I remember being a green young thing (in my 20s) in the 70s and having so
very many people say that the rape laws would never be improved, so why
try?  In a number of states a victim had to have a witness to the rape or
to be severely injured fighting back to even be able to have prosecution.
Forget ever bring charges if you were on a date or at a party because
then the victim was considered responsible.  Back then people pretty much
always figured that it was the victim's fault, that somehow the victim
was "asking for it".
 
Actually, it wasn't just the rape laws that got changed.  Did you
know that at least one state still allowed lobotomies of wives at the
husband's insistence, or of daughters at the father's insistence then?
That in those years there were multiple states that allowed a husband to
charge a wife with dissertion if he moved but she didn't (but not visa
versa)?  That many of us here remember not lang ago when many schools and
graduate programs either banned women or had quotas of small numbers of
women?  That then there were a pile of foolish laws that were not based
on abilities or logic to keep women out of certain professions?
 
Those things and others were changed for the better; it was hard work and
not everything was gotten but so many things did improve.
 
The world (at least here in the states) changed for the better because
there were people who tackled the legal problems, who worked year after
year toward improving things.  There's still progress to be made but a
lot has changed in positive ways.  Do you realize how very many people
assumed that it never would?
 
It is so similar to the assumptions of failure some are making that
things won't improve legally for ferrets, but things already have, and
they will continue to improve as long as people work for improvements.
Don't give up without trying.  There is further progress to be made and
it can be made.  All that a person has to to do is to look at what has
already been accomplished to know that.
 
There are so many similarities between the laws that improved life for
women and those needed to improve things for ferrets: the same assumption
of future failure before even trying by too many, the same high emotions,
the same ignorance of the laws, the same folks who know that it can be
done but that it just will take some good old fashioned work.  This IS
do-able, folks.  It's a matter of learning HOW and then going from there
in non-confrontational and practical ways.
 
There have been improvements already and we've all read the kudos for
them, many of us have written such congratulatory messages.  It can be
done.  It has been done.  It can be done again.
 
Margaret Mead had it right when she wrote, "Never doubt that a small
group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world.  Indeed,
it's the only thing that ever has."
[Posted in FML issue 3927]