My Mom Never Told

My mom never told who she voted for. My dad used to kid her and tease her about it on election day. Try to get it out of her. She always considered it a point of honor, that it was private. She would not be coerced. She shared so much else with her five kids and her husband, but not that. Her vote was private.

Voting -- something private a woman does. Just like when we kids would try to rummage through her purse for something -- you learned fast that you didn't go into my mom's purse. Off limits.

Interesting to read Dave's take on the Graham speech. I heard another speech entirely and I will vote privately, as a woman, for the guy I like best. The guy I trust. The stand-up guy.

We women sit around a dinner table, a diner table, a cafe table, listening to men talk about politics. Sometimes we look like we're not listening. Sometimes our opinions are not taken seriously. Sometimes they think we don't know anything. But we know how to vote.

This was the thing that burned me up the most about the debacle referred to as the last presidential election. It was clear to me, as we came closer and closer to watching the election slip out of the hands of the people and into the pockets of the justices' robes in the Supreme Court, that none of us count. Women spend a lot of time feeling their opinions don't count. Interesting for all of us to get a dose of it. I just hope it doesn't happen that way ever again.