| Author |
Across the Fence:  Women and the Right to VOTE.. a short history  |
|
|
Clare
True Blue Farmgirl
2173 Posts
NC WA State
USA
2173 Posts |
 Posted - Sep 21 2004 : 7:35:17 PM
|
I received this timely info in an email today, and thought it worth passing on to all of you. These are things I did not remember about women "winning" the right to vote. And it is important, in this day and age, not to assume any right as irrevocable. Cast your vote!
Please take a minute to read this. It is very important that we choose.
A short history lesson on the privilege of voting ...
The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and with their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of “obstructing sidewalk traffic.” They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. 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 November 15, 1917 (a mere 87 years ago), 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.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. 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.
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? 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. 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.
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 will run the movie periodically before releasing it on video and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. We are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order. 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. The doctor admonished the men: "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."
Please 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.
|
Edited by - Clare on Sep 21 2004 7:43:27 PM |
|
|
Eileen
True Blue Farmgirl
1199 Posts
Eileen
USA
1199 Posts |
Posted - Sep 22 2004 : 11:00:37 AM
|
Thankyou Clare! Such a timely reminder.
Eileen
songbird |
 |
|
|
n/a
deleted
64 Posts
Dave
Vestal
NY
64 Posts |
Posted - Sep 22 2004 : 11:18:29 AM
|
| Clare, so sad to receive this post. Just a guy, but it hurts to read these articles. Am pro-equality. The past is the past. We can change the World, but only if we can influence whom we touch in a positive manner........ |
|
|
|
Clare
True Blue Farmgirl
2173 Posts
NC WA State
USA
2173 Posts |
Posted - Sep 22 2004 : 11:29:17 AM
|
| Some history is sad Chickendave, but the important thing is to not forget the sacrifices made, and to value the changes. It's easy to become lethargic in "our cushy lives", whether they are monied or not, and this refresher is a good wake up call. I'm glad you are pro-equality... we women do appreciate it! Mainly it is a reminder to VOTE, and the importance of doing so. Sending you positive thoughts too and thanks for sharing. |
|
|
|
Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
146 Posts
Kim
Pflugerville
Texas
USA
146 Posts |
Posted - Sep 22 2004 : 5:18:05 PM
|
Clare, thanks for the post. We have HBO, so I'm excited to keep an eye out for this movie. Oneof my favorite classes in high school was a women's history class.
farmgirl@heart
Longaberger Lover and all things antique |
|
|
|
sleepless reader
True Blue Farmgirl
1022 Posts
CA
USA
1022 Posts |
Posted - Sep 23 2004 : 09:30:44 AM
|
Thanks, Clare for the post. Now I'll have to hunt down somebody with HBO and find out when it's going to be on. Hopefully, they will air this movie many times before November!
Sharon |
|
|
| |
Across the Fence: Women and the Right to VOTE.. a short history |
|
|
|
Women and the Right to VOTE.. a short history
