This And That.

This is a brief entry to update those who are interested on the various “thats” going on in my life.

First, you’ve probably noticed that I am now on Twitter, which is the greatest network utility that I’ve stumbled on.  The networking is dynamic.  I’ve gleaned more resources in a week than I imagined possible.  Twitter is also the easiest way for me to stay active on this site without writing a full blog entry: if I’m too busy for an entry, I can still ‘tweet,’ even when in the library.  My thesis  calls once again, and once again I am behind schedule.  For two reasons:  first, getting the long awaited MacBook Pro; second, my research director nitpicked my draft to death, and I have to basically rework much of what I’ve done.

The first reason is an unexpected joy, one that I have waited some time for.  This machine is beyond elegant.  17 inch monitor, seamless interface, color saturation to die for, to name just a few things.  I also received the free iPod Touch (education purchase) which is basically the iPhone without the phone, i.e. wireless connectivity for the web, e-mail, GPS, and all kinds of apps for on the go.  Anytime I am in an the area of an open wireless network (or on campus, as I’m in the school’s network), I can read anything on the web I want, check my e-mail, etc.  Some of the apps are absolutely the best things I’ve ever used, and I can’t believe how much functionality and ease they add to both life and the mini-computer-on-the-go.

Many of you may be saying, “no biggie I’ve been doing that for years.”   Well, I’ve not.  And this little gizmo was free with my glorious MacBook Pro purchase.  It’s just too cool.

In addition to the Pro, I now have a Time Capsule, which backs everything on my computer up every hour, silently in the background, while I am Tweeting, cruising YouTube for rare tidbits, scouring eBay for deals, or following links in an endless regression of surfing for useless if interesting information.  (In other words, doing everything but writing my thesis.)   All my drafts, files, iTunes library are saved on this gadget.  Simply amazing.

My screen, now that it is larger, makes my blog look sparse.  On my old iBook G4, everything looked simple and elegant.  Not the case now, so I’ll have to see about moving the blog over to an upgraded space.  This blog is free, Word Press has a paid upgrade which allows me to fiddle around more. That way I can enhance it with Java goodies and some custom additions.  Not this month, though.   Also, I used to find writing entries incredibly frustrating, because my iBook was just a little too slow to handle the Word Press interface.  Looks like that is a now a thing of the past, and I am happy.

About the second, I am excited to revamp the draft and get moving.  My director’s main complaint is that I dallied around too much with the critics, and most of that stuff must be stuffed into the footnotes.  He wants me engaging more with the texts, which I have absolutely no problem with.  I was dallying around with the critics, because in the first draft of my proposal, the complaint was that I spent too much time dallying around in the texts.  That written, I’m successfully avoiding reading his criticisms point by point, as compared to a conversation, as he has a tendency to get a little lost in the details himself sometimes, all respect intended, and one reason I rather enjoy his direction, but I want to make sure I don’t flog myself for every shortcoming, as is my habit, one that I am working on.

In case you missed it, I posted a must see YouTube the other day on my Twitter feed.  It is must see: Glenn Gould and Leonard Bernstein performing Bach.

On the eightyth million day, G-d saw Gould and Bernstein, and said, “It was worth all that damn Garden nonsense.”

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A Coup From The Coop

The Harvard Coop is a Cambridge institution, over a hundred years old.

Pronounced “coop,” as in chicken coop, it’s an slang abbreviation of “cooperative,” and its consumer contribution to the University community is selling overpriced Harvard insignia crap, as well as student supplies and books.

Shopping at The Coop is a luxury, as there is little cooperative character in Cambridge these days. We have seven Starbucks in less than a two-mile radius, none yet having folded during the economic downturn.

“The People’s Republic of Cambridge” died a decade ago when Cambridge rent control was voted out by way of a state wide referendum. After years of Cambridge residents keeping rent control in place, long suffering and ever enduring Cambridge property owners were able to finally get the Cambridge (read: local) rent control issue on the state ballot (read: what’s wrong with this picture), certain that the proposition would pass in the state’s suburbs and conservative areas. “You wouldn’t want the government telling you how much rent to charge on your property, would you? We all know what that is, don’t we?”

There were those who were more than giddy to show the Cambridge liberals how things work “in the real world.”

With rent control’s demise, liberalism quickly defaulted to the limo brand in “The People’s Republic.” Perhaps that will change now.  Responsibility is quickly becoming vogue.  We’ll see.

