IRON-JAWED ANGELS

Greetings from this Same-Sex Couple!!

A friend forwarded this, and I thought you also
might find it eye-opening. The message was
inspired by an HBO film that's on this month--
Iron Jawed Angels, with Hilary Swank playing Alice
Paul.

It is the story of our Grandmothers and
our Great-grandmothers, as they lived only 90
years ago. It was not until 1920 that women in the
U.S. were granted the right to go to the polls and
vote.

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
because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's
White House for the right to vote. The women were
innocent and defenseless. An d 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.

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 w eeks
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 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 or Republican -- remember to vote.
History is being made.

EQUALITY OBAMA STYLE

Greetings from this Same-Sex Couple!!

Received my copy of the HRC Summer News and wanted to share a quote that I felt was particularly meaningful to the GLBT Community.

"I will never compromise on my commitment to equal rights for all GLBT Americans. But neither will I close my ears to the voices of those who still need to be convinced. That is the work we must do to move forward together. It is difficult. It is challenging. And it is necessary". Taken from an Obama letter in 2007.

Although the above is music to my ears, I must guard against permitting this issue to overshadow all the other vital issues that face Obama as his campaign begins the homeward stretch....only three months to go to the election.

The recent tour to meet the heads of countries abroad was very meaningful as the news broadcasts tracked Obama's enthusiastic welcomes. But what about the war? Is it right to bring the troops home when the job isn't complete?

Who will be the choice for vice president? Not Hillary most people are saying....and for such a bright and capable woman this must be a terrible thing to face.

Send in your comments - share your views - let us know what you're thinking.

THE HUMOR OF A DYING MAN

Does the name "Tad Mosel" ring a bell with anyone out there? If not, Google that name and read with interest, respect and awe what you find there.

Tad was our friend and neighbor in the retirement community where we live in Concord, New Hampshire. He moved here with his same-sex partner, Ray, in 1990. Ray died five years later of cancer and Tad tended to him at home as long as he could.

We were in awe of Tad at first because of his magnificent pedigree but once it was discovered we were all Gay, we had fun visiting back and forth with him - enjoying his humor and intelligence that sparkled with everything he said.

A slight stroke two years ago prompted Tad to move to the assisted living lodge within our community and we visited him there up until this past June when he was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. He's in the VNA Hospice House here in Concord now and grows weaker with each day that passes.

When he made this, his last move, he took his humor and sparkle right along with him. He revels in the humor of his frequent vomiting and retching, shouts "Eureka!" if he successfully swallows a sip of milk shake or bite of muffin and delights in the success of a catheter.

Tad won a Pulitzer Prize for his play, "All the Way Home". He needs another prize for the example he's setting for all of us now. Please Google "Tad Mozel" and say a prayer for his peaceful entrance into the alternative lifestyles offered in Heaven.