RSS Feed 
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 7:52 am and is filed under 2008 Elections, Women's Issues. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
WOMEN: WAKE UP! 88 YEARS AGO TODAY, YOU WERE GIVEN THE RIGHT TO VOTE!
You are SO powerful. You make up 54% of the electorate. Your vote is THE most important in the country! Yet, many of you don't even vote. Why?
Hilary Swank powerfully plays the role of Alice Paul in the movie, Iron Jawed Angel. If you haven't seen this move, rent it. On November 17, 1917 the warden at Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there — because they dared to picket in front of Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote! They even tried to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. But in the end, Hilary Swank is only playing a part, whereas these inspirational women actually lived it. The sad fact is, it's not just a movie; these courageous women actually did have to go through these things in order to procur the right to vote for women.
Many women, including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Burn, Alice Paul, and so many more, sacrificed their time and resources to demand that women have the right to vote. This "movement" started in 1848 and on August 26, 1920 their voices were heard when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteed women the right to vote. It took them over 70 years to make this happen.
Yet today's women ignore and even waste those admirable leaders' efforts by not taking advantage of the truly priceless opportunity that democracy offers us. Only 65 percent of women voted in the presidential election of 2004. How can we complain about our country and deride our leaders when we, as women, are not willing to take the simplest step to change this? Let's not waste the admirable efforts of the women that paved this difficult road for us; let's take that 65 percent and change it to 100 percent! Why in the world would we NOT exercise our right to vote? You tell me!
August 26th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Terry
Kudos to you for sending out this message and reminding us of the road that women took to gain the right to vote. Having just co-chaired the Black Republican Forum which was co-sponsored by the WNRC and the NBRA, I found this perfectly timed. Holding this inaugural event at the Women’s National Republican Club in NYC was signifant because it is the oldest women’s political club and was founded by suffragettes. Those women made a change so that we would the voice in our government that they had not. We cannot make a difference if we do not understand the political process and vote for the candidate whom we feel will do the best possible job to lead us as a unified country.