Just A Reminder of The Amazing Power of Women Who Have Preceded Us

This was sent to me me by a couple of my friends as a reminder of the power of women and the struggle they have had to over come in the past 40yrs ( here in North America). The article reminded me that I had written about women rights to vote on my blogspot/rosehenry@blogspot.com site a few years ago. You might wanna check that out after reading this one. Cuz I have been writing longer then I have been filming. The one common thread that has been a never ending segment of my journey is about writing and telling the story of the disadvantaged community. Weather it is because of their race, age, gender or economics I have always done something to bring out the awareness said given a solution as to how we can make change. One of the many ways we can make change is through exercising our rights to vote. Here in BC we have to opportunities to do this. The first one coming up is on Tuesday Oct 15 (Federal Election) and the next one is on Saturday Nov 15, 2008 (municipal-locally election). One election is just as important as the other.

I know that history usually is long forgotten and has a tendency to resurface with time and each election. I think that we must not forget the the fight most of our mothers, grandmothers, aunties, cousins, sisters etc...have had to go through just so we could have a choice.

Here so of the things that might just jar some of your memories:
in the US women could not vote until the 1920s/ Canada-white women in 1935-women of color 1968.

Now in 2008 we all stand to lose this privilege on both sides of the border and in all levels of government. With bills like Bill C-31 voter ID requirements etc...

The government is not counting on your vote, so that they can get away with committing the crimes they have been doing.

So no women haven't been beaten or had blood drawn for wanting to vote...yet but they are still baring the brunt with the cancellation of many services.

If you are 40 yrs and older you mostly likely will remeber some of these stories because you or someone else you know has lived through this era.

If you are under 40yrs you mostly likely where never taught this in your schooling because there is very little written in the history books that are actually true about the women's struggle. But a few of you will remember the media coverage of the people standing in line for hours in the middle of a heat wave on a hot cement parking lot with not shade just so that they could cast their ballots. There was one coverage that showed people being denied the right to vote because the polling station was closing and there were people still standing outside in the parking lot waiting to get in. There was almost a riot started because of the length of time it took to go through the ID Line.

*This is the story of our Mothers and Grandmothers who 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 for the night, 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 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?*

*(Mrs. Pauline Adams in the prison garb she wore while serving a sixty-day sentence.)*

*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.*

*
(Miss Edith Ainge, of Jamestown, New York)
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.*

*
(Berthe Arnold, CSU graduate)
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.*

*
(Conferring over ratification [of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution] at [National Woman's Party] headquarters, *
*Jackson Pl**[ace] [Washington, D.C.]. L-R Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, Anita Pollitzer, Alice Paul, *
*Florence Boeckel, Mabel Vernon (standing, right))*
*
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.*

*(Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk, Conn. Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner,*

* 'Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.'*

*Both Canada and the United States have very important elections this year.*

*Get out and vote !!*
Voting stations are open from 7am to 7pm

If you are homeless you can vote with a note from a public service agency. Even if you don't have ID.

If you are housed you will need to pieces of government ID, bank statement and the voter card.

If you do not have a voter's card you can register on election day or earlier and the elections office.

As experience election worker I strongly suggest you get to the station early to avoid the hassle and exceptional long linups and vote.

Remember this is the first time the Federal government is requiring ID so be patient and "get out and vote!"