Yesterday's blog about women's suffrage in honor of the day American women were granted the right to vote started me pondering ... in true geezer fashion ... on all that has been hard-fought, but eventually deemed too inconsequential to bother about.

In 2004, for example, 61% of eligible women voters actually voted in the presidential election, and although that may sound impressive, it does mean that 39% didn't bother.

For a look at how many individuals we're talking about, that 61% beats the 58% of women who voted in 2000 by 8,000,000 votes, so if 4% means 8 million voters, almost 40% has to represent close to 80 million women who weren't concerned enough to make their voice heard.

I'm quite sure that the women who battled long and hard for the vote would be pressed to understand why this fundamental right that wasn't recognized as such ... and still isn't in some parts of the world ... is now, less than 100 years later, treated so lightly and valued so little.

Our generation came into the world with the ballot conveniently within easy reach, but had fights on our hands, nonetheless.

Birth control was illegal for girls hitting puberty in the '50s and '60s, while at the same time messages from all directions encouraged instant gratification and passionate encounters. Boys were primed for action ... and condoms were available to most of them. Girls were sitting ducks, and hundreds of thousands of us soon found ourselves on nests.

Abortions could be had if a girl didn't mind a trip down a back alley and risking her life. Coat hangers and knitting needles had a whole different and sinister connotation back then.

All of us caught in that web lost ... for some, it was their child; for others, it was their hopes and dreams and futures. Many fought back, started the women's movement ... so very much like the force that had won us the vote ... and made changes in the law that gave those behind us chances and choices we hadn't had.

How hard is it now for us to understand why many younger women who've been handed birth control on a plate can't be bothered to protect themselves against unplanned pregnancy?

Are these two examples of an inevitable process of forgetting and devaluing all efforts striving for a better world that happened to happen before a person makes an entrance on the planet? Or are they symptoms of overindulgence fed on the acceptability of shoulder shrugs and a cavalier assumption of entitlement?

Either way, we really should be doing a better job of teaching appreciation for what's happened in the past. If we don't, our kids will be ill prepared for the future and not at all equipped to do their part toward improving the lot of the generation behind them.