Through the years

In 1995, the first Yahoo! search engine was launched (try Googling it!). The state of Mississippi finally got around to ratifying the Thirteen Amendment, which the rest of the nation had gone for in 1865.  That was the Amendment that abolished slavery.  Also in 1995, Tejana pop singer Selena was fatally shot at a motel in Corpus Christi, Texas by her former employee, Yolanda Saldívar. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, Americans, killed 168 of their fellow Americans by blowing up a federal building in Oklahoma, eBay was founded, and the appropriately-named Windows 95 came out.

And in Miami, Florida, which was one of the 50 United States at the time, a Walmart store removed a T-shirt from its sales shelf because a customer - one customer - complained about it.

This horribly disgusting item of apparel, something so egregiously heinous that it led to weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth on WalMart parking lots, features Margaret from the Dennis the Menace comic strip saying, "Someday a woman will be president."

Again, this was only 21 years ago. A woman named Ann Moliver Ruben heard from a WalMart buyer that they quit selling the shirts because it went against "Walmart's family values."

While we all mull over the stuff that Walmart sold in 1995 - and still sells today - that go against ANY sort of value, remember this. Ruben is actually Dr Ruben; she's a psychologist in Florida, and she designed the shirt to send a positive message to young women.

And a random woman opposed this in 1995.  I wonder how she feels now, with a woman on the ticket on one of the major parties.

And this is 2016, and things have changed.  Danit Marquardt, Director of Corporate Communications at WalMart, says, “Wow, it still pains us that we made this mistake 20 years ago.  We’re proud of the fact that our country – and our company – has made so much progress in advancing women in the workplace, and in society.”

And by the way...Jeannie Russell is the name of the young lady who played the role of Margaret in the Dennis The Menace TV show. Today she is a chiropractor in Los Angeles.  One of her patients is Jay North, who played Dennis, and who still deals with issues resulting from physical abuse he suffered at the hands of his aunt, his "guardian" on the TV soundstage.  She would beat the little boy if she found his acting not quite up to her standards.

I'm glad this is 2016.  We've finally awakened.