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Dear Editor:
August 20, 2020 marks the centennial of women's suffrage - the moment when women in America regained the right to vote they originally had, then lost at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. This momentous anniversary is an invitation to consider where voting rights are today.
The suffragists expected that the 19th Amendment would settle the question of voting rights going forward, and would be horrified by what is occurring today regarding manipulation of the nation's voting systems. Gerrymandering, voter ID, voter registration, and absentee ballot issues plague nearly every state and both the top ballot and down ballot races - and affect everyone.
What the current federal administration and its lackeys at the state level, including Wisconsin, are doing to suppress voting is no different from what Bull Connor and his attack dogs did to the civil rights proponents on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. A group of power-hungry white males are trying to silence the voices of anyone who is not just like they are - and this includes those of other political persuasions, naturalized citizens, people of color and the poor. The rights of citizenship guarantee the right to vote. However, the direct political actions by white supremacists and their followers to suppress the vote have made voting nearly impossible for many, many people. These suppression efforts now include attempting to shut down the vitally important U.S. Postal Service so ballots will not be delivered in time to be counted. Anyone who really cares about our democracy must realize what is happening and be outraged.
Today, the nation stands at a crossroads between united we stand and divided we fall, and voting rights at both the federal and state levels are squarely in the center of the intersection. This is a chilling outcome to 100 years of working for, and then protecting, the right to vote, but it is the reality we face. Voting is the only voice we have that directly impacts how we govern ourselves, and if we allow this right to be taken away, we are no longer a free people. Instead, we have surrendered to a dictatorship that freely commits civil rights abuses.
Women worked very hard, for more than 70 years, to reclaim this basic right of citizenship. The women who began the fight did not live to celebrate the victory, and the women who took it over the finish line were not yet born when the effort began. Women today, especially The League of Women Voters https://my.lwv.org/wisconsin/voter-information have once again stepped up to heroically lead the Get Out to Vote fight.
The best way to recognize and honor the passage of the 19th Amendment is to fight with all we have to preserve our right to vote and to not quit - no matter what. We outlasted the opposition to prevail once before, and we can certainly do it again. It is just too bad we have to.
Paula Dáil
Spring Green, WI