Hi Friends, 

This was sent to me by one of my closest guy friends. Imagine that.  This gentleman is 76 years old and acts like he is 45.  He is so full of life!  He was a cutting edge entrepreneur in his day.  He has always supported women, especially me in my venture to do something different and bold.  It is men like him that have helped women come to where we are today.  

I celebrate women and the men that have helped us have equality and the capacity to become who each and every one of us are today.  We have a lot of FANTASTIC men in our group that I am sure fit this mold.  

Think about this story...it was not THAT long ago! 

Fena

[address removed]

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 cell 
mate, 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. 


Mrs Pauline Adams in the prison garb she wore while serving a 60 day 
sentence. 

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of 

HBO's 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 theactual 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/Bingo 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 Place , Washington , D.C.

Left to right: 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.'
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?
• I'm so busy...I've got so much on my plate!

Read again what these women went through for you! We can't let all their suffering be for nothing.

In God We Trust.

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