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Exercise Your Privilege- Vote!
By karen | September 29, 2008
It’s been a fun political season this year. Perhaps, some may not appreciate my use of the word “fun” but the fact is that I have enjoyed watching, learning and deciding about the candidates this year. I have enjoyed the commentaries online. I have enjoyed the debates and I am looking forward to the future debates (the Vice Presidential debates are Thursday this week, 9:00 pm EDT. Be there!). And probably what I have considered to be the most fun of all has been watching Tina Fey play Sarah Palin on SNL.
(Oooh, She is just so good at it!)
I’ve read and I’ve learned and I’ve studied the positions of the candidates and I have made some very clear decisions on what I want in this election and who I think deserves my vote.
But none of that is what prompted this post.
What prompted this post is even more important.
Over the weekend I received an email from a reader, a very thought-provoking email that even brought tears to my eyes.
Apparently there is an HBO movie called “Iron Jawed Angels” that is coming out in October. It is a true story based upon the suffragette movement and the courageous women who fought for the right to vote. Hillary Swank plays a woman named Alice Paul.
The movie is based upon what was called the “Night of Terror”. It took place on November 15, 1917 when a group of 33 courageous women dared to picket Woodrow Wilson’s White House for the right to vote. The women were captured, imprisoned and tortured as they were accused of “obstructing sidewalk traffic”.
Apparently the imprisonment and torture went on for weeks and the movie depicts the story of these women and Alice Paul especially as she attempted a hunger strike and was tied up, force fed and worse. This continued until somehow word was smuggled out to the press. Apparently, Woodrow Wilson and others tried to get her declared insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. The movie is a graphic depiction of the battle of these 33 women. I’m looking forward to watching it.
These women fought valiantly for the right to vote, the right to let our voices be heard. Thankfully, they did prevail; they did succeed. Women were given the right to vote less than 100 years ago in 1920.
It is a privilege and a right that we should never take for granted.
I cannot even imagine not being able to vote. I am grateful that I have the right. I appreciate my opportunity to take part in the electoral process.
Even so, like everything else, the electoral process is not perfect. The first election that I was able to take part in was in 1980. Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate was running against the democratic incumbent, Jimmy Carter. I was in college, I had classes all day, a job interview in the afternoon and many things taking my time. But I knew that the polls didn’t close until 7:00 pm. So I was on my way. But before I got to the polls and long before the polls had closed in my state, Ronald Reagan was declared the winner. He received all of the electoral college votes he needed before my states votes had even been counted. That was my introduction to the electoral college. It was rather disillusioning and even disappointing to think that the state I lived in didn’t even count that year. And then who can forget the election of 2000 and the “chads” of Florida?
Yes, the process may not be perfect but it still works. And it is still a privilege to participate.
So, take advantage of the privilege that you have. Make sure you are registered to vote now.
And on election day, regardless of whether you are a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent or something else…..it matters not…..just exercise your right. It is a privilege! Vote!
(Thanks, Amy!)
Popularity: 3% [?]
Topics: Living the Power, Real Life |
September 30th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I am so grateful for the rights I enjoy as an American woman!
Thanks to the suffragettes, women have voices and choices! Just like men.
Isn’t it wonderful! Can you imagine not being able to vote?
But few people know ALL that our suffragettes had to go through to get the vote for women, and what life was REALLY like for women before they did.
Iron Jawed Angels is a great movie that focuses on Alice Paul, one of the leaders of the suffrage struggle.
But there’s much more to this fascinating and inspiring story!
Now you can subscribe FREE to an e-mail series that goes behind the scenes in the lives of eight of the world’s most famous women to reveal the shocking and oftentimes heartbreaking truth!
Dramatic, sequential short story e-mail episodes have readers raving about “The Privilege of Voting.”
Find out how suffragettes, presidential mistresses, First Lady Edith Wilson, Alice Roosevelt, Edith Wharton and dancer Isadora Duncan set the stage for women to FINALLY win the vote.
Read this free e-mail series on your coffeebreaks and fall in love with these amazing women!
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October 14th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
[...] Exercise Your Privilege- Vote! [...]