What is a proper motto for courage?

UPDATE:
VA employees wanted a gender-neutral mission statement. The agency refused

The strategic document instead phrased VA’s mission statement this way: “To fulfill President Lincoln’s promise to care for those ‘who shall have borne the battle’ and for their families, caregivers, and survivors.”

GEE WHERE DID WE SEE THOSE WORDS BEFORE? For Those Who Have Borne the Battle, Equality?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 8, 2018


Is the VA motto outdated and sexist? The head of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans group thinks so.

At issue is an 1865 quote from Abraham Lincoln, “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.” The quote was from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address and became the motto for VA 59 years ago.

Lincoln's quote is part of our history. Then again, so are women serving in the military. 

As a matter of fact, considering that there was a female held as a POW during the Civil War, you'd think that Lincoln would have used the word "those" instead of "he" and instead of "widows" maybe use families. 

Attitudes were a lot different back then. Oh, I don't mean the attitudes of males in charge thinking women should not be in the military. After all, considering they always wanted to serve, the only attitude change females have had is that more of them fought for the right to serve this country. 

Really twisted when you think about it.

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker became a doctor when women were only supposed to be nurses. A female POW, and she was a surgeon...and the only woman to have been given the Medal of Honor, before they tried to take it away...then they gave it back symbolically.

This is what MOH Dr. Mary Edwards Walker went through afterwards.

Even though Walker was a Medal of Honor recipient and Civil War veteran, people often insulted her. Some written accounts say people even threw tomatoes at her as she walked through town.
“She is recognized all across the United States,” said Theresa Cooper, the Oswego town clerk who worked with the Oswego Town Historical Society to spearhead the statue project. “She has her own postage stamp. Children across the U.S. find her interesting enough to do projects about her in school. Yet here, she knew how people perceived her in a negative way. She knew children used to make fun of her.”

And then there is this,

"Her taste in clothes caused frequent arrests on such charges as impersonating a man. At one trial, she asserted her right to, “Dress as I please in free America on whose tented fields I have served for four years in the cause of human freedom.” The judge dismissed the case and ordered the police never to arrest Dr. Walker on that charge again. She left the courtroom to hearty applause."

But long before Mary, there were many more willing to do whatever they could for the sake of this land they loved and freedom . They fought to obtain it during the Revolutionary War!

Their motivations for signing up vary but, since most of these women were young, unmarried and poor, many of them joined in order to earn money for their families as well as for the rare opportunity to fight for America’s independence. It’s not surprising that since the American Revolution began in Massachusetts, many of these women soldiers were from Massachusetts.Some of these women soldiers include Deborah Sampson from Plympton, Mass, who fought in New York under the alias Robert Shurtliff in 1781 and served for over a year before she was discovered.Another female soldier was Ann (or Nancy) Bailey of Boston who enlisted in 1777 under the alias Sam Gay and was promoted to Corporal before her true identity was discovered just a few weeks later, resulting in her arrest and imprisonment.After her release, Bailey signed up again and served as a soldier for a few weeks before she was discovered and jailed again, according to the book The Revolutionary War.Some women didn’t disguise themselves or join the military but instead armed themselves and took to the streets, such as Prudence Cummings Wright did in Pepperell after two suspected Tory spies came through her town and she recruited a group of armed women to capture them.

Considering this nation was not just created for freedom but women have been subjected to far more than any males to achieve it, changing a motto that is younger than the current President is the least we can do for them!


After Iraq and Afghanistan, pioneering women in the military set sights on Congress
Washington Post
By Mary Jordan
February 7, 2018

In Amy McGrath’s pitch to voters in Kentucky, she wears a bomber jacket and stands next to an F/A-18, the fighter jet she flew as a Marine to drop bombs on Afghanistan.

In Mikie Sherrill’s political ad in New Jersey, the camera lingers over a whirring Sea King helicopter, like the one she piloted on Navy missions.

And in Martha McSally’s video announcing her run for Senate in Arizona, she is crouched in the cockpit of an Air Force fighter jet to underscore that she was the first woman to fly in combat.

Women who served in the military are running for elective office in greater numbers than at any time in history. Many broke gender barriers in uniform and say it’s time to make their mark in politics. For generations, military veterans who become elected officials have overwhelmingly been male and Republican, but these female veterans, many of whom served in pioneering combat roles in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are overwhelmingly Democrats and critical of President Trump.
read more here