Sunday, September 21, 2008

I Was Under The Impression I Am Entitled To My Opinion

My husband Mr. BM, is an annoying Know-It-All and sometimes I become overwhelmed with the urge to strangle him. It wouldn't be so bad if he was only right part of the time. Really. But, to live with someone who is always right about something... anything, is grounds for thoughts of smothering him with a pillow, at the very least.

So, I'm asking this. Is this just a husband thing? Or is it just most men in general? Or perhaps, it's just Mr. BM. Much of what he claims to be right about, is merely his Republican Conservative ideas of what should be what. I happen to disagree, because I'm not a died in the wool conservative like he is. I happen to be a free thinker, having not the narrow mindedness to have a political party lead me around by the nose. I happen to not always agree with either party, and I have issues with both.

Does that make me wrong? I don't fucking think so. It just means that I don't allow my husband to influence the way I think about the things I feel strongly about. The women who were
sufferagettes, went through Hell fighting to give us the Right To Vote. I'll be damned if I'm going to spit on their memories and vote the way someone else tells me to vote. Yeah - I'm stubborn that way. Hmmmm... not really stubborn. I just have an opinion of my own and don't need to be told how or what to do or think, by anyone. Since when has that been wrong?

For one thing, I believe in a woman's right to choose whether or not she has an abortion. When men start having babies, I might change my stance.


I offer this in my defense. A speech by Susan B. Anthony:


In the 1800s, women in the United States had few legal rights and did not have the right to vote. This speech was given by Susan B. Anthony after her arrest for casting an illegal vote in the presidential election of 1872. She was tried and then fined $100 but refused to pay.

Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.


The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:
"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."


It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government - the ballot.


For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity.


To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation.


Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office.


The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.


Susan B. Anthony - 1873


Our foremothers went to jail, then prison, to defend our right to make our own decisions. Apparently, many of our sisters have forgotten this, since the number of women who vote has diminished over the last few years. These women were tortured, starved, beaten, and deprived of human decency, in an effort to keep them quiet, but they stood their ground.

After we've come so far through women of greatness & dedication, are we really going to allow only men to make the decision of who is voted into office?

Jesus Christ, ladies! Get a grip, set aside some time on election day, and grow a spine. Make your vote count, not as your husband's vote, but as your own voice being heard above the masses. We do count. Let's get the fuck out there and prove it, eh? Pull your little heads out of your asses and wake up and smell the coffee. Believe it or not, we actually CAN change the world, if we stand our ground with opinions that are our own.

Got Spine?

Cheerio ~ Blogbitch #2

1 comment:

Blogbitch # 1 said...

I'll be sure to get my fat ass to the voting booth on Nov. 3rd. I've even been following our local elections so I'll have some kind of clue -- instead of just picking whichever name strikes my fancy more.