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--></style><title>Fwd: A short history lesson on the privilege of
voting</title></head><body>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Visionaries: This reflection
on the history that we should remember and</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>not forget about the importance of the privilege of voting.
Only about 20% of Idaho's</div>
<div>voters turned out for the primary this spring, and Ada County the
turnout</div>
<div>was about 16%. The price paid by many for the privilege
that in this case-</div>
<div>women could vote--needs to be remembered.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Tom Trail</div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
<blockquote><font face="Arial">A short history lesson on the privilege
of voting ...<br>
<br>
The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the
night,<br>
they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and
with<br>
their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women
wrongly<br>
convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic."<br>
<br>
They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her
head<br>
and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
They<br>
hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an
iron<br>
bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought
Lewis<br>
was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits
describe<br>
the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming,
pinching,<br>
twisting and kicking the women.<br>
<br>
Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on November 15, 1917 (a
mere 87<br>
years ago), when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in
Virginia<br>
ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists
imprisoned<br>
there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House
for<br>
the right to vote.<br>
<br>
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their<br>
food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one
of<br>
the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her
to<br>
a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her
until<br>
she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was<br>
smuggled out to the press.<br>
<br>
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year
because--why,<br>
exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote<br>
doesn't matter? It's raining?<br>
<br>
Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new
movie<br>
"Iron Jawed Angels." It is a graphic depiction of the battle
these<br>
women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling
booth and<br>
have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.<br>
<br>
All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But
the<br>
actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote.<br>
Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a
privilege.<br>
Sometimes it was inconvenient.<br>
<br>
My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the
HBO<br>
movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she
looked<br>
angry. She was--with herself.<br>
<br>
"One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,"
she said.<br>
"What would those women think of the way I use--or don't use--my
right<br>
to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women,
but<br>
those of us who did seek to learn. "The right to vote"
she said, had<br>
become valuable to her all over again.<br>
<br>
HBO will run the movie periodically before releasing it on video
and<br>
DVD.<br>
<br>
I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would<br>
include the movie in their curriculum. we are not voting in
the<br>
numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is
in</font></blockquote>
<blockquote><font face="Arial">order.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote><font face="Arial"><br></font></blockquote>
<blockquote><font face="Arial">It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson
and his cronies try to persuade a</font></blockquote>
<blockquote><font face="Arial">psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul
insane so that she could be</font></blockquote>
<blockquote><font face="Arial">permanently institutionalized. And it
is inspiring to watch the doctor<br>
refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make
her<br>
crazy. The doctor admonished the men: "Courage in women is
often<br>
mistaken for insanity."<br>
<br>
Please pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out
and<br>
vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very<br>
courageous</font></blockquote>
<blockquote><font face="Arial">women.</font></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
<br>
</div>
<div> Courtesy of my cousin, Mary.<br>
</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>-- <br>
Dr. Tom Trail<br>
International Trails<br>
1375 Mt. View Rd.<br>
Moscow, Id. 83843<br>
Tel: (208) 882-6077<br>
Fax: (208) 882-0896<br>
e mail ttrail@moscow.com</div>
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