<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>"Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."<div> - Wendell Berry</div></div><div dir="ltr"><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><b>From:</b> "RAFAEL J. GONZALEZ" <rjgonzalez@mindspring.com><br><b>Date:</b> August 18, 2020 at 12:49:34 PM PDT<br><b>To:</b> undisclosed-recipients: ;<br><b>Subject:</b> <b>for my sisters/hermanas: '100 years ago'</b><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">
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<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" align="center"> 19th Amendment to the US Constitution — Women
Suffrage approved by Congress 6/4/1919, ratified 8/18/1920, <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://rjgonzalez.blogspot.com/">one hundred years ago
today</a>. </h3>
<div class="post-header"> </div>
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-7549317739660724537" itemprop="description
articleBody"> <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">-</span><br>
When women's suffrage was gained in the U. S. in 1920, my
mother Carmen González Prieto was newly come to the U.S., not
yet thirteen. She did not become a citizen of the United
States until 1957 while I was serving with the Marine Corps in
Kaneohe Bay, the territory of Hawai'i. Shorty after she died
at the age of 86, while I was visiting my brothers in El Paso,
I accompanied them to vote; everyone at the voting place asked
where Mrs. Carmen González was; they had never known her to
miss voting since she became a U. S. citizen. (She always
voted Democrat.)<br>
<br>
<div style="text-align: center;">— Rafael Jesús González<br>
<br>
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nEASjGNUfk8/Tew5f4jdYII/AAAAAAAACy0/1j-WlSLeS6k/s1600/women%2527s%2Brallly%2Bturn%2B20th%2Bcent.jpg" moz-do-not-send="true"><img alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614926055344005250" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nEASjGNUfk8/Tew5f4jdYII/AAAAAAAACy0/1j-WlSLeS6k/s320/women%2527s%2Brallly%2Bturn%2B20th%2Bcent.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;
text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;
height: 238px;" moz-do-not-send="true" border="0" data-unique-identifier=""></a></div>
<br>
<br>
<div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size:130%;">19th Amendment to the US
Constitution —<br>
Women Suffrage</span><br>
<br>
by Deborah Tutnauer<br>
<span style="font-size:85%;">(2010)<br>
</span></div>
<br>
This is the story of our Mothers and Grandmothers<br>
who lived only 90 years ago.<br>
<br>
Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the
right to go to the polls and vote.<br>
<br>
The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed
nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs
asking for the vote.<br>
<br>
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.'<br>
<div style="text-align: center;"><br>
</div>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<div style="text-align: center;"><br>
</div>
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.<br>
<br>
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?<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.'<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br>
</div>
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.<br>
<br>
The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often
mistaken for insanity.'<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CiwtO8mMvU0/Tew4yAN_lgI/AAAAAAAACyU/Bk4VVAzz0k4/s1600/Helena%2BHill%2BWeed%252C%2BNorwalk%2B%252C%2BConn.jpg" moz-do-not-send="true"><img alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614925267127473666" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CiwtO8mMvU0/Tew4yAN_lgI/AAAAAAAACyU/Bk4VVAzz0k4/s320/Helena%2BHill%2BWeed%252C%2BNorwalk%2B%252C%2BConn.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;
text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 251px;
height: 320px;" moz-do-not-send="true" border="0" data-unique-identifier=""></a><span style="font-size:85%;">(Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk , Conn.
Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner,
</span><br>
<span style="font-size:85%;">'Governments derive their just
powers from the consent of the governed.')</span><br>
</div>
<br>
History is being made.<br>
<br>
by Deborah Tutnauer<span style="font-size:85%;"><br>
(2010)<br>
<br>
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;"><br>
The Declaration of Sentiments<br>
Seneca Falls, New York, 1848<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size:85%;">(Source: U.S. Dept. of State)<br>
</span><br>
<div style="text-align: left;">The Declaration of Sentiments
and Resolutions was drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton for
the women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York in
1848. Based on the American Declaration of Independence,
the Sentiments demanded equality with men before the law,
in education and employment. Here, too, was the first
pronouncement demanding that women be given the right to
vote.<br>
<br>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Sentiments</span><br>
</div>
<br>
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary
for one portion of the family of man to assume among the
people of the earth a position different from that which
they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of
nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect
to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes that impel them to such a course.<br>
<br>
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and
women are created equal; that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to
secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to
refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the
institution of a new government, laying its foundation on
such principles, and organizing its powers in such form,
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety
and happiness.<br>
<br>
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient
causes; and, accordingly, all experience has shown that
mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are
sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they were accustomed. But when a long train
of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same
object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government
and to provide new guards for their future security. Such
has been the patient sufferance of the women under this
government, and such is now the necessity which constrains
them to demand the equal station to which they are
entitled.<br>
<br>
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries
and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in
direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny
over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a
candid world.<br>
<br>
He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable
right to the elective franchise.<br>
<br>
He has compelled her to submit to law in the formation of
which she had no voice.<br>
<br>
He has withheld from her rights which are given to the
most ignorant and degraded men, both natives and
foreigners.<br>
<br>
Having deprived her of this first right as a citizen, the
elective franchise, thereby leaving her without
representation in the halls of legislation, he has
oppressed her on all sides.<br>
<br>
He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law,
civilly dead. He has taken from her all right in property,
even to the wages she earns.<br>
<br>
He has made her morally, an irresponsible being, as she
can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be
done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of
marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her
husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her
master-the law giving him power to deprive her of her
liberty and to administer chastisement.<br>
<br>
He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be
the proper causes and, in case of separation, to whom the
guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be
wholly regardless of the happiness of the women-the law,
in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the
supremacy of man and giving all power into his hands.<br>
<br>
After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if
single and the owner of property, he has taxed her to
support a government which recognizes her only when her
property can be made profitable to it.<br>
<br>
He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments,
and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives
but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her all the
avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most
honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine,
or law, she is not known.<br>
<br>
He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough
education, all colleges being closed against her.<br>
<br>
He allows her in church, as well as state, but a
subordinate position, claiming apostolic authority for her
exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions,
from any public participation in the affairs of the
church.<br>
<br>
He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the
world a different code of morals for men and women, by
which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society
are not only tolerated but deemed of little account in
man.<br>
<br>
He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself,
claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of
action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her
God.<br>
<br>
He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy
her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her
self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent
and abject life.<br>
<br>
Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half
the people of this country, their social and religious
degradation, in view of the unjust laws above mentioned,
and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed,
and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we
insist that they have immediate admission to all the
rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of
the United States.<br>
<br>
In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate
no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and
ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within
our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents,
circulate tracts, petition the state and national
legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the
press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be
followed by a series of conventions embracing every part
of the country.<br>
Resolutions<br>
<br>
Whereas, the great precept of nature is conceded to be
that “man shall pursue his own true and substantial
happiness.” Blackstone in his Commentaries remarks that
this law of nature, being coeval with mankind and dictated
by God himself, is, of course, superior in obligation to
any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all
countries and at all times; no human laws are of any
validity if contrary to this, and such of them as are
valid derive all their force, and all their validity, and
all their authority, mediately and immediately, from this
original; therefore,<br>
<br>
Resolved, That such laws as conflict, in any way, with the
true and substantial happiness of woman, are contrary to
the great precept of nature and of no validity, for this
is superior in obligation to any other.<br>
<br>
Resolved, that all laws which prevent woman from occupying
such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate,
or which place her in a position inferior to that of man,
are contrary to the great precept of nature and therefore
of no force or authority.<br>
<br>
Resolved, that woman is man's equal, was intended to be so
by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands
that she should be recognized as such.<br>
<br>
Resolved, that the women of this country ought to be
enlightened in regard to the laws under which they live,
that they may no longer publish their degradation by
declaring themselves satisfied with their present
position, nor their ignorance, by asserting that they have
all the rights they want.<br>
<br>
Resolved, that inasmuch as man, while claiming for himself
intellectual superiority, does accord to woman moral
superiority, it is preeminently his duty to encourage her
to speak and teach, as she has an opportunity, in all
religious assemblies.<br>
<br>
Resolved, that the same amount of virtue, delicacy, and
refinement of behavior that is required of woman in the
social state also be required of man, and the same
transgressions should be visited with equal severity on
both man and woman.<br>
<br>
Resolved, that the objection of indelicacy and
impropriety, which is so often brought against woman when
she addresses a public audience, comes with a very ill
grace from those who encourage, by their attendance, her
appearance on the stage, in the concert, or in feats of
the circus.<br>
<br>
Resolved, that woman has too long rested satisfied in the
circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a perverted
application of the Scriptures have marked out for her, and
that it is time she should move in the enlarged sphere
which her great Creator has assigned her.<br>
<br>
Resolved, that it is the duty of the women of this country
to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective
franchise.<br>
<br>
Resolved, that the equality of human rights results
necessarily from the fact of the identity of the race in
capabilities and responsibilities.<br>
<br>
Resolved, that the speedy success of our cause depends
upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and
women for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit, and
for the securing to woman an equal participation with men
in the various trades, professions, and commerce.<br>
<br>
Resolved, therefore, that, being invested by the Creator
with the same capabilities and same consciousness of
responsibility for their exercise, it is demonstrably the
right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote
every righteous cause by every righteous means; and
especially in regard to the great subjects of morals and
religion, it is self-evidently her right to participate
with her brother in teaching them, both in private and in
public, by writing and by speaking, by any
instrumentalities proper to be used, and in any assemblies
proper to be held; and this being a self-evident truth
growing out of the divinely implanted principles of human
nature, any custom or authority adverse to it, whether
modern or wearing the hoary sanction of antiquity, is to
be regarded as a self-evident falsehood, and at war with
mankind.<br>
</div>
<br>
<div align="left"> Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1848<br>
<br>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<img alt="" src="cid:part6.2382A2B8.7AE85789@mindspring.com"></div>
<span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></div>
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<title></title>
<font face="New York">Rafael Jesús González<br>
Poet Laureate <br>
City of Berkeley, California<br>
P. O. Box 5638<br>
Berkeley, CA 94705<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://rjgonzalez.blogspot.com/">http://rjgonzalez.blogspot.com/</a><br>
<br>
</font> </div>
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