Day Williams Al-Mohamed

International Women’s Day – Suffragette Music Video

March 8, 2012 | Author: Day

I’m noticing a trend for writing on holidays. Today is Int ernational Women’s Day and the celebrations “range from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women’s economic, political and social achievements” (via Wikipedia). But for a more formal recognition and what I usually associate it with is the United Nations Assembly’s proclamation of March 8th as the offical UN day for women’s rights. So, combining International Women’s Day with the fact that this is a very important election year in America, I thought that the issue of women’s suffrage would be just the thing to write about. And then I found Soomo Publishing’s Bad Romance: Women’s Suffrage video and realized it said things so much better than I ever could. “Bad Romance: Women’s Suffrage is a parody music video paying homage to Alice Paul and the generations of brave women who joined together in the fight to pass the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote in 1920.”

For those of you wanting a bit more of the actual history: Alice Paul was a suffragist and activist who founded the National Women’s Party (NWP). In 1916 they campaigned against the President Woodrow Wilson and other Democrats for their refusal to support the Suffrage Amendment. She organized what became the first political protest to ever picket the White House. The NWP was beginning to be more than a little bothersome to those “in charge” and in July of 1917, the picketers were arrested on charges of “obstructing traffic.” Alice Paul was convicted and incarcerated at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia. In a protest of the conditions in Occoquan, Alice Paul (having participated in some of the more militant suffrage activity in England), commenced a hunger strike, which led to her being moved to the prison’s psychiatric ward and force-fed raw eggs through a feeding tube. There’s an account of Occoquan Workhouse’s “Night of Terror,” on November 15, 1917 that’ll give you an idea of the conditions that Alice and her fellow suffragists endured:

Alice Paul, Suffragist - image from Library of Congress

Under orders from W. H. Whittaker, superintendent of the Occoquan Workhouse, as many as forty guards with clubs went on a rampage, brutalizing thirty-three jailed suffragists. They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head, and left her there for the night. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed, and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate Alice Cosu, who believed Mrs. Lewis to be dead, suffered a heart attack. According to affidavits, other women were grabbed, dragged, beaten, choked, slammed, pinched, twisted, and kicked. (source: Barbara Leaming, Katherine Hepburn (New York: Crown Publishers, 1995), p. 182.)

The pressure, combined with the ongoing protests and demonstrations and of course media coverage was too much and in January, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson announced that women’s suffrage was urgently needed (using World War I as a rationale). And just like the video, securing the vote for women came down to a single vote – Tennessee.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Inclusion and Achieving the Dream

January 16, 2012 | Author: Day Al-Mohamed

Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act - MLK behind him

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. For those of you outside the United States, it doesn’t seem to sound like much, just another federal holiday marking the birthday of some other “famous personage.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (it always sounds odd to my ear to have both titles in there) was a minister and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is mostly remembered for his civil disobedience and use of nonviolent protest to end racial discrimination in America; an end to segregation. What I always like to consider is that his vision was much much broader – he also was a proponent of efforts to end poverty and was staunchly against the Vietnam war. There is so much more to his story – he visited India, specifically Gandhi’s birthplace and it had a profound impact on his belief in nonviolent action as a way of demanding change; one of his closest advisers was a gay man and there is a direct line from his activities to those of the disability movement. According to Arlene Mayerson from the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, Inc. (DREDF)

“Like the African Americans who sat in at segregated lunch counters and refused to move to the back of the bus, people with disabilities sat in federal buildings, obstructed the movement of inaccessible buses, and marched through the streets to protest injustice. And like the civil rights movements before it, the disability rights movement sought justice in the courts and in the halls of Congress.”

Today is a day to think about who we are and who we want to be. As individuals and as a country. Inclusion, not exclusion. I have to admit, I fall into the trap as easy as other people. It is so much simpler to join against something than it is to join FOR something. Across the internet, I’m sure today, I’ll hear snippets of King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech from the rally at the Lincoln Memorial. And it is amazing and electrifying, even years later. It gives me goosebumps as much as “Four score and seven years ago…” and “Today is a day that will live in infamy…” But on that amazing, electrifying day, women were nowhere to be seen on the program; not one was on the program to speak.

