I did check this email out on snopes.com when I got it. It had a link at the bottom and I realize that things like this will be both sided because of political reasons. But I honestly (embarrassed to admit) did not know that it was this bad for the first women suffragists. This would have been me back then and I would have gladly gone through anything for us to get the rights we deserve as fellow humans on this earth.

So take into consideration that it is not a chore to vote, it is a right that was fought for and not that long ago either!

THIS  VERY 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.

(Lucy Burns)
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?

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!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 7:42 pm and is filed under general, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.