Yeah, and that wasn't the first time women were treated badly while protesting for the right to vote. The movie (I haven't seen it yet, but I've read reviews) is supposed to be great and only a little historically inaccurate.
It is the stories like that stirred my passion and made me pursue Women's History as a major (and what I'd eventually like to do as a career). Because that stuff doesn't get talked about in 6th grade Social Studies to little girls who need to know what their foremothers did to get them the right to vote.
Men have been able to vote for 232 years, women only 88 years.
I'll see if I can locate the speech that was given at the Seneca Falls Convention. That was considered the first wave of feminism (the 1960's is considered second wave feminism). It is a slant on the Declaration of Indepence. That was the first major time women rallied to get the vote.
It's true... even in Social Studies, the women of the suffrage movement are depicted as femi-nazis... lesbians and rabble rousers.
I'm ashamed I never read more...
Can you imagine? All of that... for me to waste my right to vote... to wait, to put it off, this will be my 3rd opportunity to use the RIGHT these women fought and died for... using the passively poignant methods that always tugged at my soul... but it will only be the second time I bothered to go out and actually make my vote count.
You think your vote doesn't count?
The only way your vote doesn't count is if you don't cast it.
Although I also support the argument made so aptly by South Park. You have the right NOT to vote, too.
Think of it like this: if I (and a bunch of other men who felt the same way I do) were to go through hell fighting for the right to cross-dress without being persecuted for it, and if we were beaten, jailed, lost our jobs, our freedoms, etc... all for the right to dress in skirts and make-up free from social stigma, workplace repercussions, and so forth... would it then be the obligation of every man to wear skirts from then on, just because we fought so hard for that right?
I know, voting is much different. It's about choosing the people who represent your interests. But for those who don't care about that, they do have the right to abstain without being harassed for abstaining.
Using your same argument... you might look at skirts differently if you knew the extent to which your fellow men were persecuted, jailed, beaten, murdered and discredited in order to secure that right without persecution you have today.
It's a separate issue, truly... but I did not know these facts.
Had I known these facts, I would have looked at my RIGHT to vote entirely differently.
It's a RIGHT I take for GRANTED now. I did not think about the women who fought and died less than 1 century ago.
These women who were exactly like me, stood in the face of the entirety of male opposition and said the vote should be MY RIGHT too.
If knowing all about the subject, you still choose to abstain? That is also your right.
I, however, see my RIGHT in an entirely different light.
It's not about Obligation. It's about Pride and Priviledge. Sticking it to the man as it were, not taking my life for granted.
I see what you are saying. I don't think you should be harrassed for not voting. It is your right.
But, I have a problem with apathy. Because our elected officials directly impact our lives, everyday in thousands of ways. And most apathetic people suddenly start to care when things happen that they don't like. Suddenly, they are bitching about the way things are being done, when they sat back and did absolutely nothing to prevent it. I have had so many heated political discussions with people, only to have them say in the end that they didn't/haven't/won't vote. In my opinion, that's just stupid.
I think it is very sad that a 50% voter turnout is considered this amazing miracle.
To put things in perspective: both of my grandmothers were alive when it was still against the law for women to vote. My grandfather was 21 years old. Women have been allowed to vote for less than half of the life of our country.
I really wish I were part of a segment of society that has overcome persecution. If I were black or gay or a woman, I could cheer for my team. But I'm a goddamn straight white male. I don't get to feel any pride in that.
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Never.
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It is the stories like that stirred my passion and made me pursue Women's History as a major (and what I'd eventually like to do as a career). Because that stuff doesn't get talked about in 6th grade Social Studies to little girls who need to know what their foremothers did to get them the right to vote.
Men have been able to vote for 232 years, women only 88 years.
I'll see if I can locate the speech that was given at the Seneca Falls Convention. That was considered the first wave of feminism (the 1960's is considered second wave feminism). It is a slant on the Declaration of Indepence. That was the first major time women rallied to get the vote.
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I'm ashamed I never read more...
Can you imagine? All of that... for me to waste my right to vote... to wait, to put it off, this will be my 3rd opportunity to use the RIGHT these women fought and died for... using the passively poignant methods that always tugged at my soul... but it will only be the second time I bothered to go out and actually make my vote count.
You think your vote doesn't count?
The only way your vote doesn't count is if you don't cast it.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Sentiments
Interesting stuff...
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Think of it like this: if I (and a bunch of other men who felt the same way I do) were to go through hell fighting for the right to cross-dress without being persecuted for it, and if we were beaten, jailed, lost our jobs, our freedoms, etc... all for the right to dress in skirts and make-up free from social stigma, workplace repercussions, and so forth... would it then be the obligation of every man to wear skirts from then on, just because we fought so hard for that right?
I know, voting is much different. It's about choosing the people who represent your interests. But for those who don't care about that, they do have the right to abstain without being harassed for abstaining.
Just a thought.
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It's a separate issue, truly... but I did not know these facts.
Had I known these facts, I would have looked at my RIGHT to vote entirely differently.
It's a RIGHT I take for GRANTED now. I did not think about the women who fought and died less than 1 century ago.
These women who were exactly like me, stood in the face of the entirety of male opposition and said the vote should be MY RIGHT too.
If knowing all about the subject, you still choose to abstain? That is also your right.
I, however, see my RIGHT in an entirely different light.
It's not about Obligation. It's about Pride and Priviledge. Sticking it to the man as it were, not taking my life for granted.
Seeing the gift of it.
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Yup, that's all I'm sayin'.
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But, I have a problem with apathy. Because our elected officials directly impact our lives, everyday in thousands of ways. And most apathetic people suddenly start to care when things happen that they don't like. Suddenly, they are bitching about the way things are being done, when they sat back and did absolutely nothing to prevent it. I have had so many heated political discussions with people, only to have them say in the end that they didn't/haven't/won't vote. In my opinion, that's just stupid.
I think it is very sad that a 50% voter turnout is considered this amazing miracle.
To put things in perspective: both of my grandmothers were alive when it was still against the law for women to vote. My grandfather was 21 years old. Women have been allowed to vote for less than half of the life of our country.
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