Catering to Cambridge’s eagerly embraced upscale tastes, the Coop went through massive renovations a few years ago. It now offers three floors of books in its main area, as well as its course book section. Textbooks, trade books, travel books, every book with a bright shiny cover that one could want to find. Along with the Harvard Bookstore, its one of the main bookstores in the Square (a.k.a. Harvard Square) for new releases, best sellers, academic publications, and quality trade books.

A visit to the Coop this week, accompanied by the ‘Pod, was an unexpected treat to myself, a wonderful evening bereft of expectations, errands, economic tensions.

But I realized after I’d started my evening foray, that I’d left my reading glasses behind. As my eyes are shot from too many years in front of the monitor, the best I could do was briefly scan the jackets, if the print was large enough.

Then I remembered the 7 day return policy.

Eureka! The real world!  Trusty debit card in my pocket, I thought to myself, “buy now, return later.”

American reality at its finest.

So I am posting the titles I picked up during my short-lived excursion into the real world, a fantasy orgy of book buying.  I don’t have the time to read them, but I wanted to look at them with the specs on . . .

The Power of Less by Leo Babauta. Mr. Babauta promises to show us ‘the fine art of limiting yourself to the essential in business and in life.’ In keeping with his premise, the book is a mere 170 pages long and well organized. As I’m not reading these, but scanning, I’m guessing from the Table of Contents that “less is more” is Mr. Babauta’s guiding mantra.  A principle that I assume applies to book buying as well.

Franz Kafka: The Zurau Aphorisms with an introduction and afterward by Roberto Calasso.  A delightful mini volume containing 109 aphorisms by one of the world’s great writers. Among the aphorisms, numbered 64/65: “The Expulsion from Paradise is eternal in its principal aspect: this makes it irrevocable, and our living in this world inevitable, but the eternal nature of the process has the effect that not only could we remain forever in Paradise, but that we are currently there, whether we know it or not.” Mr. Kafka, I love you.

The New York Times bestseller The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine, M.D. From what I can tell, Ms. Brizendine argues that the women’s thinking and behavior differs from men’s because of hormonal differences. Wow. Anybody else underwhelmed with that bit of insight? New York Times bestseller, huh?  I guess reading the books makes all the difference.

Why I Write by George Orwell. This is a reprint of a Penguin Classic. Printed on the cover: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” How could I not bring such writing home, no matter how briefly.  You can read Orwell’s essay detailing his decision to become a writer by clicking the link embedded in the title.

The Spiritual Emerson with an introduction by Jacob Needleman, because who can resist a handsome, inexpensive collection of Emerson essays?  Well, obviously I can’t.  Needleman writes on the back that reading Emerson “can awaken a part of the psyche that our culture has suppressed.” But of course . . .

The Universe In A Single Atom: The Convergence of Science And Spirituality by His Holiness The Dalai Lama. The book garnered accolades from The New York Times, Karen Armstrong, and Garry Wills, among many. Not surprisingly, compassion guides the Dalai Lama’s inquiry, from what I can see. I love the conclusion’s title: “Science, Spirituality, and Humanity.”

A Short History of Nearly Everything, the award winning general science book by Bill Bryson. Bryson left his comfort zone with this book, and it met with critical success. It comes in with 478 pages of text, 38 pages of notes, and a ten page bibliography. Bill, I loved your “A Walk In The Woods,” but given my schedule, I will be running and not walking this one back to the cooperative.

Last but most definitely not least, On Cats by Doris Lessing. A delightful little hardcover gift edition, and the watercolor by Aurore de la Morinerie is exquisite. Ms. Lessing won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2007, the committee calling her “that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny.”

Ms. Lessing is one of eleven women to win the Nobel in Literature in the award’s history. Her entry at Nobel.org can be found here.

With this entry complete, I must get myself to The Coop, receipt in hand.

What a wonderful excursion reality’s been!

My thanks to the various photogaphers whose pictures I downloaded via google images.  I did not take these photos.  Google images (search Harvard Coop) can provide the photo’s original source.

Give The Devils Their Due: YouTube Find Of The Week

With Obama’s inauguration and the end of an error, I got to thinking this past week about how easy it is now for so many to trash and thrash George and Dick.

But who is really to blame for eight years of madness?

