Register to Vote

Yes, this is more generally a crafty blog, you might find photos or travel blurbs or foodie posts here; but each time there's an election you'll find me asking 'have you registered to vote?'. You won't find me telling you who to vote for at any stage of any election process, but I will always be reminding people to REGISTER TO VOTE! Where I grew up - Australia - voting is not a 'privilege', it's a responsibility of every citizen. You don't get a choice, you are required to vote after you turn 18. It's still difficult for me to understand why it is that here, in the USA, you can choose not to vote. After reading about the suffrage movement, and seeing how very hard people had to work, fight and suffer to get the vote for women and minorities, it's astounding that so many people now take that right for granted.

So, while I won't tell you who to vote for, I will tell you that you need to vote. If you pay taxes, why wouldn't you want to have a voice in how those dollars are spent? If you live in a country, why wouldn't you want to have a voice in how that country is led? You can register to vote online - super easy! Please don't leave it to the last minute, most/all states have deadlines for registration ahead of elections.

"The elective franchise is withheld from one half of its citizens,
many of whom are intelligent, cultured, and virtuous,
while it is unstintingly bestowed upon the other,
some of whom are illiterate, debauched and vicious,
because the word 'people,' by an unparalleled exhibition
of lexicographical acrobatics, has been turned and twisted
to mean all who were shrewd and wise enough to
have themselves born boys instead of girls,
or who took the trouble to be born white instead of black."
--Mary Church Terrell, in a 1900 newspaper editorial

Those words were written by American writer and civil rights leader Mary Church Terrell, born in 1863, in Memphis, Tennessee. Her parents were both former slaves, and she was born during the Civil War, in a Southern state. She earned degrees from Oberlin College in 1884 and 1888, making her one of the first known African-American women to earn a college degree.

Mary Church Terrell was active in the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she also helped to found the National Association of College women, and was the only black woman to attend the 1904 International Congress of Women in Berlin. (She gave her speech there in German, and French, and English.) She picketed the White House with the Congressional Union of Woman Suffrage. She was a delegate to the peace conference that ended World War I. What an amazing human being!

Many thanks to my friend Penny for sharing this information about
Mary Church Terrell with me through her
'Born on This Date' yahoo group.

Register to vote

I'm just sayin' :)

Bad officials are elected by
good citizens who do not vote.
--George Jean Nathan (1882-1958)