There’s a vote that will be missing in the upcoming Presidential Election. Is it important? What’s the big deal anyway? Will it matter?
It’s important because when voter Helen Bartlett was born in 1897, she and those of her gender in the United States of America did not have The Right to Vote and once she had the privilege she never took it lightly.
The big deal is she knew women had been willing to die in order for her to have the freedom to make her choice not only known but also for it to count. Not only did she know of women who had suffered to give her the freedom but also she had inherited genes from one of the members of the original Continental Congress that may have stirred some held-back notion that the term “women” should have been included even at the time when her Great-Uncle Josiah Bartlett signed the Declaration of Independence that includes the phraseology, “these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” When she was 105 years old and asked by a reporter to name the most significant thing in her lifetime, her response was, "When women were given the right to vote in 1920.”
It will matter because the Nana I inherited when I married, voted in every Presidential Election beginning with her first opportunity until the current President was chosen. Whether she voted for President Bush or not, I do not know. We didn’t discuss it and now we cannot because our Nana, passed away, hard of hearing, dimming of sight, yet sharper than most of us in mind, at the amazing age of 107 years, 2 months and 25 days on January 18, 2005.
Her vote will be missed. Yet because of her I am more determined than ever that mine will be cast and mine will be counted. What about yours?
It’s important because when voter Helen Bartlett was born in 1897, she and those of her gender in the United States of America did not have The Right to Vote and once she had the privilege she never took it lightly.
The big deal is she knew women had been willing to die in order for her to have the freedom to make her choice not only known but also for it to count. Not only did she know of women who had suffered to give her the freedom but also she had inherited genes from one of the members of the original Continental Congress that may have stirred some held-back notion that the term “women” should have been included even at the time when her Great-Uncle Josiah Bartlett signed the Declaration of Independence that includes the phraseology, “these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” When she was 105 years old and asked by a reporter to name the most significant thing in her lifetime, her response was, "When women were given the right to vote in 1920.”
It will matter because the Nana I inherited when I married, voted in every Presidential Election beginning with her first opportunity until the current President was chosen. Whether she voted for President Bush or not, I do not know. We didn’t discuss it and now we cannot because our Nana, passed away, hard of hearing, dimming of sight, yet sharper than most of us in mind, at the amazing age of 107 years, 2 months and 25 days on January 18, 2005.
Her vote will be missed. Yet because of her I am more determined than ever that mine will be cast and mine will be counted. What about yours?
© Marilyn Sue (Libby) Moore 10-27-08
