those women (and others) demonstrated on it.

Now is the time.

She was a pioneer for women, especially AA women.

ratified and this 20 year old could vote!

In 1968, I cast my first ballot for Hubert Horatio Humphrey. My husband and I had moved to Libertyville, IL, just months before the notorious Democratic Convention in Chicago, and it was a tumultuous time.

I remember staying up past 3:00 a.m. waiting for the results, only to learn we would have to suffer the Nixon years.

then Election night. Nixon. It felt like my youth was over and all my friends were getting sent to Vietnam.
Dark times.

He met her in person back in the 1960s and became a lifelong admirer.

They were charged with entertaining a group of visitors from downstate and he was assigned to accompany Shirley Chisholm. At first, he didn't know what to make of her, but he ended up being very impressed. He said she was so smart and amusing that he realized he was lucky to have had the opportunity to know her a little and he followed her career with interest and admiration ever after.

I, on the other hand, was raised by a Republican father and a mother who voted the way she was told. How I became a die-hard Dem, I'll never know...maybe those college years?

But back in the day there were actual liberal Republicans . My Dad was pretty nonpartisan, had friends everywhere. And nobody said a thing when I cast my vote for Jimmy Carter.

Prescott Bush - GHWB's father/GWB's grandfather - was a personal friend of his when we lived in Greenwich, CT.

Now that I think of it, I was already Democratic leaning while in high school, because I recall spending evenings at the local Thomas Dodd for Senate gristmill, stuffing envelopes. My dad's buddy, Prescott Bush, had beat Dodd the first time around in 1956. Later, when I went off to college in RI, I became casual friends with Chris Dodd, who I had seen around his father's campaign. Chris later went on to represent CT in the House and Senate for a very long time.

And though my parents continued to vote Republican, I think it was more habit than anything else - which has become dangerous in this day and age, especially among those not paying attention - though I can't see how anyone can possibly ignore Trump!

When it came to the 2008 election, my mother told me that she liked candidate Obama - but then she found out he was a Democrat. *sigh*

But when I worked for our Democratic congressional candidate in 2009 and 2010, my "turf" was near her neighborhood so I parked in her driveway and she promised that she'd vote for him.

I wasn't particularly informed when it came to casting my first votes. I just listened to Jimmy Carter and I liked him, nobody in my family tried to dissuade me and I've voted for the Democratic candidate ever since.

It was glorious, profound, any and all empowering descriptions you can list. It was the beginning of the pushback.

Being in DC that weekend also offered me a first-hand, eyeball look at Trump's inauguration crowd. He lied his toupee off right from the start. The 'crowd' was thin, minuscule.

But we of the Pink Pussy Hat Brigade? We were mighty. We roared, joyously.

I went to a local march with my hat. It was empowering!

I'd been involved in small rallies and marches when I was at university. But the DC march was a whole different experience, a vast ocean of demonstrators of which I was a single drop.

It was an extraordinary event and yes, empowering.

It's difficult to describe the enormity of that moment, how no matter what direction you looked there was this endless sea of faces and bobbing hats and signs.

We share a distinct moment in history.

at least in the media.

I had heard of it but that day as I kept passing the TV I was completely amazed. The size of it in so many cities was jaw dropping. The fact that it was put together truly as a grassroots thing in this day and age was mind blowing.

That was the start. We’ve been dominating on every level since then. I know that there used to be a lot of talk about how many legislative seats were won by Republicans during the Obama years. Some of that was bad planning and attention by the Dems. Th number started at 600 and kept growing, I’m sure it was exaggerated but i think they (the right) worked themselves up to 800 or a 1,000. Within the first two years of Trump the Dems had won back at least 600.

There were a lot of contacts made in the run up to the Women’s March and they are a giant part of taking back those seats.

With hubby, son and DIL. One of the most amazing experiences of my life.

let's keep it going.

Ratified on August 18th, 1920...

So if you can't celebrate next Tuesday, you have one more chance the following week on Thursday!