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unhinged
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'winning the vote required seventy-two years of ceaseless agitation by three generations of dedicated, fearless suffragists, who sought to overturn centuries of law and millennia of tradition concerning gender roles. the women who launched the movement were dead by the time it was completed; the women who secured its final success weren't born when it began. it took more than nine hundred local, state, and national campaigns, involving tens of thousands of grassroots volunteers, financed by millions of dollars of mostly small (and a few large) donations by women across the country.
the movement developed great women orators, talented executives, and tenacious lobbyists. it nurtured feminists philosophers and astute politicians who - though they had no legal standing or governmental representation - learned to manipulate the levers of political power and pull the strings of public opinion. women who had never had public lives were emboldened to speak out, to march in the streets, even to raise picket signs in public protest for the first time. some were more strongly radicalized in their quest for civic equality and became willing to commit acts of civil disobedience and go to jail in pursuit of the franchise. through the decades, 'the cause' changed the way women saw themselves and transformed society's view of women.' - elaine weiss
from the book 'the woman's hour: the great fight to win the vote'
seventy-two years
we had to fight for seventy-two years for our right to vote
and the first woman candidate for president of a 'major' party disenfranchised us by the thousands if not millions so she could lose the general election to a man that wants to punish us for choosing for ourselves when the time is right to bring a child into this world
i don't believe i live in a free land
but i'll be damned if we weren't brave,
aren't still brave
when we stand in front of hired mercenaries
and have our arms almost blown off by concussion grenades to protect clean water for millions
when we make public statements against media moguls that have assaulted and harassed us
when we get up on national television
and stand up to powerful lobbying interests
that block common sense government
that allow the death to continue
that allowed our friends to be murdered before our eyes
when we stand up to the police that killed our fathers, brothers, uncles, sons
the land of the brave
let's remember
'power concedes nothing without a demand'
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180422
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