- Not really a whole lot dedicating to the idea of voting...not too sure why. I know a lot people out there think that thier vote doesn't count, but even in the 'electoral college' model - just one vote can tip the favor for a particular candidate...just one. It's not asking a lot for an individual to excercise thier most cherished right that the Constitution provides...perhaps, maybe, it's necessary to talk about those who fought to provide these rights to us. This commentary was provided by a friend of mine, Mary Gomer, who felt the need to reach out and rally women voters...afterall, you should know what it took in order to allow this right to be finally provided unto you as per the 19th Amendment:
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex".- Here is what it took in order to ordain the 19th Amendment (...now I know why President Woodrow Wilson, Our 28th President, won the 'Nobel Peace Prize' - it wasn't because of this).
"This is the story of our Mothers and 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 with their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'- I would like to thank Mary Gomer, once more, for bringing this to my attention in her drive to motivate any and all women to excercise thier right unto which thier mothers, grandmothers and perhaps even great grandmothers suffered for...in order to attain - the right to vote.
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. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, 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. 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?
The HBO movie, 'Iron Jawed Angels' is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that women could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have their say. What would those women think of the way we use, or don't use, our right to vote? All of us take it for granted now. HBO released the movie on DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunco/Bingo 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 by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote."
The American Deist,
M.D. Little.
In regarding voting in general,
ReplyDelete- Look, folks...over 250 years ago, we had a group of individuals tell a foreign nation that they were going to speak for themselves. In doing so, they faced musket and cannon just to attain that right after they declared thier independence back on July 4, 1776. They didn't attain this right just by signing a document...they had to fight and die for it - Our Founding Forefathers.
- The American Civil War of 1861 only bares proof of the brutallity it takes when one, initially denied thier unalienable rights, attain said rights from a civilization that denies you...many, many American citizens died - brothers who killed thier own brothers, to grant the slave his freedom...and eventually his right to vote.
- We learned some hard lessons...but not kept them in practice as can be understood by the posting above - women were brutalized and tortured, so women today can say:
"I'm not voting this year...".
- Voting is our most sacred right in America, everyone should vote, it is our Civic DUTY to vote. We should have voting booths in hospitals so those too injured or sick will STILL be able to enact thier most tresured right - the right to vote. I would go as far to even say the recently departed should STILL possess this most precious of rights...but reason must supercede even patriotism and, in a way, I'm actually thankful for that...
- You see, if the dead could rise and vote...then it would be these former citizens of the United States that would no doubt bare arms against us - the current citizens of the United States. Why do you ask?...it's really simple: the last group of people who didn't care about our rights and our ability to govern ourselves...were the very same people they signed the Declaration of Independence of 1776...to liberate themselves from.
- Go vote, America...it is your duty: to yourself, to your State, to Our Country and Flag - the Constitution allows you this most sacred right. You only fail yourself...by not voting.
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." - Francis Bellamy, September 8, 1892.
The American Deist,
M.D. Little.