Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Voting For Women - It Wasn't Always Allowed


Most people don't remember that only 87 years ago women didn't have the right to vote. As a matter of fact, women were arrested and beaten for picketing for the right to vote. The "Night of Terror" occurred on November 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 the liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

Some women won't vote this year because they have carpool duties, need to get to work or feel their vote doesn't matter. Remember women had to fight for what we take for granted. Whether you vote Democrat or Republican, take part in the process and take the time to vote.

No comments: