Not voting? Don't bellyache!

and we're really a great bunch of girls.

We're the Ladies Aid Society,

and soon we'll take over the world."

-- "Ladies Aid Society"

The Monkees

The wife called me to her laptop computer one recent rainy morning and said, "Here's something for your blog."

Looking over her shoulder, I saw photo after photo of suffragettes demonstrating for the right to vote.

They got that right in 1920.

Now all my life women have had the right to vote. I do not begrudge that. But I had no idea how revolutionary the idea was back when my father was only 10 years old and making his way in a horse-drawn wagon to northwest Arkansas.

Come to think of it, that may explain some of his -- what's the word? Provincial? Antiquated? Chauvinistic? -- attitude.

The e-mail to my wife, incidentally, contained a plug about a new HBO movie, "Iron Jawed Angels," a depiciton of the suffragettes' struggle.

But what was more interesting to me was the detail that our present generation of voters are likely not aware of.

For instance, then-President Woodrow Wilson and his cronies tried to persuade a psychiatrist to declare women's voting rights activist Alice Paul insane, but the doctor did not, saying that she was strong and brave, and that "courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."

Yeah, right.

My generation can probably recall when 18-year-olds got the right to vote. That was just in time for me to turn 21, the previous legal voting age. I recall feeling a little left out of the previous three years of elections, and I've not missed one since.

I also recall when paying a poll tax to vote was declared unconstitutional.

I strongly believe that if you don't vote, you don't have the right to bellyache about the government. Being "politically correct' was never a strong suit of mine.

I recall many people saying that their vote won't make a difference. I also sometimes am very wary of other's voters' actions -- the mass mind of society can sometimes be very dangerous.

Seems like I also recall that some people, once convicted of a felony, lose their right to vote. That thought alone underscores the importance of the process.

This year's presidential election is perhaps the most important one for America since I started voting in 1971. Regardless of your political persuasions -- which includes that of my suspected distant cousin Levi Phillips -- you have a responsibility to make your choice known.

From colonial times, through the struggles of Blacks, women and youth, we owe it to our posterity.

As for who I will vote to be president, I cannot say at this time. But I assure you, I will make a choice. You may not like it, and I may not like the final outcome. That's okay. It's your right and my right.

By the way, to get an idea of what Alice Paul and her contemporaries went through, visit the Web sites at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/..., and an e-book site at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3604.