To Our Readers

Russ Gerber

What Do Rugs, machine tools, yarn, automotive parts, and hosiery have in common? A place. They are some of the products that have come out of a small western New York town known as Seneca Falls.

But most people who visit the community remember Seneca Falls as the place where the women's rights movement began in the United States a century and a half ago. That movement grew out of the limitations and frustrations felt by Elizabeth Caby Stanton and a handful of other local women.

At one point, Mrs. Stanton would write of her feelings after moving with her husband and three children from Boston where she had led an active and stimulating life. "I suffered with mental hunger," she said, "which, like an empty stomach, is very depressing." Mrs. Stanton saw a similar kind of limitation reaching into other aspects of women's Lives—Social, legal, and religious. So she and other women in the area resolved to take action. In July of 1848, the first Women's Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls "to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman." Over 300 women and men attended.

Today, when we think about being free of "mental hunger" and limitations, we see it as not only a right for women but for humanity. Our Cover Story explores everyone's right to be free from limitation, fear, and domination. It also sheds light on humanity's ability to attain this freedom. That ability, the author explains, is rooted in understanding our "unbroken relation to God." When we see ourselves as God's children, limits fall away, and mental hunger is statisfied. And in our editorial this week, you'll learn how spiritual hunger is satisfied.

The pages of this week's Sentinel bring liberating news for women and men everywhere.

Russ Gerber
Associate Editor

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