Modern Times

It is worth noting that sometimes something is viewed as a good idea, and then set in motion, and sometimes something is set in motion and not agreed upon until later. Whenever a fight flares up about something - either one of today's hot-button issues or any of the myriad unknowns which shall visit us in times to come - think with perspective and a grain of salt. Progress takes shape in either Creeping Normalcy or the Short Sharp Shock - or any combination of the two.

Said Mr. Jones in 1910:
"Women, subject yourselves to men."
Nineteen-Eleven heard him quote:
"They rule the world without the vote."
By Nineteen-Twelve, he would submit
"When all the women wanted it."
By Nineteen-Thirteen, looking glum,
He said that it was bound to come.
This year I heard him say with pride:
"No reasons on the other side!"
By Nineteen-Fifteen, he'll insist
He's always been a suffragist.
And what is really stranger, too,
He'll think that what he says is true.
-Alice Duer Miller

The right thing isn't always obvious, and when it is obvious to some it may well not be to all. No prescribed psychological nostrum can prepare us for every dilemma, and we must instead take the harder but more worthy route of considerate approach.