Breaking News: Women are people! Heroes of Aug 26. My first vote (when I was 5) -- and yours. Kamala Harris is part Tamil Brahmin. 18 rabbis talk about God. New feminist Member of Knesset is a healer.
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN NEWSLETTER #86 AUGUST 24, 2020
(Ed. Note: No jokes this week. Just lots of marvelous history to see, hear, remember, read, think about.)
TIME TO HONOR WOMEN WHO WON US THE VOTE
* 100 years ago this Wednesday, the 19th Amendment finally became law. Celebrate, entertain, & educate yourself & your kids about American women's arduous, often trivialized and misunderstood 70-year battle for the ballot. These two specials should be your guide: The Vote, a riveting 2-part PBS series covers the entire history of the struggle and many of the key characters. And SheVotes, a lively 8-episode podcast reviews the downs & ups of the woman suffrage movement.
* Get up early on Wed, Aug 26 & watch the 7:45 AM unveiling of the 14-foot suffrage statue in Central Park, the first to honor real women (not just Alice in Wonderland) on YouTube or Facebook. (Don't come to the park. Area near statue will be cordoned off due to Covid-19.)
* Watch the brilliant theater production, "Finish The Fight," conceived & adapted by The New York Times from the book of the same name by Virginia Chambers. The digital play showcases some of the most exciting writing, acting & directing I've seen in years & shines a spotlight on 5 great suffragists you've probably never heard of. (Watch preamble or jump to opening scene, 9:00 on timeline.)
* Listen to Alan Alda's podcast "Clear & Vivid," & hear his interview with Lynn Sherr & Ellen Goodman (above), award-winning co-hosts of She Votes! Then, on Aug 26, at 6PM, tune in to what will surely be one of the best suffrage shows on the web when Sherr & Goodman give a master class on the history of the women’s suffrage movement and its enduring significance. But tickets &l support the 92 St-Y
* Among our First Wave foremothers were the six women of color (above) & the two Jewish activists I write about in "50 Years a Feminist and I'm Still Learning About Suffrage in The Forward. I voted for the first time, in 1945, at age 5. That's when my immigrant mom started taking me with her into the voting booth. I remember that "we" voted for William O'Dwyer to be mayor of NYC. "Since coming of age, I've voted in primaries, midterms & referenda. I vote in heavy rain & pre-season snow. Yet, until feminism found me, I never considered, let alone credited, the women who fought to make my vote possible. I barely knew those women existed. Not my fault, of course, given how history was taught. Although the suffrage battle was as divisive and dramatic as any military or political conflict in U.S. history — and was recent enough for some of our teachers to remember the details — it wasn’t deemed important enough to merit study in depth. It was squeezed between units on the Spanish-American War and World War I, and presented without depth, nuance or fireworks..." Read here.
* In response to my piece, several friends sent memories of their own first votes, of which many mirrored mine. (I guess my mother wasn't as unique as I'd thought when she let me pull the levers.)
-- Linda Greenhouse, NY Times Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, covered the Supreme Court for nearly 30 years: "My mother also took me into the voting booth and it made a similarly lasting impression. She was born on August 26, 1920 - the very day the 19th Amendment took effect. My first vote was for Humphrey in 1968 -- a tough year to hang onto faith in politics, for sure." Read Greenhouse's 2006 NYT travel piece, "a Quiet Place to Start a Revolution," which describes her visit to suffrage landmarks in Upstate New York. You may want to put these sites on your bucket list.
-- Victor Kovner, a prominent First Amendment lawyer, former Corporation Counsel for the City of New York, and lifelong Democratic activist: "My first vote was in 1944 for FDR when my mother took me into the polling booth and I pulled the levers on the Liberal line all the way. Of course, I was 7."
-- Amy Schwartz, Opinion Editor, Moment magazine: "My mother used to take me into the voting booth too, sometimes to vote for my dad, who was a State Committeeman but also for other elections. I loved those machines where you moved the small levers to put X's in the individual boxes, then pushed the big lever across to record your vote and open the curtain for the next voter. Mom would let me push the small levers but not the big one, saying that was only for grown-ups."
-- Larry Russell, jazz saxophonist, not quite 21 in 1952, had to wait for the 1956 election: "I was inspired to cast my first presidential vote for Adlai Stevenson by what I read about his background, enhanced by his words [which could be Biden's slogan today]. Stevenson said, 'I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.'"
-- Joyce Purnick, former editor & columnist for the Times: "I joined one parent or another in the voting booth for many years before I could vote and I loved it as you did. I cast my first ballot in 1967. I had been looking forward to voting for years but instead of a presidential, mayoral, U.S. Senate or gubernatorial election, I got to vote on a redrafted state constitution. A letdown, but 1968 more than made up for it."
