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Close Topic OptionsWhy Should Women Vote?
Why Women Vote - Politics, Business, Civil, History - Posted: 10th Apr, 2020 - 7:42pm
Posts: 6 - Views: 901
Why Should Women Vote?
This came to me via email, and I do not know the source. I am reprinting it here in its entirety:
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| WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers as 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 picketting 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.' 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 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? 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 by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote. History is being made. |
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That is definitely a compelling reminder. Thank you for sharing it. I would like to see the documentary. I wonder if it will be available on Netflix rental. I don't subscribe to HBO. I will have to check it out.
I cannot even comprehend how miserable our lives as women would be today if it were not for the courage of those suffragettes. They did more than get women the vote, they helped bring us out of the dark ages.
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Why Should Women Vote? History & Civil Business Politics
I am so glad that you shared this here. I am going to look for the movie on Netflix as well--or just borrow it when Alskann gets it! hee hee!)
I think those kind of movies are important for us to watch--in a day and age where everything is instant gratification and "what you want when you want it" we need to be reminded and the younger generations taught that it hasn't always been this way and in my opinion shouldn't be now. I do think there are great things with technology and such but I also think basic human rights and needs are often overlooked...or taken for granted because we have known it to be this way for so long. I am thankful for you sharing the story FarSeer!
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Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing the movie (I have Netflix too), to remind myself that this was a battle I'm not sure I could have fought. Just as we remember veterans, we should remember the suffragettes. And we should VOTE.
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Vote Women Why
Te person who wrote that is absolutely right, women do need to practice exercising their voting rights t help justify having it. In general people need to get off their butts and go vote.
I remember studying that and the formation on the unions out west and in the mining industry. We must be taught our past to help us prevent it reoccurring and to remember those who sacrificed so much to get us free of the chains we used t be bound in.
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Why Should Women Vote?
I needed to be reminded of this. The polls open here mid-May, and we made sure to request to vote by mail. These kind of things give me courage and a reminder that I am more than just a woman. I am a citizen.
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TOPIC: Why Should Women Vote?