The Pittsburgh Press (January 11, 1943)
Millett: Resolutions really count because they aid America
Nation’s women say they’ll do things this war year and they mean what they say
By Ruth Millett
This year, no one greeted the New Year in a frivolous frame of mind.
Once Mrs. America’s New Year’s resolutions might have gone something like this:
I resolve to lose ten pounds; to play a better game of bridge; to do more entertaining.
But not this year. This year, Mrs. America is keeping firm, hard-headed resolutions. And those resolutions aren’t just important to her. They are important to her country.
This year, she is promising itself:
I will somehow find more time for war work. If I can do so without actually neglecting my family, I will prepare myself for a job outside my home.
I will waste nothing, neither time, nor energy, nor things, nor money.
I will become more efficient in the job of running my home, cutting out what is unessential – but being sure to keep its members feeling that it is the nicest place in the world.
I will not use the war as an excuse for getting out of things that I should do, but dislike doing.
I will watch myself that I do not leave others feeling worse, rather than better, for having talked with me.
I will keep whatever of beauty and peace I can in my life and in the lives of my family, instead of gearing our home life to the breathless hurry of the radio news announcers.
I will face whatever hardship or sorrow the year may bring to me with courage and faith in a better future. Sorrow and grief will come to many in 1943, and I must be able to live with the idea that it may come to me.
But even knowing that, I will not dread the New Year – but look forward to it courageously, realizing that I must help make it as successful a year as possible. I have a job to do, and I will do it as well as I can, because my small job is part of as great a job as my country has been undertaken.