Sep/2004
From Beverly Davies (Rock River Times, Rockford, IL):
The women were innocent and defenseless. 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 Burn, 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 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. 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.
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 will run the movie periodically befor! e releasing it 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."
M. Catherine McGuire
Graduate Research Assistant
RGK Center for Philanthropy
and Community Service
August 10, 2004
Dear Friends and Supporters,
This letter is harder to write than the first one. I don't know where to
start. Thank you all!! Thought you'd want to know...we made rent!!! It has
been an incredible three weeks for us. Your outpouring of love and support
has been tremendous!! Our hearts are full.... we couldn't have imagined such
a response. Since July 20th, the store has been full of shoppers and the
phone has been constantly ringing- customers near and far have responded.
The Miracle on 12th St.! It couldn't have happened without all of you! Who
knew what a large and powerful web BookWoman can consider herself but a
small part of.
Thanks for coming to shop...thanks for bringing your children and your
sisters and your husbands and your friends and co-workers. Thanks for
calling and offering support. Thanks for making donations. Thanks for
shopping on-line. Thanks for buying yourselves & your friends gift
certificates. Thanks for forwarding our plea. Thanks for the leads on
possible new locations. Thanks for wanting for us to stick around a little
longer. I can't say this enough: your response has been truly astonishing!
You've made us feel that we really are an important part of this community.
What a gift! Don't forget us, we won't be able to forget all of you!!
We feel incredibly energized! Pass it on!
Love,
Susan & Staff
P.S. My next letter will be about last Friday's wonderful musical benefit
and upcoming August events.
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