Notwithstanding Diebold, voter disenfranchisement, hanging chads, and the rest, the fact is no real revolt took place over the Republic’s rapid demise among vast numbers of its citizens, until the economy tanked.

For the most part, America just rolled over and allowed itself to be sodomized for eight years, thinking that the backdoor raping of its Constitution and values were necessary for “safety’s sake.”  (Yes eight years, not six and a half, because nothing really changed after 9/11.  For the same cynical, unquestioning pragmatism that allowed We The People to let the Supreme Court pick our President, allowed us to led by the nose into Iraq.)

But when the pimps quit paying the bills, things changed.  Suddenly, sodomy became intolerable.

Individuals sometimes have to hit rock bottom before they are willing to take on the responsibility for change.  Seems the same holds true for nations.

Change has come.  And We The People are that change.

It’s “Nobody’s Fault But Ours.”  Let’s give the Devils their due.

I discovered a YouTube upload of Nina Simone’s version of the classic “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” this past week.  Incomparable.

Nina Simone’s bio on Wikipedia.

Troy Davis’ Letter to Friends and Supporters

For those of you following the Troy Davis case, good news! According to Troy’s website, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted oral arguments to be heard, 9 December in Atlanta at 1:00 p.m.

The The Troy Anthony Davis site has also posted a letter from Troy to friends and supporters. I have reprinted it here, in its entirety, with the permission of Amnesty International.

Please consider visiting the Troy Davis site, learning about the case, and if you are so inclined, dropping Troy a note.

“This is a message from Troy Anthony Davis
November 2008

I want to thank all of you for your efforts and dedication to Human Rights and Human Kindness, in the past year I have experienced such emotion, joy, sadness and never ending faith. It is because of all of you that I am alive today, as I look at my sister Martina I am marveled by the love she has for me and of course I worry about her and her health, but as she tells me she is the eldest and she will not back down from this fight to save my life and prove to the world that I am innocent of this terrible crime.

As I look at my mail from across the globe, from places I have never ever dreamed I would know about and people speaking languages and expressing cultures and religions I could only hope to one day see first hand. I am humbled by the emotion that fills my heart with overwhelming, overflowing Joy. I can’t even explain the insurgence of emotion I feel when I try to express the strength I draw from you all, it compounds my faith and it shows me yet again that this is not a case about the death penalty, this is not a case about Troy Davis, this is a case about Justice and the Human Spirit to see Justice prevail.

I cannot answer all of your letters but I do read them all, I cannot see you all but I can imagine your faces, I cannot hear you speak but your letters take me to the far reaches of the world, I cannot touch you physically but I feel your warmth everyday I exist.

So Thank you and remember I am in a place where execution can only destroy your physical form but because of my faith in God, my family and all of you I have been spiritually free for some time and no matter what happens in the days, weeks to come, this Movement to end the death penalty, to seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent must be accelerated. There are so many more Troy Davis’. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe.

I want you to know that the trauma placed on me and my family as I have now faced execution and the death chamber 3 times is more punishment than most can bare; yet as I face this state santioned terror, I realize one constant, my faith is unwavering, the love of my family and friends is massive and the fight for justice and against injustice by activists world-wide has ignited a fire that is raging for Human Rights and Human Dignity. You inspire me, you honor me and as I pray for strength and guidance for my family and loved ones, for the victims family and loved ones, I share with you this struggle, I share with you our triumps, knowing that you add to my strength, my courage and because of that, I share with you my life.

We must Dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country.

I can’t wait to Stand with you, no matter if that is in physical or spiritual form, I will one day be announcing,

‘I AM TROY DAVIS, and I AM FREE!’

Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win!”

(end of letter)

Time Article on Troy Davis

Because the life of one man matters.

Thanks to The Carnival of Feminists!

I am pleased to announce that the Carnival of Feminists has linked to two of my entries:

Never Doubt It: The Enduring Double Standard

and

My Neighbor’s Sex Life

If you’d like to visit the Carnival and peruse their entries, I hope you will do so. Fourth Wave Feminism offers great writings by and for women.

Fourth Wave Feminism and the 68th Carnival of Feminists.

Thank you, 68th Carnival of Feminists!

Never Doubt It: The Enduring Double Standard

I am not a Sarah Palin fan.

Her race baiting and nasty mud slinging are the worst of American politics.

But I knew that the ensuing trashing of Palin would take place. If racism sells well in American politics, misogyny is the most valuable commodity on the market.

