WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH ~ Rose Wilder Lane

March has been declared Women's History Month and it can be a time to reflect on the legacy women over the ages have left us. I honor each of them and have been a champion of women's rights since the 1970's. In the last century women gained more recognition and rights than they had in previous centuries. For this article, I am choosing to honor Rose Wilder Lane.

Rose Wilder Lane lived from 1886-1968 and was born at DeSmet Dakota Territory to Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder and was an only child. Many will be familiar with the books by her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House On the Prairie fame. Some will say that Rose was the ghost writer for her mother's books.

I became acquainted with the writings of Rose Lane when a copy of her book The Discovery of Freedom came into my hands. This book was published in 1945 and it is her research going back six thousand years that is the basis for the book. Rose Wilder Lane traveled extensively and her book paints a picture of wars always being fought all over the world. She alleges that humankind has been ruled by Authority of one kind or another for these six thousand years when it is a human right to be free. Many will say that she was a founder of the Libertarian Party in the United States. The following excerpts from her book:

"...human rights are natural rights, born in every human being with his life, and inseparable from his life; not rights and freedoms that can be granted by any power on earth...Americans hold this truth. This knowledge attacks, and for a hundred and sixty years has been attacking, the very foundation of the Old World. This is the knowledge that the Old World's defenders are now determined to destroy utterly....American Government is not an Authority; it has no control over individeuals and no responsibility for their affairs..."

Her philosophy is that humankind was born with freedom as a right, but the Authority whether it be a king, queen, emperor, president or any government has usurped this god-given right from them.

Her biography indicates she was a prolific writer as well as office clerk, stenographer, telegrapher, newpaper reporter, features writer, advertising writers, farmland salesman, novelist, as well as a Red Cross publicist based in Washington D.C. During the Vietnam war she was a news correspondent for Women's Day in South Vietnam at the age of 78.

Lane traveled extensively throughout the U.S, parts of Canada and the Caribbean, most of Europe as well as countries in the Near East and parts of Russia. King Zog of Albania is said to have wanted to marry her. She affected and changed many lives. For a more in-depth history of Rose Wilder Lane go to www.cate.org/special/threewomen/wilder-lane.html.

Like the butterfly, we find
We can no longer stay behind
Self-made walls of protection.

We struggle to be free,
Breaking the bonds of the self we see,
To soar in a new dimension.
…Anonymous