Woman Voters

random3434

Senior Member
Jun 29, 2008
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I got this in an email from my daughter's grandmother. I thought it was interesting, I learned some new things:
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A Message for all women

THIS IS MOVING. HOW QUICKLY WE FORGET.....IF ....WE EVER KNEW......

WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; 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.'


(Lucy Burns)
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above
her head and left her hanging fo! r the ni ght, bleeding and gasping
for air.

(Dora Lewis)
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.

(Alice Paul)
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.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf

So, refresh my mem ory. 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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Iron Jawed Angels - One of Hillary Swank's best movies .... ever!
HBO Films: Iron Jawed Angels
 
I really want to see that movie now. I guess I didn't realize how hard these women fought for our right to vote. I have voted in every election since I was 18, I even vote in the primary's. :D
 
Me too Echo. I have voted in every election since I was old enough. I think I even remember voting for Abe Lincoln. :lol:

I am sure that you could rent that HBO movie at Blockbusters or someplace. It was an excellant movie, and would be a great one for your daughter to watch, and every other young lady in the country. :eusa_angel:
 
I do find it sort of painfully ironic that once again a minority is going to get into office before a woman though.

Blacks got into Congress before a woman did, and now a Black man is going to break through the Oval office before a woman did, too.

Sort of makes the Hillanistas' frustration more understandable, in light of civil rights history, doesn't it?

I must say, speaking of Hillary Clinton, she's doing the class act here, telling her supporters that she is supporting Obama.

I hope all her delegates give her their first vote.

They need to show the world, and ESPECIALLY the DEMS what power their faction really has in that party.

Then, when she doesn't get that nod on that first vote, I hope they all vote for O. The Hillary delegates need to alert the die-hard Hillanistas' rank and file that now is the time for all good feminists to come to the aid of THEIR party.
 
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I do find it sort of painfully ironic that once again a minority is going to get into office before a woman though.

Blacks got into Congress before a woman did, and now a Black man is going to break through the Oval office before a woman did, too.

Sort of makes the Hillanistas' frustration more understandable, in light of civil rights history, doesn't it?

I must say, speaking of Hillary Clinton, she's doing the class act here, telling her supporters that she is supporting Obama.

I hope all her delegates give her their first vote.

They need to show the world, and ESPECIALLY the DEMS what power their faction really has in that party.

Then, when she doesn't get that nod on that first vote, I hope they all vote for O. The Hillary delegates need to alert the die-hard Hillanistas' rank and file that now is the time for all good feminists to come to the aid of THEIR party.

i heard from a delegate that many states, if not all, have the rule that the state delegates MUST go with how their state voted, for 2 rounds of votes...by LAW they must follow the citizrn's vote, in which they represent, TWICE before being released from their sworn, commitment, as a delegate...

wonder how many states really have this law/rule?

care
 
Hard to realise that women had to suffer to get the vote isn't it? Hand it to New Zealand, first country in the world to give women the vote in 1893.

I wonder if that film is available here, I'd like to see it. Thank you for pointing it out.
 
Not to mention, women only received civil rights in 1975. And, that was only because a two southern senators wanted to kill the civil rights bill of 64. It wasnt til nearly a decade later when women learned of their inclusion in the bill when it was discovered and ruled upon in a lawsuit.
 
Not to mention, women only received civil rights in 1975. And, that was only because a two southern senators wanted to kill the civil rights bill of 64. It wasnt til nearly a decade later when women learned of their inclusion in the bill when it was discovered and ruled upon in a lawsuit.

we still don't have the equal* rights amendment ratified....maybe it's not necessary, but as it stands, our rights can still be taken away, via legislation and a simple majority vote, imo.... it's like the majority male members can still take that away from us...silently holding us hostage....
 
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we still don't have the civil rights amendment ratified....maybe it's not necessary, but as it stands, our civil rights can still be taken away, via legislation and a simple majority vote, imo.... it's like the majority male members can still take that away from us...silently holding us hostage....

OMG--now that's dramatic! :eusa_clap:
 
OMG--now that's dramatic! :eusa_clap:


hahahahahahaha! yeah, it was dramatic, and intentionally so....trying to get some shock value to it, for all the females on the board...just to wake them up, in case they are sleeping.... :))
 
Hard to realise that women had to suffer to get the vote isn't it? Hand it to New Zealand, first country in the world to give women the vote in 1893.

I wonder if that film is available here, I'd like to see it. Thank you for pointing it out.

You' are welcome. Since you showed an interest in the movie, I hope you can get ahold of it too. It really was a good movie, I watched it with my grand-daughter. :eusa_angel:
 
CA95380 posted:
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Iron Jawed Angels - One of Hillary Swank's best movies .... ever!
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Yes, it has been on the cable a couple of times. I've seen it twice so far, and I will probably watch it again when it gets on the cable again. The grim determination of the women during that time of trial and tribulation is remarkable, to say the least.
 
You' are welcome. Since you showed an interest in the movie, I hope you can get ahold of it too. It really was a good movie, I watched it with my grand-daughter. :eusa_angel:

It's the kind of film I like and it gives a narrative to an important part of history. It's available here I found out and now I have to go and look for it.
 

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