> > WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE
> >
> >
> > This is the story of our Grandmothers and
> > Great-grandmothers, as 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 picketting 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.'
> >
> >
> > 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 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. 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 '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.
> >
> > 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 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 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, 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.

I have so much to smile about,
I have so much to be grateful for,
I have so much, beyond my hopes and dreams,

It is amazing what can happen overnight,
when love enters your life.



Straw flowers, taken with my new camera..... :-)

(I am leaving town for a couple of days to be with my sweetie, so am posting early.)

COLLECTIVE

Big ones, little ones, black ones, brown ones.... happily collected by Mother Nature to decorate our beautiful beach. Gnarly and smooth, straight and curved, all colors and shapes brought together for our enjoyment.