Darby Flessner

I interviewed my teacher. When Ms. Ayres was old enough to vote, George Bush was elected and many people were angry because he was kind of an idiot, and many felt that he just became president because of his father. When she was in college George Bush was elected and there was a huge controversy in Florida about votes being miscounted in favor of George Bush. At the time his brother Jeb Bush was the governor of Florida and many were asking for them to be recounted, which the Supreme Court stopped. It seemed very obvious to many that he was using his family to be elected, even though his incompetence was apparent. A large number of people in the United States couldn’t believe that he was elected, and it was shocking when he was then elected for another four years. When Ms. Ayres went to Asia, Thailand, and Japan and every time that she would run into someone they would want to talk American politics and ask how they could let George Bush become president again, let alone in the first place. She felt truly embarrassed by the fact that we could have let him become president again especially after so many people had asked about it. When everything happened with George Bush she thought that it was the end of grossly incompetent presidents, but saw the same thing repeat with Donald Trump, and when comparing the two, Bush looked like a “brainiac.” So far in her voting career each election was like a pendulum, swinging back and forth. When Bill Clinton was the president, the Republicans completely hated him and thought he was the worst thing that happened in our country. Then the pendulum swings and we vote in a very Republican President, who was president for two full terms and everyone was sick of him. After him we elect our first black president who was a very liberal person and people were outraged again and thought he was the worst thing to happen to our country. Then it swings very far over to Donald Trump. It seems like this pendulum is going to be thrown off the rocker or maybe slow down.

Voting is incredibly important for democracy and political outcomes. In any type of election, no matter how big or small, the outcome of it will affect your life. For more favorable outcomes it’s critical to vote. Local, state and federal elections all have profound effects on your day-to-day life. Local elections are important to contribute to because these are the elections in your area that affect everyone young or old, so contributing can mean a lot to the folks around you. The local elections affect your daily life the most out of any other election because they are the closest to you. State elections can mean who and/or how you and your state are being represented to the rest of the country for better or worse, and you want the best possible person to represent you and you can choose who that person is by voting in elections. Federal elections affect most people and in some cases the most significantly. Those elections mostly depend on the Electoral College so your vote doesn’t count as much in the long run but in local elections, each and every vote makes a difference. Voting in every election is important because no matter what it is, it does affect someone whether you know him or her or not, so it’s critical to contribute to every election. When the Denver Public School teacher’s strike happened, a lot of people realized that there needs to be a lot of change in the school system so more people came to the local school board election. Local elections have a lower turnout, but she expressed how they are the most important because they affect you the most. In the most recent school board elections there was a 22% turnout and while that’s a very sad number, it’s the most we’ve ever gotten. Ms. Ayres feels like the strike played a large role in the increase in votes because so many people were so outraged by the decisions of the school board and wanted change. Many people realized that part of any problem that can be fixed with democracy should be, and as a result more people took this opportunity to vote for whom they deemed fit into school boards. When voting for the president you’re actually just voting for one of the Electoral College representatives to vote on your behalf. In these local elections your vote is just your vote.

Mary Church Terrell was born in Tennessee in 1863 to former slaves; however, her father went on to become the first black millionaire in the south. Church Terrell moved to Ohio while she was a kid, and later graduated from Oberlin College with a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Languages in 1884. She continued her education to earn a master’s degree four years later, becoming the first black woman to receive a college degree. Church Terrell then become a teacher at Wilberforce College in spite of her father's disapproval before transferring to Washington DC. In 1887, she became a teacher at  M Street School, now Dunbar High School, in DC, where she met her husband, another teacher. Since married women could not be teachers she left her job after her wedding in 1891. In 1892 a close childhood friend of Church, Thomas Moss, was lynched, motivating Church to stand up and become a social activist. After failure from President Benjamin Harrison to supply a public condemnation of the lynching, she created the Colored Woman’s League. Later on she assisted in the creation of the National Affiliation of Colored Girls and became the first president of the organization. In the suffragist movement there has been a lot of discrimination toward black women, and Church attended bi-weekly conferences very regularly giving a voice to the black girls of America.

 Church Terrell helped create a sturdy foundation for all black women to have a voice, likely influenced by a strong mother figure that owned her own business and divorced her father. She is and was an inspiration for all girls to be in active and important conversations and to use their voice to make a change for the better. Black women have been very often pushed aside for the duration of this time, so Church Terrell was such a sturdy figure in this movement for black women. When she became a teacher it was frowned upon for women to have jobs however she went on. Then, afterward she moved away to grow to be a social activist and became a leading force within the suffragist movement.

 Church Terrell created and assisted in creating two large organizations that performed a considerable function in women's suffrage. When one of Church Terrell’s close friends from her hometown was lynched she moved back and decided to become a social activist and advocate for women and African-American rights. These women now not only gained social rights but the right to vote for women throughout the US. There is a great possibility that these women knew they were making history; however, they might not have recognized that they would be role models for generations to come. Mary Church Terrell gave up her job as a teacher to marry her husband, and then gave up the life she built in Washington, DC, to emerge as a social activist and advocate for oppressed individuals. Church Terrell turned into one of the women who assisted in giving women of America the right to vote as well as greater respect from society.

"And so, lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving, and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition 'ere long. With courage, born of success achieved in the past, with a keen sense of the responsibility, which we shall continue to assume, we look forward to a future large with promise and hope. Seeking no favors because of our color, nor patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice, asking an equal chance." –- Mary Church Terrell