Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity

 I'm posting a slightly edited version of an email I received this morning. The message remains in tact, but some of the phrasing was awkward and words were even missing from the version I got (friggin' forwards... something always gets lost in translation I suppose), so I had to extrapolate in a few places. If the original author comes across this, I hope they won't be upset that this isn't verbatim.

           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 sparsely 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.

           My friend, Wendy, 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?]' Social studies and government teachers 

           should include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on 

           Bunco 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. That didn't make her crazy.  The doctor

           admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for

           insanity.' 

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

           fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Remember

           to vote. 

                       *PS  In Canada the women of Manitoba got the right to vote

           in 1916 thanks to the efforts of Nellie McClung and her

           colleagues. The rest of Canadian women were allowed to vote

           in federal elections when the Women's Franchise Act was

           passed in 1918. However, it was not until 1940 that the

           women of Quebec got the right to vote in provincial

           elections - the last province to accord them this right of

           suffrage.