When I read Esther, I see the many qualities in Sarah Palin that shows a woman sent by God. When I study and read the Bible I see how God used women in the Bible, and placed them to be powerful women that really gave the orders to kings. I see this in the story of Esther. I see this same quality in Sarah Palin not that she is going to out shine John McCain, but that a woman with her caliber can hold her place in such a position. Only a true woman sent by God could really make the changes that need to be made.  She is a woman of faith that all the previous women in history dreamed of that would one day step into this position, and thank God it is not Hillary Clinton. When I look back at history and see how women were jailed and beaten because they wanted the "Right to Vote."

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed 
nonetheless for picketing the White House, 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 Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above 
her head and left her hanging for the night, 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. Her cellmate, 
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 
food--all of it colorless slop--was infested 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 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.

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 studied women's history, 
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? 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 wish all 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 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.' 

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know. 

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so 
hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made.

Sarah Palin is fresh and a spirited individual that I will say 10 years from now I will proudly say, that I voted for her and what she stood for.  I feel a new era for the women of the United States and I think every woman should get off her couch and vote, so what if the cookies are in the oven, turn the oven off and vote.  You may never have the chance again to make a difference in this world, now is the opportunity it is Sarah. I think it is going to be an interesting change that takes place and one that we will all be eager to follow. I think she is a great role model someone that all young girls and women alike can all look up to! Thanks, John McCain for showing that behind every successful man is a woman! Cindy is a keeper too!