Iron Jawed Angels

I have been sharing so many fun & beautiful photos of my Mermaid Art Event & I have really loved what I have shared but, I want to take a step away from the beauty & talk about something that I feel is UGLY yet, very important to each of us. I received an email from my friend JoAnn (thank you to you & the person who started this email) the other day that I thought was very interesting. It peeked my curiosity & made me decide to share this information with you so that you might also THINK about this issue, if you choose I hope you will become more diligent in your RIGHT to this issue, & I hope you will pass this along to other women in your life. Now you say what am I talking about? THE RIGHT FOR WOMEN TO VOTE! Ladies, we haven't ALWAYS had this right & there were many who worked hard & suffered to help us achieve this. HBO (I hope they don't mind that I borrowed their logo above to help me put out this message) has come out with a new film that depicts this amazing battle for WOMEN'S RIGHT TO VOTE. The name of the movie is IRON JAWED ANGELS. I just ordered my CD from Amazon.com for less than $4.00 Click HERE to see info on this film

Did you realize it was not until 1920 that women were GRANTED (don't you love that word??? like men were some Fairy God Mother GRANTING....) the right to go to the polls to vote?

The women were innocent & defenseless, but they were jailed for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote. And by the end of the night, some were barley alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs & with their warden's blessing went on a rampage against 33 women wrongly convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic".

This is Lucy Burns, they chained her hands to the cell bars above her head & left her hanging for the night, bleeding & gasping for air.

Dora Lewis was hurled into a dark cell, her head smashed against an iron bed & she was knocked out cold. Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on November 15, 1917 when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there for daring to picket for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food vile & invested with worms. Alice Paul (above) embarked on a hunger strike & was tied to a chair where they forced a tube down her throat & poured liquid into her until she vomited. This went on for WEEKS until word was smuggled out to the press.

This is Pauline Adams in the prison garb she wore while serving a sixty day sentence.

Miss Edith Ainge of Jamestown, New York.

Beth Arnold

Conferring over ratification of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution at National Woman's Party headquarters at Jackson Place, Washington, D.C is (left to right) Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, Anita Pollitzer, Alice Paul, Florence Boeckel, Mabel Vernon (standing right) They say in the film it is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson & his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so she could be permanently institutionalized. And so inspiring to hear the doctor refuse saying "Alice Paul is strong & brave which doesn't make her crazy". He admonished the me saying "COURAGE IN WOMEN IS OFTEN MISTAKEN FOR INSANITY"

My dear friends, I hope that this has made you stop & think about YOUR RIGHT to vote. I don't care which party you choose to stand behind but, I can tell you that every election that comes along from this point on I WILL REMEMBER that this is a HARD FOUGHT BATTLE for MY VOICE TO BE HEARD! Please pass this along to other strong women & let's be sure & make our votes & voices heard. So, whether you just copy & use the photos because you think they are interesting or if you see them for the hero's they really are... LET's REMEMBER what our sisters did for us. Also, I hope you too will watch the movie. I can't wait for it to arrive. Let's get the word out! Let me know you thoughts on this my sisters in blogland.

And I think I'm ready to think more about the beauty I saw in California. I miss all of my Mermaid Sisters & am SICK of this Texas heat. It was 105 today with a heat index of 115. WHY do I live here in the summer???????