94th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment

Last month we celebrated the 94^th anniversary of the ratification of the 19^th Amendment and many, including me, took to social media to celebrate. As I scrolled through the various feeds, I noticed a theme.  Over and over again many posts asserted the 19^th Amendment “gave” women the right to vote. And the collective voice of these posts tells a story that women are only passive recipients of the vote. That voice, from the comforts of the 21^st century, negates the silent desperation of the generations of women who never cast a ballot while living their lives under the laws enacted by their ‘representatives’. And that voice drowns out the battle cries of the suffragettes, who rallied without the benefits of social media and took ownership of something we today consider a fundamental value of our society. It is safe to say, from my standpoint, that in the history of our republic, the vote has never been ‘given’ to any group. No, it has been taken.

In the throws of election season, what value is there in a semantic distinction between giving or taking the vote? Surely what’s important is women have had the vote for 94 years. But are women passive recipients of what we regard as a fundamental right of our republic? Who grants such rights? Who defends such rights? These questions are the very core of the vote and its immutable value to a democracy.

As with so many things, it’s complicated. Complication should never preclude conversation. Election season is the right moment to shift the way we talk about the vote. If we can accept that words matter, then talking about how we exercise that most basic of rights in our republic matters greatly. When we perpetuate the myth that our sisters are the passive recipients of the vote, we weaken their power. And that’s true of sex, race, orientation, or socioeconomic status. It diminishes the power we all have in using our voice to fill in those little ovals on our ballots.

It might seem a trite distinction to make. Elsewhere, possibly. But here in Arizona, we have a legislature that passes HB2305 as a means to purge voter rolls. Voters took their right to put legislation on the ballot for approval—going above the legislature. Then the legislature votes to repeal HB2305, saving it to be reintroduced next session. What sends the legislature a clear message? What honors those who took their right to vote? Well, that’s not complicated: vote. Each of us should take our right again this November. Brown, black, white. Gay and straight. Man and woman. Religious and not religious. Every last one of us letting our voices join together as the Pueblo Unido. It will never be given to us. We must take it.