vote vote vote vote vote VOTE vote vote vote vote vote

My good friend and superior political activist Marisa sent me this in an email this morning, and I must share it. I know most of my readership is voting, or is unfortunately too young to vote, but perhaps if you were hesitant (and here I'm looking at the ladies in the audience), I'd just like to remind you of something.

Why Women Vote by Connie Schultz.

An excerpt:

Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on November 15, 1917 (a mere 87 years ago), 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. 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 weeks 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?

And though it's been 86 years since the Sox won the pennant, it's only been 87 since women have had the right to vote. Are we not getting complacent too soon? In this election, of all elections, voter apathy is suicide. Ladies, don't take your right for granted- your greatgrandmothers fought tooth and nail for it.

Can't make a decision, MTV generation? Here's a quiz to help you.