She rolled out of bed and left her house to pick up a sign and march in the streets. At that point in history, my great grandmother – head of the household, widowed mother to nine children, sole income provider, and taxpayer – did not even have the right to cast her thoughts in the voting booth.
So she marched.
Three generations later, I rolled out of bed, put on my navy dress, slipped on my heels, and clipped-on my Pete pin, and was on my way to the event that would affirm that I want to spend my life in politics – around justice chasers, impassioned policymakers, and dreamers working to pave a better path for our future.
The vision I have for what our generation can build is a tall order. When I start to get overwhelmed and disheartened about the future of generations ahead, I must remind myself to look back at the women’s suffrage movement. Three generations ago, we did not even have the right to cast our opinions on important decisions. Today, we can be the decision-makers.
It is our great grandmothers who paved this path, and our responsibility to take it further.
The women’s suffrage movement made much progress, but we still need to pick up and carry forward. The movement wasn’t able to bring everyone with it. Many groups are still silenced, voter intimidation is lethal to our democracy, tax-paying undocumented persons are left without a voice, and racism seeps through every pocket of society.
As our great-grandmothers did, we must use all of our energy to catapult the generations far as they had done for us. We need to use our ability to make decisions and make them for those not yet at the table. We need to force in more chairs.
This responsibility goes beyond our paths to the polls. We must look around and bring others forward in this movement we have right now.
We must ask ourselves the following:
Who in our nation does not have a seat at the table?
Who does not have the opportunity to be heard?
Who is not yet on the team of decision-makers?
After we answer these questions, we must reflect on the following :
Who is at the table now?
Who wasn’t here three generations ago?
Who can we make sure is at the table three generations from now?
Then comes what happens after reflection – Action:
Vote.
Discuss.
Include.
Lead.
But, most importantly, remember to bring others forward alongside us.
Like our great-grandmothers, may we be the suffragists of today that bring forward a new generation with a multitude of new voices.