April 2nd: Today in 1917 Jeanette Rankin takes her seat in the US House of Representatives as the first woman elected to Congress. Only four days after being elected she makes history by voting against the entry of the US into World War One. She leaves Congress after a single term but returns to the house in 1940 and is the only member of Congress to vote against the entry of the US into World War Two after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I admire her honest commitment to pacifism, even if I would have voted differently, she was clearly a very couragous woman. Today’s politicians only seem to be pacifists when their party is out of power, they are hawks when their party is pushing for war.

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