Post by Trotxâ on Apr 27, 2006 23:06:40 GMT -6
*A stout man places a wooden soap box down firmly on a major street corner in Vuode province. He stands precariously on the box, which does not look strong enough to hold his considerable weight. He clears his throat loudly, glances at a sheaf of papers in his hand, and begins to speak in a loud clear voice:*
With thanks to:
My Friends:
The observing mind that looks far beyond the panoramic scenes of every-day life must perceive that our present age is fast ripening for the most important changes in human affairs. The desire for Freedom has shaken the Middle East to its very centre. The love of Liberty has convulsed the nations like the mighty throes of an earthquake. The oppressed are struggling against the oppressors. Kings are called upon to give an account of their stewardship, for we no longer believe in the divine right of force and fraud.
Yet great as these signs of the times are, they are not new. From the time of absolute despotism to the present hour of comparative freedom, the weak had ever to struggle against the strong, right against might. But a new sign has appeared in our social zodiac, prophetic of the most important changes, pregnant with the most beneficial results that have ever taken place in the annals of human history. Finally, man is rising in the full dignity of his being to claim the recognition of his rights. And the first right that must be recognized is a man’s right to vote. It is time that my brothers and I are allowed to vote in the States General in Vuode.
After years of struggle, men have finally proven themselves to be the equals of women in the whole realm of thought - in art, in science, in literature, and in government - but no man now living in Vuode has been allowed to vote in the States General. The software, movies, poetry and novels of this young century are ours, and we men have touched the keynote of reform in religion, politics, and social life, but no man now living in Vuode has been allowed to vote in the States General. Men fill the editor's desk and professor's chair and plead at the bar of justice, walk the wards of the hospital, and speak from the pulpit and the platform; such is the type of manhood that an enlightened public sentiment welcomes today, and such the triumph of the facts of life over the false theories of the past. Even so, no man now living in Vuode has been allowed to vote in the States General.
For any province to make sex a qualification that results in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By this act, the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from men of Vuode and their male posterity.
To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is an odious matriarchy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Berber rules the Gaul, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex - which makes the wives and the mothers, the sisters and the daughters the oligarchs over the fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons of Vuode - must not be allowed to continue. We stand now for the right of male suffrage in Vuode. Men should vote in the States General.
The only question left to be settled now is: Are men persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, men are citizens; and no province has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against men in the constitution and laws of this province is today null and void.
Men have no antagonism towards women. We love women quite as well as we ought to, and often better. We appreciate all they do for us – how they lighten the burden of dreary existence with their care, concern and caresses. Our womenfolk only need to beckon at any moment, and we are ready to help to the uttermost. It is the very wish to help that makes us long for the ballot.
No aspect of the question appeals to me so strongly as its reasonableness. It has been shown that men can be both wise and manly. My fellow citizens of Vuode, I stand before you to ask you to recognize our rights. Please grant us suffrage. Give men the chance to vote in the States General in Vuode.
Thank you.
Trotxâ da Vuode
With thanks to:
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Ernestine L. Rose
- Mary A. Livermore
- Mary W. Woolley
- Maureen O'Hara, Premier, Vuode Province
