Luxe Beat Magazine JUNE 2014 | Page 69

History Harriet Tubman Along the way, “We the Living” was re-introduced and became recognized as a classic denunciation of all forms of totalitarianism. After writing her novels, Rand spent most of her time writing philosophical articles and speaking. She was a frequent speaker at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston. From her writings and talks, she always drew large crowds and volumes of written comments. Some were filled with admiration, others expressed almost hysterical opposition. Her last public appearance was at a Sound Money conference in New Orleans in November, 1981. At that point, her health started to fail and she died in March, 1982. Ayn Rand’s influence on our culture today is evident in many areas and seems to be quietly growing. Margaret Sanger She advocated and popularized birth control and women’s control over their own bodies and destinies. For her views, she was denounced and harassed by authorities and even imprisoned briefly. Unfortunately, Sanger epitomizes the concept of mixed premises, found in so many people, both famous and obscure. She possessed many admirable principles, but at the same time, advocated some that make one recoil. Sanger later wrote that she was struck by an episode when she was a young woman. A male immigrant whom she knew came to her, frantic with desperation. He and his wife already had several children. Her physician had warned them that giving birth to any more children would surely kill the wife. The man deeply loved his spouse and now had apparently impregnated her again. In those days, abortions were strictly criminal and were often administered by unsavory characters with little or no medical or sanitary skills. Because Sanger could offer no help, the couple attempted to undergo one of these abortions and the man’s beloved wife died during the procedure. This motivated Sanger to find solutions for women to avoid unwanted childbirths. Initially, Sanger started to lecture publicly on the need for birth control. She apparently did not advocate legalizing abortion, but instead, focused on other means of birth control. Sanger founded Planned Parenthood, the organization that continues a primary focus on this control. Her writings and lectures drew the wrath of Anthony Comstock. This man, a vile maniac, was secretary of a private New York organization, The Society for Suppression of Vice. He used his contacts with the Post Office to seize Sanger’s material as illegal and immoral. At one point, he succeeded in having her imprisoned for indecency. Later, after her release, he realized that Sanger had become sufficiently popular so that his further harassment of her was unwise. By the time of Sanger’s death in 1966, birth control pills had reached the market. This revolutionized the culture and, for the first time in human history, made family planning feasible. Although legalized abortion followed seven years later, with Roe versus Wade, Sanger’s primary contribution to birth control was already in pla