[nfbwatlk] Fw: [Fwd: Fwd: How Women Got to Vote - a history lesson-PLEASENOTE!!!!]

Mike Freeman k7uij at panix.com
Thu Feb 14 13:01:55 CST 2008 

Paula:

This is bang on-target! Thank you for posting.

Insofar as I know, we, the blind, have never been subject to this sort 
of treatment -- at least insofar as trying to gain the right to vote was 
concerned (we always had it but that right wasn't always honored!). But 
we *have* faced real violence back in the days when we first tried to 
organize nationwide.

When the Clark County chapter used to hold literature seminars, I played 
the entire PBS "Eyes on the Prize" series as part of it -- both to 
analyze how another nonviolent movement succeeded and to sharpen our 
thinking skills as to what was done right, what not and how we could be 
more effective.

Again, good show!

Mike Freeman

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Paula M Achter
  To: NFB Washington
  Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 10:23 PM
  Subject: [nfbwatlk] Fw: [Fwd: Fwd: How Women Got to Vote - a history 
lesson-PLEASENOTE!!!!]


  Hello Everyone:

  I hope that I am not breaking any rules by putting this on. I thought 
some of you would find it interesting. Especially those of you who are 
history buffs.

  Paula Achter
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: me
  To: Sheila ; Judy Sammis ; Tina
  Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 8:21 PM
  Subject: Fw: [Fwd: Fwd: How Women Got to Vote - a history lesson- 
PLEASENOTE!!!!]



  Imagine! This happened in the 20th Century in America!!! (*:*)


    Subject: Fwd: F FW: How Women Got to Vote - a history lesson


    One more thing we were never taught in school and I never came on it 
in all my reading. NOw what I need is someone I WANT to vote for.Ã, 
PSubject: ***Ã,  FW: How Women Got to Vote - a history lessonÃ,Â
    How Women Got To Vote: A short history lesson on the privilege of 
voting...

    >The women were innocent and defenseless. 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 
andknocked 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."
    Ã,Â
    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. I want it shown on Bunko 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 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.
    >
    >
    >
    >



    Who's never won? Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL 
Music.

    Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. 
Try it now.






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-------------- next part --------------
Paula:
 
This is bang on-target! Thank you for posting.
 
Insofar as I know, we, the blind, have never been subject to this sort of treatment -- at least insofar as trying to gain the right to vote was concerned (we always had it but that right wasn't always honored!). But we *have* faced real violence back in the days when we first tried to organize nationwide.
 
When the Clark County chapter used to hold literature seminars, I played the entire PBS "Eyes on the Prize" series as part of it -- both to analyze how another nonviolent movement succeeded and to sharpen our thinking skills as to what was done right, what not and how we could be more effective.
 
Again, good show!
 
Mike Freeman
 
----- Original Message -----
From:
mailto:pmachter at comcast.net Paula M Achter
To:
mailto:nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org NFB Washington
Sent:
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 10:23 PM
Subject:
[nfbwatlk] Fw: [Fwd: Fwd: How Women Got to Vote - a history lesson-PLEASENOTE!!!!]
Hello Everyone:
I hope that I am not breaking any rules by putting this on. I thought some of you would find it interesting. Especially those of you who are history buffs.
Paula Achter
----- Original Message -----
From: me
To: Sheila ; Judy Sammis ; Tina
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 8:21 PM
Subject: Fw: [Fwd: Fwd: How Women Got to Vote - a history lesson- PLEASENOTE!!!!]
Imagine! This happened in the 20th Century in America!!! (*:*)
  Subject: Fwd: F FW: How Women Got to Vote - a history lesson
  One more thing we were never taught in school and I never came on it in all my reading. NOw what I need is someone I WANT to vote for.Ã, PSubject: ***Ã,  FW: How Women Got to Vote - a history lessonÃ,Â
  How Women Got To Vote: A short history lesson on the privilege of voting...
  >The women were innocent and defenseless. 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 andknocked 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."
  Ã,Â
  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. I want it shown on Bunko 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 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.
  >
  >
  >
  >
  Who's never won? Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.
  Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.20/1260 - Release Date: 2/5/2008 9:44 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.20.0/1268 - Release Date: 2/9/2008 11:54 AM
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