BRIDGET BISHOP ~ On this date in the year 1692, a woman named Bridget Bishop was hanged on Gallows Hill in Salem, Massachusetts, after being found guilty of the crime of Witchcraft. She was the first person to be publicly executed in the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Accused, tried, and executed for being a witch, Bishop was known to enjoy a drink or two, operated two taverns in town, and enjoyed the game of shuffleboard. She had been widowed twice.
She was bold, outspoken, independent, self-supporting, and liked to wear fine clothes (notably, a "red paragon bodice bordered and looped with different colors" and lace). She was said to have a sharp tongue. Bishop didn't fit into her society's notions of how a "good" woman should behave and her neighbors feared and resented her as a result. Though Bishop was the first to be executed in Salem, she was not the last. Take a moment today to remember her, and celebrate the differences you see around you instead of fearing them.
Tyranny cannot thrive without a public bogey to point at and blame for all the natural ill that the world is heir to.
At one time or another it has been the
Jew
homosexual
women
foreign people
slaves
Single parents
the handicapped
Green eyed people
left handed people
Cat owners
dog owners
WITCHES!!!
and anyone who disagrees with an accepted and known truth no matter how stupid it is
Fear leads to a demand for freedom from for which freedom too much be sacrificed, but of course fear never goes away, it just changes clothes.
.... to this day women are bewitching us us men. But now we accept being under their spell. Long may it last. Those men of old Salem should have spent less time on their knees muttering religious supplications, and more time on their elbows, using their mouths for ecstatic applications.
I am slowing coming to understand how ingrained this has been in history and how far the USA has to go.
There is a really good book that covers that, called Fantasyland - How America Went Haywire A 500 Year History by Kurt Anderson. Totally fascinating, and a good read.
When I visited Salem, it was very sad to know that many women were accused of witch craft by men who were rebuffed by them for not submitting to their sexual advances...the answer to rejection was to accuse a strong woman who said "no" as being a witch who bewitched them into being lustful and sinful...