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This message was emailed to me this morning and
it is a painful reminder of the history of minorities in America...most
particularly the female minority. It is especially meaningful to
me because, my maternal great great grandmother, Delilah Sonnesberger,
was the first woman ever to cast a ballot in Sheridan, Wyoming. (This is
significant because it was in Wyoming where women were first allowed to
vote in any election in this nation. Delilah must have been among the
first handful of women to exercise their franchise. I guess that means political
activists run in my family.)
Here in Aberdeen, where a
single vote can mean electing an unsavory individual like Cloyd Garth to
office, too many of us fail to take the sacrifices of these long ago
sisters seriously. Read on....
# # #
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 2004 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.
Author unknown
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