Our priviledge to vote

I am sure some of you have seen the email that has been floating around about why women should vote. If not, I will summarize what is says, along with some other information I have gleaned. It made me think and realize what a privileged it is for me as a woman to be able to vote. Even if you aren't a girl, I think you ought to exercise your right.

Women fought for equal rights as early (or maybe earlier) as 1776. In 1756 Lydia Chapin (Taft) was the first legal woman voter in colonial America. The town allowed her to vote in proxy for her deceased husband because he was so respected. Apparently it wasn't a common thing for women to vote, but I thought this was an interesting tidbit.
Women not only fought for the right to vote, but also to hold elective office, attend college, earn a living, own property, abolish slavery, and If married, make legal contracts, divorce an abusive husband or gain custody of their children. And probably some other things too, but I want to concentrate on voting.

1776:
Abigail Adams , wife of John Adams (who was attending the Continental Congress in Philadelphia) asked that he and the other men--who were at work on the Declaration of Independence--"Remember the Ladies." John responds with humor. The Declaration's wording specifies that "all men are created equal."
Women in New Jersey had the right to vote from 1776-1807.
1848:
The first woman's rights convention in the United States is held in Seneca Falls, New York.
1866:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (pictured right) form the American Equal Rights Association, an organization for white and black women and men dedicated to the goal of universal suffrage. However,in 1869 the woman's rights movement was split because of disagreements and The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was formed.
1869:
Wyoming Territory granted women suffrage. When Wyoming was admitted into the Union in 1890, it became the first state to allow women to vote. Cool huh?
1870 to 1875:
Several women attempt to use the Fourteenth Amendment in the courts to secure the vote or the right to practice law.They were unsuccessful.
1872:
I thought this especially interesting- Susan B. Anthony is arrested and brought to trial for attempting to vote for Ulysses S. Grant in the presidential election. She refused to pay the fine and no one made her. Love that! At the same time, Sojourner Truth appears at a polling booth in Battle Creek, Michigan, demanding a ballot; she is turned away.

1878:
A Woman Suffrage Amendment is introduced in the United States Congress. The wording is unchanged in 1919, when the amendment finally passes both houses.
1913:
Congressional Union, changed to National Women's Party (1916) was formed. A massive womens suffrage parade was held. Lucy Burns ( a leader of the NAWSA) was arrested for chalking suffragist meeting notices on a sidewalk in D.C.
1916:
Jeannette Rankin of Montana, is the first American woman elected to represent her state in the U.S. House of Representatives.
1917:
Several arrests are made this year, about 170, of suffragists. Some were even attacked by bystanders without police intervention. Alice Paul, another suffragist leader, was arrested and sentenced to 7 months in the Occoquan Workhouse. In protest she went on a hunger strike and was subjected to force-feeding for several weeks before word was smuggled to the press. She was transferred to a psychiatric ward in an effort to intimidate and discredit her. She recalled that one of the women imprisoned with her "was one whose shrieks nightly filled the jail as the rats entered her cell".
The following is the one incident that had the most impact on me, inspiring me to write this blog.
November 15th - "Night of Terror" - members of the National Womens Party picketing the right to vote outside the White House are arrested and given a "lesson" in the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia. Fourty prison guards, with their wardens blessing, arrested 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic". Lucy Burns was beaten, chained with her hands above her head, and left hanging there for the night. Later, her clothing was removed and she was left with only a blanket for covering.
Dora Lewis was thrown into cell, smashing her head against an iron bed, knocking her unconscious. Thinking she was dead, her cellmate Alice Cosu suffered a heart attack. She was denied medical attention despite repeated request throughout the night.
May Nolan (73) with a lame leg, was dragged between two guards, despite her assertion that she would go willingly.
Dorothy Day was purposefully slammed down twice over the back of an iron bench.
Prison conditions were deplorable, even though the women were said to occupy "the best cells, each fitted with running water and bath facilities". The Occoquan was described as small and dark, with fetid air. The food infested with meal worms and the cells with a variety of animal life .
On November 27-28th due to political pressure, these suffrage prisoners were released.

These are some tenacious women, because they sure didn't give up. They kept up with their picketing and touring and several more were imprisoned. They lobbied for passage of the federal woman suffrage amendment in Senate.
Slowly States would allow their women to vote, but it wasn't until November 2, 1920 that all of the women across the United States were allowed to vote for the first time. Charlotte Woodward was the only original Suffragette to survive to see women get the vote. WOW! That was 72 years that these women fought for the right to vote! I just don't understand how after learning all this we don't use this awesome privileged, especially the women!
There is so much more I could write, encouraging men to vote too, but I am tired of writing and my internet is being dumb again. So GIRLS get out there and vote! Today ( October 5) is the last day to register to vote before the Presidential election in November. I think you can do it online too. If you miss the deadline for this presidential election, you can still exercise your privileged to vote in your next local election.

