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The day I turned 18 was a special day for my friends and I. This meant I could purchase us cigarettes so we could stand behind the local movie theater trying to impress the young ladies working there. What can I say? I was young and simpleminded then.
The night of my birthday while at dinner, my mother asked me, "Son, what's the first thing you're going to do as an adult?" I looked down for a moment, thinking in my head about the cigarettes I just purchased earlier that day.
"Son, don't you have an answer?" my mother asked.
"I'm not really sure, Momma. I don't really see myself as an adult right now," I said.
This confession drew a look of worry on my mother's face. I knew a lecture was coming every time she looked at me like that.
"Ryan, I think you need to register to vote," she said.
What? Register to vote? Are you kidding? Why would I, a newly turned 18 year old kid, even care about that? Apparently my thoughts shown right on my dim-witted face. My mother laid her arms across her chest, preparing herself for the lecture about to come my way.
"Mom, no, please. No lectures tonight. It's my birthday," I pleaded.
"I know, but some things are too important, they must be shared," she argued back.
At that moment, in the middle of a dark restaurant, on my 18 th birthday, my mother poured out her heart and soul about women's suffrage and the battle to be given that right to vote. Of course the first thing in my mind was, "I'm a guy, why do I care about a woman's right to vote?" But to my mother, her mother and so forth, this lesson was bigger than me.
My mother first explained how women's suffrage didn't mean "women who were suffering, but rather women wanting to vote." She then talked about Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, two brave women who devoted everything they had to helping women's right to vote. The two joined the National American Women Suffrage Association, formed the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage and the National Women's Party to focus ever more of a direct connection with then newly elected president of the U.S., President Woodrow Wilson.
With the leadership from Paul and Burns, non-violent protests began outside the White House, holding signs which read, " Mr. President, what will you do for woman suffrage?" and "Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?" Paul and Burns also lead the women in the NWP in hunger strikes and parades. These dedicated protesters were quickly given the nickname "Silent Sentinels."
My mother, with a smile on her face the size of Montana, proceeded to tell me about a time when Paul was arrested during a non-violent protest and hunger strike and taken to jail. Paul refused to eat and end her hunger strike, leading her to being sent to the prison psychiatric ward and forced-fed. This defiant display of the will Paul possessed lead to press coverage and bringing the issue of women's suffrage to the masses, inspiring other brave women to join the fight.
After many months of protesting, on January 9, 1918, President Wilson announced his support of the 19 th Amendment, which would give the women of the U.S. the right to vote. But even with President Wilson's support, the 19 th Amendment still took some time to be passed. Finally, on August 18, 1920, after Tennessee's ratification, the 36 th state to support the vote, the 19 th Amendment was ratified.
I looked at my teary-eyed mother; this really meant something to her. "You need to know what others went through to give you the freedoms to have today, whether or not you're a male or female," she said. "You might think this isn't a big deal, but imagine everything women have done in history since the 19 th Amendment, and then imagine none of it happening because of not having the chance to speak."
Those words hit like a knife in the chest. I now understood.
I can honestly say the 19 th Amendment alone is not the reason I joined the Army, but what it stands for and what it possesses, what it means to have freedom and what it means to give everything you have to obtain those freedoms, that's why I joined. That was my mother's point to me that day the day I truly learned about the importance of voting, not only for women but for young 18 year old men as well, and to celebrate every chance we, as Americans, have been given to express ourselves through voting.
Ryan Stroud is a military trained journalist who has served in Iraq with the US Army. Prior to his military experiences, Stroud grew up playing, coaching, and refereeing soccer. Also, Stroud focused many years of his life playing, touring, and recording/producing local music acts. He has a wonderful wife of 3 years and a 1 year old son.
Stroud's biggest writing influences are Jim Butcher, Chuck Palahniuk and Ben Fox.
He currently resides in Huntsville, Al, with the 59th Ordnance Brigade at Redstone Arsenal.
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