What an exciting time to be alive – today is the first time I have voted in a Primary. For the first time, I feel strongly enough to care about who sits on the final ticket. Every election day, especially as I get older, I think of the images in the news depicting how hard other people in the world have to work to vote.
In Kenya last year where people traveled 10s of miles by foot to vote.
Aghanistan, where women don’t have the right to show their face in public, but line up to exercise their right to vote.
In Mauritania, where women queue in separate lines than men.
And yet, less than a hundred years ago, our foremothers had to work just as hard to get us the vote.
Today, I am grateful for the US suffragists, who spent more than 80 years fighting for women’s right to vote. I am especially grateful to be from Wisconsin, the first state to ratify the 19th amendment in 1919.
3 responses to “Election Day”
Katie, I love the voting pictures. Every time I head to the polling place I get a bit choked up about the process. I think it’s amazing. And today, to have a woman and a black man on the ballot – for President of the United States! It was an unforgettable experience. The bad news is that only 20 – 35 percent of Wisconsinites agree. When I heard that was the expected voter turnout, I immediately asked Lanette what the voter turnout in Pakistan had been yesterday. Amid, fear and violence, 45 percent of Pakistanis went to vote. I think we can do better. I’m grateful for democracy.
I hear ya! I feel like there needs to be more reverence at the polling places – like a marching band playing the national anthem or something! Maybe Pakistan is a testament that people take Democracy for granted and when it is threatened, they do what they need to protect it? Or, maybe Americans are just as lazy and ignorant and apathetic as the rest of the world thinks we are.
This post reminds me of a discussion me and my sister had recently. We were thinking how backwards it is that here in the USA where we pride ourselves on equality, civil and human rights we have yet to elect a woman president yet in some countries where women are basically treated as second class citizens, or worse, have managed to get elected or appointed as leaders of their country. The World is a very complicated place…