Bonus Poem: June 4, 2019

June 4, 2019

A hundred years ago today
A U. S. Senate vote conveyed
Amendment 19 to the states,
Which ended Washington’s debates. 
It was a long and costly fight
To give the female half the right
To cast their democratic votes,
Which, common sense, today connotes. 
But just a century ago,
What’s obv’ous now, was not then so;
For suffragettes were oft arrested,
Their patience and their will oft tested. 
Mistreated and thrown into jails,
Their faith and fervor swayed some males
To represent them at the bar,
And prove attempts had gone too far
To stop them! Thus, their cause was learned
By more and more, its good discerned.  
The President was fin’lly moved
To change his mind, and thus was proved
The truth that if your cause be right,
You need not always be polite. 
He gave some Democrats the cover 
To change their votes, and then switch over,
And thus the motion passed with glee!
Fourteen months more, ‘twas Tennessee
That put the measure o’er the top,
When Harry Burn did a flip-flop
After his mom said “Don’t forget
To be a good boy!” 
                                      Thus, was set
The nation for a major change,
Which all proves if you would arrange 
For progress in our human rights,
It takes all kinds to win the fight.

Scott L. Barton