Playing with my camera

I love my camera! I have a Cannon Digital Rebel XT, and it is so much fun. It always makes my amateur pictures come out nice.
Lately I have been interested in Astrophotography, and night time photography. While I still don't know a lot about taking pictures, I have had fun learning. I would like to take some classes to find out even more, but for now doing a Google search has helped a lot. Here are some of my first attempts at taking night time shots.

This picture below is obviously the moon. I don't have a super zooper zoom lens,but my 75-300 mm zoom along with cropping made a pretty good shot. I am so excited since I have never been able to see anything more than a bright blurb of the moon in previous attempts. By using a tripod and a cable release, and not letting the shutter stay open for very long I got a pretty passable shot for a novice. If I do say so myself.

This next one I let the shutter stay open a lot longer. You can see the difference in that the sky appears lighter . As a result, you can see the rest of the moon. You couldn't see it looking up at the sky. I found out this is called Earth shine. It is the sun reflecting off the earth onto the moon.

My ultimate goal is to take a very long exposure of the stars so you can see a big star trail. With this next photo I left the shutter open for as long as I could before a car drove by and ruined the shot. You can see the stars look like lines. That is not camera shake, but the earths rotation causing the stars to look like thy have moved across the sky. When I find a place that is dark enough with no cars or such to ruin the picture then I will post it. I still need to read up on my camera settings though.

This one is just a shot of my front walkway. I though it would make a cool picture. Its fun and different like me.

Am I Normal ????

Most every one thinks they are normal. I know I always did. Am I a normal person?

I recently decided to take a personality test, because I was wondering this very thing. So I took some simple ones and some more in depth ones online. I found out I am an introvert, and melancholy of which I already knew. A type B personality, a dolphin personality, the color blue (what?) . I also took the MBTI test and found out I am ISFJ ( double what?). Here's what it is in simple form.
I- introvert - where you direct your energy- 25% percent of US population
Energized by being alone, Reserved, less talkative, Able to focus for long periods of time, Learn and work best through reflection, Avoid limelight, Listen more than talk, Respond slowly after reflection, More private, fewer friends. - TOTALLY ME

S- Sensing - how you take in information- 65% of US population
Focus on facts and details, Tend to be specific and can give detailed descriptions, Value common sense and practicality, Oriented to the present, Are direct and to the point, More aware of their bodies and appearance, Like to master established skills, Less likely to have graduate degree, Work at steady pace. - well.... a lot of those fit

F- Feeling - how you make decisions - 65% of women in US population
Focus on people impact, Enjoy pleasing people, Avoid conflict and confrontation, Diplomatic, Often found in helping professions, Tact is as important as truth, Like to give praise, Usually less assertive, Start with small talk first, More sensitive to criticism. -Totally me again.

J- Judging- how you live your life- 50% 0f US population
Like to have decisions made, Plan and organize their life, Driven to complete projects, Like structure and systems (LOVE) , Work first and play second, Neat and tidy work space and car (yeah baby), Like jobs that offer control, Can be uncomfortable with change, Time is taken very seriously. -ALL LIZ THERE
Here is more about a ISFJ personality if you are a nerd like me and want to know more.

Ok. So of the 16 different types in this MBTI test, I fall in the category of about 10-13% of the population, which appears to be the highest category. If this is so, then I am mostly normal right? Then why do I feel so not normal?

So I couldn't find much of anything about my weird mind in the personality tests. This is what makes me question a lot of my normality:
I have a confession to make. Are you ready? I have conversations, and stories, and songs, CONSTANTLY running through my head. Not just conversations that have happened in my life. I make up conversations and scenarios that could have been, may come up, how I would like them to be or have been. Conversations that never will happen. Conversations that happened, but this and this is how it should or could have gone. I often get very worked up about these made up conversations that often times when a conversation I have had with the person goes totally different from what my mind made up that I find myself relieved, or even disappointed. If it isn't a conversation or story, it's a song that goes through my head. Sometimes it gets stuck in the conversations. I wake up almost every night around 4 a.m. and do I get to wake up to peace and quiet? Of course not. I have a song or story tormenting me. All on top of the every day normal thinking.
My mind is almost never at rest. Very exhausting! I dream too. Nearly always I dream. I am very often amazed at the creativity in my dreams.
 It is very very annoying to have a mind like mine. I think the main reason why I LOVE reading so much, is because I have someone else story going through my head, and it all makes sense. It is so relaxing to read. It has to be fiction too, otherwise I have to think too much.
So now I ask again. Am I normal? I've recently found out that my Mom has the same kind of mind. She thinks that a small percentage has the same as us. What about you? Are you just as "normal" as me? I am going to put up a pole for you to vote on. I am interested in finding out.

p.s.
I can also guarantee that I will be rewriting this post in my mind all night long, and well into tomorrow and possibly the next day. Grrrrr. Being me is a pain.