Are you voting?

[Joz]

The women were innocent & defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive.

Forty-five prison guards wielding clubs & with their wardens blessing went on a rampage against 33 women, wrongly convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic".

They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head & left her hanging for the night, bleeding & gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a cell, smashed her head against an iron bed & knocked her out cold. Her cellmate Alice Corsa, tho't Lewis was dead & suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking the women.

Thus, unfolds the 'Night of Terror' on Nov 15, 1917, a mere 87 years ago, 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 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 & poured liquid into it until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

So, some women won't vote this year exactlly--why?

A graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth & have my say.

HBO special: Iron Jawed Angels

 

[krisy]

Wow!! That sends a strong message. I have voted in every elction since I was 18,including local stuff. I could never not go. It's too important and I could never waste that freedom I have been given.

 

[UsaPride]

Wow!! That sends a strong message. I have voted in every elction since I was 18,including local stuff. I could never not go. It's too important and I could never waste that freedom I have been given.

Same here!! I think it's a shame when people can vote and won't. Especially people that wouldn't be able to without the sacrafices of many.

 

[Moi]

Ditto, Ditto, Ditto.

I vote.

 

[Hobbit]

My grandma fought vehemently for the right of 18-year olds to vote, and I'm not going to let some apathetic idiot forgo that right for no reason.

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

This is slightly off topic of the thread...ahem...but this reminded me of something from awhile back. Speaking of the importance of voting, this is for the people that think their ONE vote doesn't count.

In 1649, ONE vote caused Charles I of England to be executed.

In 1776, ONE vote gave America the English language instead of German.

In 1800, President Jefferson beat Aaron Burr by ONE vote in the House of Representatives following an electoral tie.

In the 1829 election for the U.S. House of Representatives in Kentucky’s 2nd District, Jackson Democrat Nicholas Coleman defeated National Republican Adam Beatty 2,520 to 2,519.

In the 1847 election for the U.S. House of Representatives in Indiana’s 6th District, Whig candidate George G. Dunn defeated Democratic candidate David M. Dobson 7,455 to 7,454. Also in 1847, Whig Thomas S. Flournoy defeated a Democratic candidate named Treadway 650 to 649 in the race for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 3rd District of Virginia.

In the 1854 election for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 7th District of Illinois, Democratic candidate James C. Allen bested Republican William B. Archer 8,452 to 8,451.

In 1868, ONE vote saved President Andrew Johnson from an impeachment conviction.

In 1875, ONE vote changed France from a monarchy to a republic.

In 1876, ONE electoral vote gave Rutherford Hayes the Presidency of the United States.

In the 1882 election for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1st District of Virginia, Readjuster Robert M. Mayo defeated Democrat George T. Garrison 10,505 to 10,504.

ONE vote per precinct passed woman suffrage in California in 1911.

In 1920, ONE vote from an obscure state legislator gave all women the right to vote after 100 years of struggle.

In 1923, ONE vote gave Adolph Hitler leadership of the Nazi Party.

In 1941, ONE vote defeated a bill that would have killed the draft law--just months before Pearl Harbor.

In 1948, Lyndon B. Johnson, our 36th president, became a U.S. senator by a ONE vote margin

In 1948, if Thomas E. Dewey had gotten ONE vote more per precinct in Ohio and California, the presidential election would have been thrown to the U.S. House of Representatives, where Dewey enjoyed more support than his rival -- incumbent Harry S. Truman

In the 1960 presidential election, ONE additional vote per precinct in Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey and Texas would have denied John F. Kennedy the presidency and put Richard M. Nixon in office eight years earlier.

In 1977, Vermont State Representative Sydney Nixon was seated as an apparent ONE vote winner, 570 to 569. Mr. Nixon resigned when the State House determined, after a recount, that he had lost to Robert Emond, 572 to 571.

In 1989, a Lansing, Michigan School District millage proposition failed when the final recount produced a vote of 5,148 against, and 5,147 for. The result meant that the school district had to reduce its budget by $2.5 million.

More than 50 of Missouri's municipal elections in 1993 ended in a tie.

In 1994, Republican Randall Luthi and Independent Larry Call tied for the seat in the Wyoming House of Representatives from the Jackson Hole area, with 1,941 votes each. After a recount produced the same result, Mr. Luthi was finally declared the winner when, in a drawing before the State Canvassing Board, a Ping Pong ball bearing his name was pulled from the cowboy hat of Democratic Governor Mike Sullivan

In 1997, South Dakota Democrat John McIntyre led Republican Hal Wick 4,195-4,191 for the second seat in Legislative District 12 on election night. A subsequent recount showed Wick the winner at 4,192-4,191. The State Supreme Court, however, ruled that one ballot counted for Wick was invalid. This left the race a tie. After hearing argument from both sides, the State Legislature voted to seat Wick 46-20.

Donald Sherwood was elected to the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania by a margin of 515 votes, less than one vote per precinct, making this election the closest House of Representatives race in 1998.

In 1999, Leslie Byrne was elected to the Virginia Senate by 37 votes, less than ONE vote per precinct.

If that's not enough, how about this: Several of our states, including California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Texas became states by just ONE VOTE!

Got those registration cards ready?

 

[Annie]

I didn't see that as 'OT' in the least! Great reminder.

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

I didn't see that as 'OT' in the least! Great reminder.

That was kind of a joke. Just a little something for Tpahl more than anything.

 

[UsaPride]

Wow Jimmy, thanks for the post! Very interesting! It's amazing what ONE vote can do!!!

 

[Joz]

Appreciate you addition, Jimmy. Just reinforces the whole voting issue.