Saturday, August 16, 2008

How Women Got To Vote & Maxine 4 Pres 08

A friend of mine, emailed me this story on how women got the right to vote. It's hard to believe that it really wasn't that long ago when women were denied their civil rights and could not vote.
The short story is based on the HBO documentary entitled "Iron Jawed Angels." A chilling tale about the suffragists who braved all odds to see that all Americans have the right to vote.
I put together a funny youtube video starring the Hallmark darling Maxine... Even found a video on the Hallmark site called Maxine for President to add a bit of an uplift to the sad story written by an unknown writer
. Maxine for President? Why not? If only she were real, she'd make a better president than some of the one's who have held this high office in modern times. Here is the website
http://www.thethinkingblue.com/MAXINE08.html
And here it is on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf_o1WnjLFM

Remember to vote, a lot of people suffered and died to give us this precious right.

Scroll Down To Watch Maxine 08

How Women Got To Vote-A short history lesson on the privilege of voting...

The women were innocent and defenseless. 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.

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?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie

"IroJawed 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 will run the movie periodically before
releasing it on video and DVD. I wish all history, s ocial studies and government teachers would include the movie i n their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunko 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 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...

A short history lesson on the privilege of voting... Thanks to the unknown author! - Charles Oropallo CEO, CharlesWorks

Obama 08

Sit Back, Relax and Have A Few Belly Laughs.
Watch The Wonderful Old Broad Maxine In Action. Thinkingblue

Let's keep our heads, while we continue to watch
THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!

CRYINGUNCLE


BEAM ME THE HELL UP SCOTTY, NOW!!! Thinkingblue

1 Comments:

Blogger Virginia Harris said...

I would like to share a women's history learning opportunity...

Thanks to the suffragettes, women have voices and choices.

Most people are totally in the dark about HOW the suffragettes won.

Now readers can discover the shocking truth of how the suffragettes did it, and it's as easy as opening their e-mail.

"The Privilege of Voting" is a new e-mail series that follows the real lives of eight great women from 1912 - 1920 to reveal ALL that happened to set the stage for women to win the vote.

Two beautiful and extremely powerful suffragettes -- Alice Paul and Emmeline Pankhurst are featured, along with Edith Wharton, Isadora Duncan, Alice Roosevelt and two gorgeous presidential mistresses.

There is a LOT of heartache for our heroines on the rocky road to the ballot box - but in the end - they WIN!

Presented in a unique sequential e-mail series -- each exciting episode is about 10 minutes -- perfect to enjoy during coffeebreaks, or anytime.

Subscribe free at

www.CoffeebreakReaders.com/tpovpage.html

11:47 AM  

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