After the most intelligent, disciplined, and forward thinking campaign in American history, the big news this week on the MSM was that women didn’t like Michelle Obama’s choice of of Narciso Rodriguez’s dress for her husband’s acceptance speech.

And please note, if you Google “Michelle Obama,” as of 8 November 2008, the “related search” options given at the top of the page are: “michelle obama dress michelle obama fashion.” That’s right, America’s most well educated First Lady in history is now the premier fashionista for the next four years. Michelle is the one who will set the trends and dictate fashion, with her every appearance on People and Style covers. Princeton undergraduate and Harvard law to become our foremost style icon–no education required. The rest will have to take place quietly behind the scenes. I trust her to do so. Just make a note of it.

So I applaud Ms. Palin on the following, which I found on the BBC: click here. (The snippet inspiring this post, Sarah Palin speaking on women, clothes, and politics has been removed in a matter of hours. What a shocker.)

You may think that Palin is the worst thing since . . . . McDonald’s, high fructose corn syrup, and George W. Bush, but on this she nails it, in all her oblique and awkward glory. And she should know. She was picked for all the wrong reasons, and expected to successfully sell her femme maverick status, amid the sequestering and despite her many political shortcomings.

The Republicans will hang her out to dry, in her pretty black dress and well coiffed veep hairdo, all of which were as deliberately displayed the 7 American flags and conglomerate of economic advisers decorating Obama’s first press conference, because misogyny is alive and thriving in America.

Even though McCain has presumably asked that the swiping between Palin and his campaign adivisers (read: white, male Republican strategists) to stop, the Republicans will blame her. She will do most what men would do, defend herself with stridency. (Is Bill Clinton’s despicable, “I did not have sex with that woman,” so long ago?) But she’s not a man, and since her ambition exceeds her abilities, an admirable trait for those born without fallopian tubes, she will come off in the worst light possible.

Meanwhile, McCain will return to the comforts of the Senate, and to his blond haired, blue eyed, eerily Barbie-doll-esque wife, the one he acquired after the first one went lame.

Market value goes down on damaged goods.

Never doubt it; the double standard requires a desirable commodity package. Because until there is a tide change, American women must market themselves to the testosterone and unexamined lusts of America’s men, and the women who devotedly follow their lead. In order to garner power, the package must be a commodity, nothing more, nothing less.  This power must pander to men’s desires while showing other women how to “do it,” how to make the game work for themselves.

But don’t blame men; women find this transaction the easiest way to break the chains which bind us.

Conversely, you can’t blame us. Misogyny is the toughest gig around.

Now, let’s all all bump and grind to the sound of real female power right here in the good old U.S.A. (while we all are emotionally awash of Obama’s victory, and the almost certain glaringly homogeneous cabinet which will no doubt come to pass in the not too distant future):

Love. The quintessential capitalist commodity. Only for women with the goods to sell.

A Conversation With My Mother

I spoke with my mother on the phone last night.

It’s the first talk we’ve had since the election. I called her and asked how she felt. I haven’t had the time or emotional wherewithal to speak with her before yesterday, as I’ve found myself experiencing so many emotions in between the demands of my schedule.

“So how are you feeling, Mom,” I asked. “You know,” she said, “I can’t talk about it it too much. It makes me too emotional, and I can’t really do that to myself right know. But you know, this isn’t only a victory for blacks. Some of us have had this dream for a long time, some of us have been fighting for this for a long time, in our own way, as best we could, and I can barely believe it.”

My mother, a single working mother in the sixties, was packed and ready to go to Selma. She told me the story again last night. I remember it well. It is one of those I treasure, one of my favorites.

“I would have gone. I would have been right there with Dr. King. Lots of whites were marching, but your grandmother wouldn’t babysit. She refused. She said, ‘Florence, you’re a woman alone with a child. You have to think about your baby. If you go down there, you might end up dead, those racists will kill a white woman standing up for blacks. You can’t leave your child alone.’ And she was right, but I would have gone. If I didn’t have a baby, I would have gone. I wanted to be there more than anything in the world. I wish I could have gone. If only your grandmother would have babysat.”

She then proceeded to tell me about her Sunday school class, full of nice polite white folks learning about the Lord and the Bible. The adult Bible study turned to a discussion on “mixed marriages,” and most were against it, for the most thinly veiled of reasons. My mother’s white, married, middle class church friends were shocked when my mother announced that she “didn’t care if her only daughter married a black man. No black man could be any worse than the blond haired, blue eyed son of bitch that I married.”

