I got this from a couple of different people via email this week. It’s pretty moving so I thought I’d post it…but first

Some Other Stuff About Voting

I think it’s tremendously important to vote. Most Xers and Nexters don’t vote — probably because they think it’s pointless; or they are suspicious of anything systematic; or they are just not into caring about people who don’t speak their language; or a zillion other reasons. But like it or lump it, we live in a democracy and in order for that system to work, everyone has to vote.

If I can ever figure out how to get my password for Paypal I’m going to buy a tshirt from this site that says VOTE in big ole’ letters. I also like the one that says “I Vote and I’m not Old.” Oh, and there’s this cute non-partisan one here.

In the spirit of getting out the vote, on September 30th Alicia is hosting a non-partisan Presidential Debate Party at our place for ThPM. Her goal is to listen to what both parties are saying with her community. This requires some sort of guidelines, since our gang is pretty leftward leaning. But there are a few folks on the fence and perhaps a too-outnumbered-to-speak-out Bush supporter or two. So in order to make space for actual listening (and not just soap boxing retoric … at least not from the party guests…we can’t hope for as much from the candidates) we’re instituting a game. Everyone is going to get a set amount of Monopoly money. You can use the money to buy “Soap Box Minutes” during the commerical breaks, at which time you can voice your opinions (devoid of hyperbole please.) However, guests will also be given a Mute Card and can exercise it at will if they get sick of ‘ya. It will also be possible to barter with people for extra minute money or extra mute cards. (What favors you might barter if you’re out of Monopoly money is up to you…car washes anyone?) If it goes over well we’d like to throw a bigger party at the October debate and have people acutally pay real money for the minutes. It would be a fundraiser for someoone like America Votes. Sound fun? Why don’t you throw one too? Let me know if you’re planning on it!

Inspired by Michael Moore’s get out the vote pledge, we are also trying to organize a bunch of cocktail parties on voting day…cast your vote–get a martini! Let’s see how many of those we can get up, shall we?

And one more thing…click here to find out how to register to vote in your state.

Now, before I give you this moving piece by Kathryn Edwards, I’d also like to direct you to an excellent post about living in a post-patriarchy here. Okay, if you’re still with me, read away….

by Kathryn Edwards, Professor of Biology, Kenyon College

The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they
were barely alive.

Forty prison guards wielding clubs and with their warden’s blessing went on
a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of “obstructing
sidewalk traffic.”

They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and
left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. 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 November 15, 1917 (a mere 87 years
ago), 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. 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
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. 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, social studies and government teachers would include the
movie in their curriculum. 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.