Scout Lodge
• Justin Schwiesow installed stall numbers in the Showplex building at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds
• Michael Wilson built picnic tables for the Chehalis Parks Department
• Ben Corwin painted a permanent large-scale map of the United States on a playground at Fords Prairie Elementary School in Centralia
• Malachi Simper spearheaded the inaugural cleanup at the pioneer Washington Lawn Cemetery in Centralia
• Clayton Porter redid the nursery floor and interior paint at the Baptist Church in Napavine
• Thomas Prok is doing interior painting to the lower floor of Hub City Mission and putting together 100 blessing backpacks with personal essentials for distribution as needed
• William Lienhard and Logan Stidham are installing address signs for first responders in the Salkum Fire District
• Joseph Miess is creating a website for a nonprofit agency, White Pass Community Services Coalition (working on- not completed)
• Justin Hilliker is finishing upgrades to a classroom in the Chehalis Scout Lodge to provide much-needed space for teaching
•••
Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at chaptersoflife1999@gmail.com.
