This is definitely worth repeating. November 2nd will soon be here.
This is the story of our Mothers and Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers who lived only 90 years ago. Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.
The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.
And by the end of the night, they were barely alive.
Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing
Went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'
 |
| Lucy Burns |
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
 |
| Dora Lewis |
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her Head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
 |
Alice Paul
|
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
 |
| Mrs. Pauline Adams in the prison garb she wore while serving a sixty-day sentence. |
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food -- all of it colorless slop -- was infested with worms.
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because - why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining? So, what will be your excuse for not exercising a hard won precious privilege??
 |
| Miss Edith Ainge, of Jamestown , New York |
Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
 |
| Berthe Arnold, CSU graduate |
All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient. [ Is protecting of our liberties and way of life 'inconvenient'? for that is what not exercising your privilege to vote means]
My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, Saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk About it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'
HBO released the movie on video and DVD. I wish all History, Social studies and American Government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.
 |
| Conferring over ratification [of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution] at [National Woman's Party] headquarters, Jackson Pl [ace] [ Washington , D.C. ]. L-R Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, Anita Pollitzer, Alice Paul, Florence Boeckel, Mabel Vernon (standing, right) |
It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'
Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote for the Democratic, Republican Party or Independent - Just remember to vote.
 |
| Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk, Conn. Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. Prison for carrying banner, 'Go vernments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.' |
History is being made.
ARE you willing to be an active participant or continue as part of the voting apathy which prevails throughout the majority of American citizens? Continuing to stand by while allowing our elected officials to grab more and more power, tell us, The People, what is best for us, and much more? It is your choice, which do your prefer?? This is the value of your vote!!
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment