A friend sent me a very important email recently - a reminder to all of us how much we take for granted, particularly with regard to our right to vote. Don't you agree that every election provides each of us an opportunity to participate in the future of our government and our society while also paying homage to the women - some of whom died in prison - who fought so hard to earn the right to give each woman the right to vote? Please share this with every woman you know and please exercise your right to vote on November 2!
A short history lesson on the privilege of voting:
What would the women who sacrificed their lives for women's rights think of the way we use -- or don't use -- our right to vote?
On Nov. 15, 1917, dubiously referred to as the 'Night of Terror,' 33 women -- who had picketed Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote and who were subsequently wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic' -- were beaten by forty prison guards wielding clubs at Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia.
Some of these women such as Lucy Burn, Dora Lewis and her cellmate Alice Cosu were so savagely brutalized one had a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Those who survived that horrifying night were then deprived of proper food and water, or in the case of Alice Paul, the subject of a the 2004 film "Ironed Jawed Angels" and who went on a hunger strike, was tortured for weeks until word of these wrongdoings were leaked to the press.
These women serve as a very small example of the many courageous women who afforded us our right to vote. As women who forge paths in the technology and science industries, cultivate new career opportunities for younger generations and who empower the women in our workplace and community let us continue to honor the women who came before us, especially those who fought for our rights with their lives.
Please vote on November 2, 2010 and please encourage others to do so as well.