Why Women Should Vote

[In2Kermit]

I received this email and it made me think. I know it's not 'good news' but I didn't know where else to post it.


WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they 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.


(Lucy Burns)
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.'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.



For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.


(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.
http://memory.loc.gov/amm...uffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf

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 released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and 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.

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 us by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made.



Read more:
http://memory.loc.gov/amm...suffrage/nwp/tactics.html

http://memory.loc.gov/amm...uffrage/nwp/brftime3.html

[Ginafish]

I'd like to see that HBO movie.

I'll go a step further and say everyone in every country should be a registered voter as soon as they are what ever legal age they need be and then vote in whatever country they live in. Now if only there was a way to ensure all voting processes were honest and fair.

[acm11]

an issue dear to me

but one i find hard to explain to the average cynical person my age.

I believe We have rights and responsibilities as part  of a democratic society.

If we wish to exercise our rights (such as acessing eduaction, healthcare or pensions) i believe we should also fulfill our responsibilities and one of those responsibilities is taking notice of the political stance of candidates and voting according to our beliefs.

It is not only women who have had to historically fight for the right to vote. For example in australia only landowners were afforded the vote until the eureka stockade ( a long story) and even worse indigenous australians (koories in the area i come from) were neither counted in the census (in other words counted as australian citizens) or allowed register to vote until a referendum in 1967.

Australia now as a democracy requires by law all citizens to attend a polling booth on election day (sometimes referred to as compulsory voting) however if anybody has an objection to voting as they cannot make a diecision about a preferred candidate or they have a conscientious objection to voting they can simply and anonymously leave their voting paper blank while still fulfilling their responsibility. I believe this is much better than democracies who have optional voting which in general results in the educated elite voting while the majority of lower socio economic groups are distracted by the media and other issues such as celebrity ins and outs are surreptisioulsy led to believe there is no point in voting as they cannot make a difference. This of course leads to they educated elite maintaining the structures of power that often support them an their kind.

Democracy is not a perfect sysytem but i believe as winston churchill said it is the best sytem we have. I believe in order for a strong representative democracy encouragement for all to vote is necessary and possibly legislation for people to fulfll there responsibility to vote is necessary in order to provide a truly representative government.

In australia i believe about 90 per cent of eligible voters turn out whereas i believe in us is often less than 50 per cent. In Ireland where i currently reside it is generally 60 to 70 per cent.

A strong democracy requires an informed electorate as well as an electorate who believes in excersining their responsibility to vote. many people before us had to fight for the right to express their political beliefs let us not forget this and honour them in exercising our right in a responsible and consided manner. And depsite our possible differences with our political rivals recognise the value and importance of the right to express and promote different political views as their are too many horrific examples of what can happen when one political view is allowed or is forcibly let to dominate wihtout restraint and question.

[Sean]

If we wish to exercise our rights (such as accessing eduaction, healthcare or pensions) i believe we should also fulfill our responsibilities and one of those responsibilities is taking notice of the political stance of candidates and voting according to our beliefs.

Unfortunately we don't have any one of these "rights" in the US.  Education while guaranteed through 12th grade is highly variable and quality is strongly correlated to the neighboring property values.  Higher eduction is in no way guaranteed.  Healthcare is definitely not a right, in fact its an absolute absurdity.  The wealthiest nation in the world yet 47 million are uninsured, myself included.  Pensions are all but extinct as well.

Remember, our version of democracy is one where the candidate with the most votes doesn't necessarily win.
---
I wasn't aware of Australia's compulsory voting policy.  I think that is a great idea, as long as they have that option to abstain once they show up.  It would certainly be a better reference point than the 40% who shows up for our elections.

[thartley]

Sean, I would say to you that you have a great passion that should drive you to make a difference in your own country.  Just as the women above, who were courageous and brave enough to personally sacrifice for their convictions to better the situation for so many, instead of complaining and doing nothing, you have very clear ideas of what is wrong.  Put that energy to work and help fix what is wrong.  That much definitely is your right as a US citizen, as is abstaining.  And if you are actively making a difference in what you see wrong in your world, kudos to you and you are to be commended and I'd love to hear about it.

One of the things I have learned and garnered from my time here, away from my home, is a clear appreciation of my home country and a renewed passion to make a difference where my passions reside.  That is what PK is doing here in Nong Khai and his personal drive to do what he does steered by his own conscience is an inspiration. 

[Sean]

I'm not complaining, I'm explaining the true situation in the United States.  Most people from other developed nations assume we have these rights such as healthcare, we do not.  Nor do we pay for higher education.   

I had this conversation many times in Nong Khai with Jennie.  From Sweden, she could not fathom not having healthcare guaranteed to her.

There are other issues closer to my heart and I'm pretty sure that no one would accuse me of complacency.  You won't find me sitting in my proverbial room all day.

My passions lie in helping people I can impact directly, and I try my best to do this everyday.

[thartley]

I'm not complaining, I'm explaining the true situation in the United States.  Most people from other developed nations assume we have these rights such as healthcare, we do not.  Nor do we pay for higher education.   

I had this conversation many times in Nong Khai with Jennie.  From Sweden, she could not fathom not having healthcare guaranteed to her.

There are other issues closer to my heart and I'm pretty sure that no one would accuse me of complacency.  You won't find me sitting in my proverbial room all day.

My passions lie in helping people I can impact directly, and I try my best to do this everyday.

Nice.... it would be difficult to imagine you sitting and doing nothing.  People like you make the world a better place simply by being in it and your level of energy and enthusiasm is amazing.  I have no doubt you are doing great things.

[ZeroG]

acm11 said:

Democracy is not a perfect system but i believe as winston churchill said it is the best system we have.

This is very true, however with technology today, you'd think we could come up with a better way. I always thought my vote doesn't count because all my research, experience and wisdom can be canceled by one random vote in the other direction. What is more disheartening is knowing that the biggest decision affecting woman's rights in the US since the beginning of this country was not decided by a vote, but by a supreme court judge (Roe vs. Wade).

There are two kinds of votes, that for the issue and that for the person. When you vote for an issue, you are voting yes or no to something, usually a bond, which has already gone through word-smithing and decisions by existing officials. When you vote for a person you are electing someone who will make future decisions which match your point of view. That is why we have the party system in the U.S., so that we can sort out some of the more fundamental points of view.

Well, enough with Political Science 101. It is like everyone in the car voting on driving the car. It is better to vote on one person to drive than to vote on every turn and press of the gas or brake. The fact that woman can now serve in public office is more important than their right to vote. At least a woman will ask for directions when they are lost. 

[thartley]

I had to make sure my daughter was actually registered to vote this year.  The 29-days prior to election date rule will put us at Oct 6, and that is the date we will be arriving back in the states. 

I have taken her with me in the past to the polling booths before, also.  That's something my mom never did that I wish she had.