This isn’t meant to be an indictment of King or any other luminaries, but as this is a day of remembrance, and of service and of thoughtful reflection on injustice and discrimination, it is a good time to remember our own blind spots and perhaps rededicate ourselves to greater awareness. Men, women, white, black, able-bodies, gay, straight, poor, rich, conservative, liberal…does it matter? Should it? We can’t help but categorize. We can’t stop that automatic labeling but we can be more aware of it and we can be willing to push our own personal thinking. It is only by recognizing the inherent value and humanity in each person that we truly can achieve the dream alluded to by Martin Luther King.

I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. And I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major. Say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.

The Lost City of Matildaville

December 20, 2011 | Author: Day Al-Mohamed

The sign is a little beat up but you can almost read it.

One of the things Renee and I like to do occasionally is have an “adventure.” Usually it involves trying something new or visiting an area where we haven’t been, so nothing too wild and crazy. (Sorry to disappoint all you thrill-seekers). One of the places we discovered recently that really ended up being a great history lesson and a fun casual day-trip was Matildaville, Virginia.

What? You say you’ve never heard of Matildaville? That would be because it doesn’t exist anymore. This “lost town” actually has a really interesting story attached to it. It all starts in 1785 with the creation of the Patowmack Company by a gentleman named George Washington. You may have heard of him.

Anyway, if you look at the date, the United States of America is still a VERY young country, only recently independent and not yet embroiled in the War of 1812. There are 13 colonies but people are pushing ever westward and George Washington worried about the tenuous connection between the more “civilized” eastern states and the western frontier, fearing a break of the union between states. (As we all know, that happened much later and along north-south lines, rather than east-west.) George Washington’s idea was to connect the east coast to the Ohio River Valley through a waterway – the Potomac. His vision was to “bind those people to us by a chain which never can be broken.” Pretty clever, yes?

We took several picture of the Great Falls and it's quite pretty but I will also say that we noticed that the scenic overlook that we took the shots from is much better on the Virginia side than on the Maryland side. We saw the poor folk on the other side crowded together trying to see.

However, as great an idea as that is in theory, there were a few technical difficulties with the creation of a Potomac river east-west waterway. One of the amazing sights we saw and what would become one of the biggest obstacles for Washington is Great Falls where in just one mile, the river drops 80 feet. The only way to get barges up and down the river was to bypass the waterfalls completely by building a canal with several locks to raise and lower the boats, like a giant staircase. That’d be difficult enough to do today, now consider cutting into rock and earth and building a stone-walled canal in 1785!

Remains of Superintendant's House and Boarding House

The remains of the Superintendent's house and the Boarding house. The area was so green and beautiful...

Information from the local historical society and the Park Service gave us some more details – Matildaville came into being really as a result of the construction of the canal – a “construction town” built around the laborers and travellers. The town was named Matildaville for the wife of one of the founders, Harry Lee (who for you history buffs was the father of Robert E. Lee). Matildaville grew to include markets, gristmill, sawmill, foundry, inn, ice house, workers’ barracks, boarding houses, and small homes.

The old springhouse had us both fascinated and I had Renee almost convinced to crawl down in the hole and take a look. FYI it ended a couple of feet in. But if we'd been smarter we would have realized...isn't that a great place for snakes to rest. Eeep!

But the canal was never really profitable. Actually it was a downright failure. Construction costs had been high, and the Potomac route wasn’t useable much of the year because of water levels. The company went bankrupt and the canal was abandoned in 1830. Matildaville followed soon after. Over time the woods reclaimed the town. Now it is part of Great Falls Park and the Patowmack Canal has been declared a National Historic Landmark.

You can find out more about Matildaville and its fascinating history here:

Formation and Development of the Town of Matildaville, Virginia by Debbie Robison
Great Falls Historical Society, Virginia

I hope to post more of our photos from the day soon!

Halloween Photos 2011

October 31, 2011 | Author: Day

I couldn’t resist this year and so Veni is the Headless Horseman’s valiant and noble…er, dog? Hmm, okay, maybe she doesn’t look quite happy at her equine role. However, I give you Veni, the Steed!

And for those of you looking for a picture of yours truly, below are a couple of shots from the Victorian Day of the Dead Picnic in Rock Creek Cemetery. One is a group shot and the other is a time lapse photo showing our “ghost.” Very cool. We had fun dressing up, met some awesome folks and had a tasty picnic lunch/dinner. Overall, a great and spooky way to spend Halloween!