FW: Great history lesson for all women

[Guest guest]

Subject: Great history lesson for all women

This is a long message, but very important. I (Rose) have personally verified the historical accuracy of this event on both www.truthorfiction.com and www.snopes.com. I had never heard of it before.

In 2004 HBO released a movie titled "Iron Jawed Angels," about the women who fought for the right of all women to vote. One scene is described:

It is jarring to watch Woodrow and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice 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.'

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.'(Lucy Burns)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.

(Dora ) They hurled Dora into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought 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 '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.

(Alice ) When one of the leaders, Alice , 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. 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?

(Mrs. ine in the prison garb she wore while serving a sixty-day sentence.)

(Miss Edith Ainge, of town , New York )

(Berthe Arnold, CSU graduate)

(Conferring over ratification [of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution] at [National Woman's Party] headquarters, Pl [ace] [ Washington , D.C. ]. L-R Mrs. Lawrence , Mrs. Abby Baker, Anita Pollitzer, Alice , Florence Boeckel, Mabel Vernon (standing, right))

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.

(Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk , Conn. Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner, 'Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.')History is being made.

So, refresh my memory again. Some women won't vote this year because - why, exactly?

If you are inclined, please send this to the women you know. We all need to learn and remember the sacrifices and commitment that led to our right to vote.