-- Lynn Povich, former executive editor of Working Woman, author of Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed The Workplace: "I cast my first vote in 1964. My mother, born in 1905, was 15 when the suffrage amendment passed yet I never heard her mention anything about it. Did your mother ever talk about it? They were old enough to know of the demonstrations, the marches, the jailings, etc. Why didn't they say anything to us?"
-- Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist & co-host with Lynn Sherr of SHE VOTES! (photo above with Alan Alda) : "My most vivid memory of an election was the time my dad ran for Congress and I was working the polls for him. I was 13, he was a Democrat of course, running against a hidebound Republican. Some nasty old man came by, looked me straight in the face and said 'I wouldn’t vote for your father if he was the last man on earth.' The other poll workers felt so sorry for me. My dad lost but it was a seminal experience in my own political life. How many people get a chance to see their dad’s values at work? Win, lose or draw, it made a difference. Years later, Barney Frank won in our district and tipped his hat to my dad. It mattered."
-- Jan Caryl Kaufman, rabbi, teacher, lawyer: "Your story is my story, Letty. I was also 5. My father would pick me up, pull back the curtain and let me pull the lever. I felt so grown up. I loved going into the booth. I definitely felt it was like being allowed to drink Scotch.
"By the time I was 8, my parents had given me the responsibility of doing the research on the candidates, especially for local offices. I knew many of the local contenders; Baltimore is a small town. My mother made me keep a scrapbook in the Johnson/ Goldwater election of 1964. "I’m writing this as I watch Sen. Kamala Harris give her acceptance speech. Thrilling!"
(Ed. Note: If there was something memorable about your first vote, please share it with me.)
U.S. POLITICS
* Did you know that Kamala Harris (above with her mom, Shayamala Gopalan) is not "just" part Indian, she's a Tamil Brahman? Here's why that's important.
* This week, let's pause to remember Geraldine Ferraro (1935-2011) the Congresswoman from Queens who, in 1984, paved the way for Harris when the Democratic Presidential nominee, Walter Mondale (above), chose her as his running mate. This August 26 would have been the 85th birthday of Ferraro, the first woman in U.S. history to run for Vice President on a major party ticket. I loved the terrific documentary about Ferraro's life & legacy produced by her daughter, Donna Zaccaro. Watch trailer here.
* Embarrassing gaffs from the "stable genius" occupying the Oval House
Revolutionary war troops took control of airports (see above)
Kansas City, Missouri is in the state of Kansas
He "watched the firemen on 7/11."
Africa is a country
Belgium is a city
He "met with the president of the Virgin Islands."
Injecting bleach will cure the coronavirus
He is building a border wall between Colorado and Mexico
* Last week, POTUS pardoned suffrage leader, Susan B. Anthony, who was found guilty by an all-male jury of "illegal voting" in the election of 1872, (above). New Yorker humorist Andy Borowitz reports that SBA begged the misogynist-in-chief not to do it. “I don’t want to be on the same Wikipedia page as Roger Stone,” she said from the grave. “Plus, pardoning me would mean that you would now be on my Wikipedia page. I am physically shuddering up here.”
* "The Democrats remind us they're a party of strong ambitious women." That headline in the WashPost stopped me cold. Would they have called strong male candidates "ambitious" or would they simply assume ambition to be normal for men in public life? Don't let certain adjectives become gendered.
JEWS & JUDAISM
* My journalist daughter, Abigail Pogrebin, just launched her new series in The Forward, "A Still, Small Voice: 18 Questions About God. I don't know about you but back in the day, when we hosted dinner parties or sat at friends' dinner tables, I often noticed the one question many well-educated Jews discussed rarely, or, if at all, awkwardly. It was: "Do you believe in God?" You'll be surprised, stimulated, and deeply challenged by Abby's interviews with 18 rabbis (above) from all points on the religious spectrum, starting with David Wolpe, spiritual leader of the largest Conservative synagogue west of the Mississippi, who grabbles with the question, "Does God Punish Us."
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
* Last week, in a gentle voice, a red beret covering her hair, the new M.K. Tehila Friedman, of the centrist Blue and White party, captivated other members of the Israeli Knesset with her induction address. After identifying herself as a religious Zionist, a nationalist, feminist, Jerusalemite, Friedman, a lawyer, issued a powerful call for civility and against vilification of The Other, whether Jew or Palestinian. Not since M.K.s Merav Michaeli and Ruth Calderon delivered their inaugural speeches in 2013 have I felt so electrified by a voice of tolerance & reason.
STAY SAFE. HELP SOMEONE ELSE. STOP HATE. VOTE!
-- Letty