This week Girl Scouts throughout the country are celebrating the birthday of Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low. As we think about her birth, it is useful to also think about the setting into which she arrived.
She was born in Savannah, Georgia on October 31, 1860, in the midst of the most divisive presidential election in U.S. history—one marred by threats, fearmongering, and questionable campaign tactics. The outcome of the election sparked a chain of events that led to a civil war pitting the families of Daisy’s mother and father against one another.
Daisy’s country, family, and young childhood would forever be changed by the election that followed her birth. So as we look forward to celebrating the Girl Scout founder’s birth, know that those incessant campaign text messages and ads for next week’s election that you may have grown tired of are in many ways simply old tactics presented with 21st-century technology. And they were much worse in 1860!
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