I actually got this in an email. However, it is so very true. I have not missed an election since I was 18. I always figured that I couldn’t complain if I didn’t take part in the very process that picks our leaders. Here is a few things that the history books didn’t teach us –
This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; 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 picketing 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 Burns, 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 cell mate, 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. Here is more information about these coragieous women:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf
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?
HBO recently put out a movie called 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. 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. It is also 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.
Entrecard Forums Censoring Again
Thursday, October 30th, 2008I really do like Entrecard. I really do. However, some of the missteps that have occurred over are just crazy. One of the ongoing missteps is their moderators on their forums. This was an issue a while back before. New forums popped up due to the censorship that a lot of the members were feeling on the Entrecard forums. Seriously, that was how bad it got.
Now, I thought that was over and done with. We were told that wouldn’t happen anymore and blah blah blah. Well, I learned firsthand myself how much crap that was (I’m a little irritated . . . can you tell?) Now, I have moderated before (I was moderator at the Izea forums over a year, so I know what a pain it can be. However, we were never ever ever allowed to delete anything unless it was spam.) Now, the thread in question is this one: http://entrecard.com/forums/7/15804/#p=21. Now, they posted a question and people started responding. I happened to be one of them. And my response got deleted since he (the moderator who started the question) didn’t like the answer. He also removed the reference to another forum called Firestorm. I’m sorry, you can’t ask a question on a public forum and then start deleting the answers you don’t like. Sorry, that is crap. The part that I especially love is that other forums are listed there. His reasoning? Firestorm and Forum Finder (which is the one I listed) are too close to what Entrecard’s forum does (huh?). I wouldn’t be half as ticked if he didn’t leave other forums up there that do the same darn thing. I don’t understand the double standard. I am not one to kiss ass which is probably why my comment is gone (I’ve left two more comments questioning why — we’ll see how long those last).
Now, I don’t own either forum that got taken off the list. I get no benefit for writing this post, besides releasing some of my anger. I just am sick and tired of Entrecard’s double standard when it comes to their forums. Obviously, the only way to get your posts to say is to kiss up or keep your opinions to yourself (which I would think is counterproductive on a forum).
Let me know your thoughts.
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