Election Day

Today I am so thankful for the right to vote.  I have voted in every major election since I was 18.  There have been times when I have left empty slots on the ballot because I simply don't know who to vote for or because I don't like either candidate but I have always voted.  I have always believed in taking the opportunity to cast my vote  but for some reason this year I feel a responsibility to vote if only to show my gratitude for the women who fought for that right.  This year there has been a battle for women's votes.  100 years ago it was a fight about whether women should even be allowed to vote.   I have been reading a little bit about the battle for women's rights.  It was not pretty.  It took more than fifty years.  That is the entire lifetime of many of the women who fought for it.  I wonder if I would have had the determination of these brave women or if I would have even cared.  One thing that was interesting to me is that Utah was one of the very first places to allow women to vote.  Mormons are often accused of not respecting women or not giving them equality in the church.  I have been asked many times in my life if I have felt discriminated against in my church.  The answer has always been never.  Women in Utah were given the right to vote FIFTY years before it was written into the constitution.  Congress took the right away from Utah women as a punishment for their practice of polygamy in 1887. The church ended its support of polygamy in 1890 and in 1895 women were again given the right to vote.  I find that sort of funny that the very church that is accused of not respecting women gave them the right to vote LONG before anyone else.  I am so thankful the I live in this great country.  My country is beautiful.  My country is strong.  My country is safe and I am proud to be an American Woman.  (don't start singing the song).