My vote won’t make a difference

October 16, 1:09 PMBirmingham Community ExaminerLuann Dawkins

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In talking to women of all ages, I have a habit of asking baited questions, just to see where other women stand on certain topics.

One of my questions to young women is ‘are you exercising your right to vote.’ Inevitably, I am looked at like I have grown a second head, and they say, "what do you mean?" "Well, do you vote in city, state or federal elections?", is my reply? Some have said yes, they vote in one election or another but they sometimes miss a year or two. Most said they didn’t vote at all. Not at all surprised with this attitude toward politics among young women, they are, after all, young and needn’t worry with such things since they are not affected by them. Confess I must, to such a feeling at that age, being completely unconcerned with things I felt were not directly related to me, that was for ‘old folks’. Now that I am, an ‘old folk’, my views have understandably changed.

I am not usually a person that worries with the semantics of something, I am very cut and dry, either you do or you don’t. However, I think all women should educate themselves on the how and why of women’s suffrage. Starting my research on this very fact came about after remembering a conversation with my Mother, she stated that her Grand Mother didn’t have the right to vote when she was young. Apparently, I was completely naive in the thought that my own great-Grandmother was deprived of this basic right, and a huge percentage of American women take this privilege for granted.

I went to different sites to study the facts about the Suffrage movement and was astonished to find the news I read. Even though I was well aware there had been a movement of sorts, school had prepared me for this tidbit, I didn’t know what happened during that brave act. The women involved in the picketing of the White House in 1916, were arrested for obstructing the sidewalk, and all but tortured during their 60-day incarceration. These women, referred to as the "Iron Jawed Angels," in a 2004 movie, depicting the movement, were taken to jail, to live in poor conditions, manhandled, and force-fed milk and raw eggs when they refused to eat.

Sixty days, that’s two months, of deplorable conditions that these women sacrificed, for our right to vote. Can you imagine giving away two months of your life for anything? That is not something I can grasp, I do know, that these amazing women endured a tremendous hardship for all females, and they are honored every time a woman walks into a booth and pulls that lever. No matter your party affiliation, the right is yours to use as you please, without any outside influence. Please take the time to vote, we owe this right to some very courageous, strongly willed, independent women, let us, make their sacrifices worthwhile.