Today
is Election Day in the United States. It’s the culmination of a hard fought, often
nasty, verbal battle. For some people, (perhaps most) it’s a huge relief that the
whole thing is over. For others, it’s just another day. They don’t participate,
believing their vote doesn’t count. For me, Election Day is special and exciting.
However,
I didn’t always feel that way until a vacation to London. During my visit, an
English friend and I met up at Parliament and listened to a lively debate.
Afterward we walked to a lobby where several Members of Parliament (MPs)
congregated. A few surreptitiously pulled my journalist friend aside to give
him “scoops” for his newspaper. One MP recognized my American accent and kindly
offered to show us around, including a chapel in the House of Commons.
A
guard unlocked the chapel door and we walked into an elaborately decorated room
with stained glass windows, a vaulted ceiling and an intricately tiled floor. But
the MP didn’t linger. He led us to the back of the room, out one side, up
several stairs and stopped in front of a rather ordinary looking wooden door. Opening
it, he motioned for us to step inside what appeared to be a janitor’s closet. Staying
outside, he closed the door. My friend and I looked at each other, bewildered
why we were standing in a tiny closet next to an upright Hoover.
Sensing
our confusion the MP called out, “Look at the plaque on the door.” The plaque was
dedicated to the brave suffragette, Emily Wilding Davison, who hid in the broom
cupboard (closet) the night before the 1911 census and emerged during the next
day’s count. Why did she commit this act of defiance? So she could legally write
that her place of residence on census day was the House of Commons and thus
claim that she had the same political rights as men.
I wondered
how Emily Davison felt as she waited alone in the darkness and suffocating
silence of the closet. Was she scared not knowing what would happen once she
was discovered? Or, while curled up in this cramped space waiting for morning, did
she fortify herself by envisioning a time when she, her daughters and future
generations of women could vote?
I
knew that suffragettes had been jailed, tortured, ridiculed and shunned while
pursuing the right for women to vote. But it seemed so long ago and not
relevant to my life. Yet, with a flash of insight, I realized that less than
one hundred years ago it was illegal for women to vote in the U.S.! A right I took for granted.
I
returned to the U.S. with a changed perspective. Now, in addition to a right, I
feel that it is a privilege and a responsibility to vote. When I mark my ballot
I feel grateful for women in the U.S. and other countries who had a dream and
fought for the right to vote…so I can vote. I am hopeful that one day everyone
will have be able to have a say in their government.
To
see the plaque dedicated to Emily Wilder Davison, go to: http://www.explore-parliament.net/playMovie.htm?nssMovieName=0902
