THIS STORY WAS ONE OF THE MANY EMAILS  I OPENED TODAY. I THINK IT IS VERY IMPORTANT READING AND WANTED TO SHARE WITH IREPORTERS. SOMETIMES WE NEED TO BE REMINDED.

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great- Grandmothers, as they lived only 90 years ago. Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but theywere jailed nonetheless for picketing the WhiteHouse, carrying signs asking for the vote. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women  wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'

They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for thenight, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Hercellmate, Alice Cosu, 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 foodall of it colorless slopwasinfested with worms. 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.

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 screeningof 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 studiedwomen's history, saw the HBO movie, too.

When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, shelooked angry. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said.'What would those women think of the way I useor don't usemy 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 wishall history, social studies and government teachers would 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 thatwe should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his croniestry to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paulinsane so that she could be permanently institutional-ized. 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 courageouswomen. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made.