A Woman Should Have...

MAYA ANGELOU

says


A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
enough
money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to...


A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
something
perfect to wear if the employer,
or date of her dreams
wants to see her in an hour...


A WOMAN SHOULD
HAVE .
a youth she's content to leave behind....


A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
a past juicy
enough that she's looking forward to
retelling it in her
old age....


A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...


A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
one friend who
always makes her laugh.. and one who lets her cry...


A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a good piece
of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her
family...


A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
eight
matching plates, wine glasses with stems,
and a recipe for
a meal,
that will make her guests feel honored...


A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .
a feeling of
control over her destiny..


EVERY WOMAN SHOULD
KNOW...
how to fall in love without losing herself..


EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to quit
a job,
break up with a lover,
and confront a friend
without;
ruining the friendship...

EVERY WOMAN
SHOU LD KNOW...
when to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK
AWAY...


EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that she can't change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..


EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that her
childhood may not have been perfect...but it's over...


EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she
would and wouldn't do for love or more...


EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW....
how to live
alone... even if she doesn't like it...


EVERY
WOMAN SHOULD KNOW..
whom she can trust,
whom she can't,
and why she shouldn't take it personally...


EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
where to
go...
be it to her best friend's kitchen table..
or a
charming Inn in the woods....
when her soul needs
soothing...


EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW..
What she can and can't accomplish in a day...
a
month...and a year...


SEND THIS TO 3 WOMEN....
You will have good luck for an entire day..


SEND THIS TO 6 WOMEN....
You will have
good luck for all of the year or if nothing else...
you know that you are truly loved and thought of by the friend,
who sent this to you...
and that she only wishes the
best for you and your life..


AND
REMEMBER:

GOOD FRIENDS ARE LIKE STARS.

YOU DON'T ALWAYS SEE THEM,

BUT YOU ALWAYS KNOW THEY ARE
THERE!!!!!!


Be yourself...everyone else is
already
taken.

Women and Voting

A woman from my birth board posted this email her grandma sent her. A good reminder to all women able to vote!

'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'

(Lucy Burns)

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above

her head and left her hanging for! r the night, bleeding and gasping

for air.

(Dora Lewis)

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her

head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate,

Alice Cost, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.

Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging,

beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917,

when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his

guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because

they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right

to vote.

For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their

food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)

When one of the leaders, <>Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks

until word was smuggled out to the press.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because-

-why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work?

Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sp arsely attended screening of HBO's new

movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle

these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling

booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the

actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote.

Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege.

Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history,

saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk

about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought

kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said.

'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use,

my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just

younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The

right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'

HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history,

social studies and government teachers would include the movie in

their curriculum I want it shown on Bunko night, too, and anywhere

else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing,

but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think

a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. T hat didn't make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so

hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made.