Honesty, you gotta love it in middle class America.

Her pastor politely turned the conversation, “well, I think Florence has made her point,” after my mother’s bombshell. She easily remembers the “hoity-toity” racism of the church members, and her need to drop the bomb to make her point. “I wasn’t raised with a Bible that taught racism. That’s not my Bible, never has been, never will be. We’re all God’s children, period. End of story. I just won’t tolerate racism in the church, just won’t.”

Every so often, dogmatism has its redeeming values.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed on my mother’s birthday, April 4th.

My mother spent the night crying, said a prophet of God had been murdered. How could we survive the death of a prophet of God? What was the nation coming to? She still believes that the U. S. government was behind it, knows it without a doubt.

That evening, everything just sunk into an abyss of desperation. And hopelessness.

She couldn’t talk too long about Obama last night, didn’t want to cry too long or too hard, as her health is not good these days. “A lot of whites had that dream too. It’s too hard to talk about, but I can’t believe it’s happened.”

The shadows of April 4th haunt her today. But she won’t talk about it. It’s the underbelly of inexpressible joy, what so many are thinking but refuse to say aloud, fearing the country’s history and its demons.

“It’s too hard to talk about.”

Indeed.

Remembering Lincoln

Despite injustice’s tyranny and the seemingly merciless ways of the Universe, I don’t believe in random occurrences.

I’ve never fully brought myself into modernity and its insistence on the quantifiable and rational; I defer to the unseen and inexplicable.  It keeps my sense of wonder alive.

So I don’t find it a mere coincidence that Obama’s rise started in Illinois, the political home of Abraham Lincoln, as though the President himself looked on this young man and helped him forge a path, behind the curtain of reality.

Obama’s political genius is entierly his own, but the better angels of our conscience and creativity are usually served by circumstances and events beyond our control. Some call it synchronicity, some “God’s will,” some call it karma. And some call it destiny.

Obama’s acceptance speech at the DNC, as most people know, was given on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream Speech,” a speech given under Lincoln’s shadow. On February 20, Obama will take the oath of office, and further realize the dreams of King and Lincoln, that all U. S. citizens should be legally and spiritually free and equal, no matter their melanin (and presumably their gender, but that’s another discussion).

Lincoln issued the first Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863. The original Proclamation only covered Union states. No slaves were freed immediately, but it changed the character of the Civil War. The second Proclamation eventually lead to the ratification of the 13th Amendment and the Constitutional abolition of slavery.

I stumbled across the following picture today on the New York Times, and I thought it was particularly poignant.

While many of us were glued to our televisions and computers Tuesday evening, a handful of individuals wandered mecca like to the Lincoln memorial, and waited for the election results under the watchful gaze of Abraham Lincoln, Obama’s political and spiritual forefather.

Below the picture, I post the text of The Emancipation Proclamation, in its entirety.

“Memorial Day” by Matt Mendelsohn.

The Emancipation Proclamation
January 1, 1863

A Transcription

By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

“That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.”

Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

The Emancipation Proclamation at the National Archives and Records Administration.

YouTube Find Of The Week

I ran across this Kennedy Presidential campaign song on YouTube this evening, and I thought it was too good a find not to share.

I find it fascinating that Kennedy had a schtick, “cast your vote for Kennedy and the change that’s overdue.”

Sound familiar?

Why Women Should Vote

I received the following in an e-mail from my friend Dave, about mid-September.

All of it is true.

The essay’s writer is anonymous, but I thank the woman who wrote it. I recognize her as an everyday hero, one who cares enough to keep history alive.

I offer it here in honor of election day with pride, enthusiasm, and great hope in America’s citizens, men and women of every color and from every religion.

“A Message For All Women

How quickly we forget.

Why Women Should Vote

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.

Lucy Burns

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.

Dora Lewis

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked 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.

Alice Paul

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.

Library of Congress PDF of Women Suffrage Prisoners, including hyperlinks to related LOC archival photos and documents of women prisoners.

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.’

HBO released the movie 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 Bunco 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, 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.”

(End of e-mail)

To honor my African-American sisters, many of whom have too long wept bitter tears for their loved ones and themselves, I also remember the incomparable Sojourner Truth during this historic election:

Sojourner Truth at Women’s History About.com