RESIST: ELECTION DAY

 

We stand alongside all women fiercely going to the polls, ready to confront and push through impediments already at our feet.

In the quest to vote, a myriad of suffragettes were imprisoned, beaten and tortured- hit with steel bars, forced to stand all night and denied medical care. Yet each time they were released, they returned to the picket line.

Black women, who were the first to organize in mid 1800s for women’s rights, have for generations been met at the polls with violence, literacy tests, polling taxes and harassment.

Likewise, Latino women faced financial retribution, physical intimidation and decades of delays as they fought to ensure accessible ballots were available to non-English speaking voters.

Native women were once directed to abandon tribal affiliation in exchange for national citizenship and the right to vote and Chinese Immigrant women were excluded from voting based on foreign wars and fearful stereotypes.

For decades, our districts have been victim to gerrymandering, wavering election rules and unjust voter ID laws.

But today, all of these women will be able to exercise their right.

Women will vote as proud members of Native Nations, on behalf of their enslaved ancestors and as immigrants who were born elsewhere but make this country their home.

So today, we stand alongside all women fiercely going to the polls, ready to confront and push through impediments already at our feet. The universal protection of this exact right, your right to ethical democracy, is very much on the ballot today.

Check in with your neighbors, think of those old and young in your circle and double check they have a way to get there. - Maureen Post

Photo Credit : History.com