Everyone, let's take a sigh of relief that election year is now over. No more mudslinging, no more Fox News and CNN pleading for differing candidates. No more mail inserts I toss into the recycling bin, or awkward conversations when a colleague or friend assumes you're voting for the same candidate, and wondering who will swing vote. The harsh commercials that I hope my young nephews don't pay attention to because all those clips teach are to hate, hate, hate.
Can I hear an Amen?
Now, this was the first year I've ever voted. I'm a 24-year-old southerner born to politically aware parents. I would even go so far as to call myself politically charged in my high school years. I would debate with people much older about politics and I came out of that stage jaded. The world is much bigger than my Houston suburb, as I learned in college, and I came to resent the harshness that surrounded either side of the political spectrum. I found that if I had a different view of taxation policies than my friends, I would be quiet about it. Why would I stir up strife amongst my circle about something so far off from me that would most likely not effect me to begin with?
I was the One Vote that Didn't Matter. And, so, I became the One Voter who Never Did.
Let's circle back. This year was the first I've ever voted, not because I paid more attention to the news conglomerates or the politics of either side.
It's because I learned about the history of voting. The history I had insulted up until that point in my life.
Once I learned that one swing vote gave women the right to vote from this article, I became hooked with learning how important it is to be heard. One vote mattered; my vote mattered.
The 19th amendment
The year is 1920. World War I has just ended. Women had filled many jobs that were left vacant when the men left to fight. America is changing to city-driven consumerism. The roaring '20s are about to begin, and the roles of women had already changed.
But you cannot vote.
Imagine that you can earn a wage, but have no opinion on the taxation of that wage.
Imagine that you sit around your dinner table in 2016, voicing your thoughts on an upcoming election, desperately trying to be heard by your husband and sons because that is the only way you can have any sort of influence.
I wonder what kind of world we would live in if half the population had no voice in the political sphere. Hilary Clinton surely wouldn't be running, but I wonder what kind of laws and amendments would be lacking if the unique perspective of the woman was completely void in the political sphere? Some hot topics among women today are education, women's healthcare, U.S. jobs and welfare, civil opportunity...and the list goes on.
Thirty-six states needed to pass the ratification in order for women to be able to vote. In Tennessee, a young man's mother, Phoebe Ensminger Burn, happened to write him a letter stating her clear opinion on the need to allow women to vote. He changed his anti-suffrage stance that day that the vote was cast, and allowed for the 19th amendment to be passed. The fight of the Suffrage ladies (and the men who supported it) was a long, hard road. One I am unfamiliar with, thanks to their effort and reason to understand the weight and depth of the importance to be heard.
