Hi All! I am back once again after a bit of a hiatus. Maybe one day I'll get the hang of this consistent posting thing but that's just not my life right now. Election Day is tomorrow and thanks to the TimeHop/On This Day feature of Facebook, I was reminded yesterday of what my post was regarding the election four years ago. It went a little something like this: "Today I am thankful for my right to vote because it wasn't all that long
ago that I wouldn't have had that right. I'm also thankful that I live
in a country that I can safely go to a polling place and cast my vote
without fear of being persecuted, no matter who I'm voting for. With
that said, everyone play nice. Unless you're moving to Canada, we all
have to live together for the next 4 years no matter who wins. :)"
I feel like four years later, those thoughts still ring true for me. I've had students asking me for weeks who I was going to vote for, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? And my standard reply has been "I don't know." I'm not just thrilled over either candidate and would really like to vote "Option E: None of the Above". Both of the two major party candidates have definite flaws and I take issue with their stance on several key things. Also, neither of the third party candidates seem like great options to me either. I think that speaks more to us as a nation and makes me question how we let it get this far? How did we as a country, as voters, allow it to come to the point where one of these people is really going to be the future leader of our country? And I honestly don't have the answer to that.
But I do know one thing. I will vote tomorrow. Despite the poor candidate choices, despite the flaws, despite the "How is Donald Trump really a candidate?" thoughts, I will vote. I've heard people saying today and have seen all over social media comments along the lines of "I just won't vote". But I can't do that.
For the past few weeks my 10th graders have been studying historic speeches. Two of the speeches we've covered are Carrie Chapman Catt's "Address to Congress on Women's Suffrage" and Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions." In the process of reading these, I've tried to drive home to my students that it was less than 100 years ago that women finally garnered the right to vote across our nation. The list of rights that were denied to women during this same time period were mind boggling for them! The fact that married women couldn't own property and were legally under the power of their husbands and that they had no legal recourse if they were being abused. Or that women couldn't attend colleges or universities or enter most professions. And that women had to pay taxes when they had no say in how those taxes were spent because they couldn't vote for the people who did decide how that tax money was used. These were all things that my kids had a hard time comprehending, especially the girls.
Because of all of these reasons and more, I will vote tomorrow. I will vote for Susan B. Anthony, whose grave is being adorned with "I voted" stickers by women who have exercised their hard earned right. I will vote for Carrie Chapman Catt and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul and the other suffragists who wouldn't take "no" for an answer. For Fannie Lou Hamer, who had to wait even longer to get her right to vote just because of the color of her skin, as she famously said "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired." For all of them, I will vote tomorrow. And I will hope and pray that I have made the right choice. And I will hope and pray that our nation will wake up on Wednesday with a competent leader who will see us through the next four years.
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