The Right for Women to Vote

A friend emailed me this touching story, and I thought I'd pass it on here. It's a good, if graphic, reminder to all women just what was done to establish their right to vote only 100 years ago:

"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 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.'

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 - remember to vote.

History is being made."

Two Great Bands

I just discovered the Flobots who I've decided I love. They are kinda a modern Rage Against the Machine, in that they are rather political.

Also, I have fallen in love with Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight cd because of the two (also rather political) songs: "What I've Done" and "Hands Held High".

I'm excited to see artists trying to raise awareness of the situations going on around the planet.

(04/10/08) Another awesome band is Death Cab for Cutie. Their new album Narrow Stairs is out on May 13th and I'm really excited. I just heard their single "I Will Possess Your Heart" on Indie 103.1 this morning and I love it.

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A Solemn Moment - Political Thoughts

I don't like to put my political ideas on my blogs, but I wanted to make one small comment. I have heard many people say they will vote (or have voted) for Hillary Clinton because "her husband did such a good job when he was in office."

First of all, when he was in office, people were bitching and moaning about his decisions as much as we complain about the current president (maybe less, but I do recall a good amount of complaint and I was only a kid).

Second of all, Hillary Clinton is not Bill Clinton. They are not clones and she had little to nothing to do with his decisions. We saw how much he paid attention to his wife with the Monica Lewinsky fiasco.

I just don't want people to forget how the past was, and then say it was better or worse than it is now. I was thinking about George Orwell's Animal Farm and this quote is so applicable to right now that it's scary:

"As for the others, their life, so far as they knew, was as it had always been. They were generally hungry, they slept on straw, they drank from the pool, they laboured in the fields; in the winter they were troubled by the cold, and in the summer by the flies. Sometimes the older ones among them racked their dim memories and tried to determine whether in the early days of the Rebellion, when Jones's expulsion was still recent, things had been better or worse than now. They could not remember. There was nothing with which to compare their present lives: they had nothing to go upon except Squealer's lists of figures, which invariably demonstrated that everything was getting better and better."

If you haven't read the book, Squealer is the PR man (in this case, pig) for the politicians (can I say pigaticians, or is that too punny?). Anyway, the point is that we mustn't forget history and we must always strive to improve life now, as compared to what actually was - not as compared to what some double-talking politician or even our dim memory says it was.

Let me know your opinions on this. Are the American people becoming like the animals in Mr. Orwell's brilliant book?

Generation Jerk

I just saw the Sixty Minutes episode on my generation - the Millennial Generation. It makes us out to be a bunch of self-centered a-holes. I can't say I'm offended, since I have met people of my generation and know that some of them are in fact self-centered jerks, however I hate being grouped into some category that a bunch of people who aren't like me are in. It's like being flipped off on the freeway for not letting someone cut you off.
Anyway, here's some info on what people say the difference between Gen X and Gen Y are in the workplace. It's interesting, less insulting and says (basically) that Gen Y has good workers, but are self centered. I suppose that I do agree with that - but the article also says that Gen Y both works well in groups and is individualistic. Not sure how that makes sense. I'd love to see something that doesn't contradict itself - but so far not so much. The closest I've gotten to a non-contradicting piece is this link to opinions from high school students on their generation. A lot of the in sites here are sad, but true. Families are farther apart, work has become more important then family. Organized religion doesn't appear as important as spirituality, though what spirituality is seems confused. Also, belief in the political system is down. There is a need for change, but no definite direction to change in.
I suppose (and this is from me) that it's because it seems as if our parents and grandparents have done everything already - people rallied for peace in the Sixties and there's still war, people fought the "war to end all wars" in WWI and WWII and there's still war. The government still lies, people still try to make a buck, even if it means the destruction of an entire planet. However, there is a sense of optimism. Maybe we can band together and make it better. The planet isn't the same as it was 40 years ago, there's technology now and maybe that can help us. Things ARE changing in this world.
I can say that personally, I feel that family is incredibly important. I count myself as having amazing parents that, while divorced, still always put aside time to do things with me and help me along in life without coddling me. I never felt they were hanging out with me because they felt it was a duty - I always felt they wanted to spend time with me.
This is a world of change. I hope that my generation can stop looking at their own wants and desires for a just a moment and look at what we can do to change the world.