Old Red, White and Blue

This morning I thought I would write an uplifting post today about voting and encourage everyone to get out the vote.  I thought I would start with this quilt top.  My great-grandmother, Augusta Anderson Broberg made this top, I am  sometime between 1870 and 1910.  It is my only red, white, and blue quilt, although they were quite popular at this time period.

Augusta Anderson Broberg immigrated to Augusta, Michigan (something which always amused me) with her husband, John August Broberg.  Her husband died in 1894, when my grandfather was a year old.  She had a passel of children....and worked hard to give them good opportunities.  Although she died of a massive heart attack when she was 51, she had worked hard enough that my grandfather was able to attend what was then Western Michigan Normal School (now Western Michigan University, my undergraduate alma mater), something which was fairly uncommon.  My great aunt, Amanda Broberg Janes (Jaynes) gave the top to me when she noticed I was quilting....in about 1974.  The top is hand pieced, but set with the red alternating blocks by machine, and not too well. Almost all of the blue pieces are this blue figured print, while the light pieces are a variety of printed shirtings.

Almost all the blues...except for about 5 polka-dotted prints on the outside row.  Someday, I hope to take it apart and re-set it so that the points meet and that all the red blocks are the same size...

I was thinking about women's suffrage   I was pleased that my daughter voted in her first presidential election.  She voted early and proudly called me to tell me.  I have always voted, and as a toddler she went with me into the voting booth.

Then, my brother called me.  He asked me if I had watched Obama: 2016.  I told him I hadn't (he had sent me a link about it earlier and after doing some research I decided I didn't want to see it as I didn't feel that it was a balanced and factual view--besides, I don't go to the movies much anyway....I haven't been since seeing The Help and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).  He the asked me if I had voted.  I said yes, and he said "too bad."  Then he went into a tirade about how I shouldn't have voted that way and that "all those liberals who THINK they know something but don't (that is, me) should have their heads examined and that they don't know anything and should research things more deeply.  and on.  and on.  and on.  It wasn't until he had to stop and do something with his spraying unit that he hung up.

I said nothing.  What could I do? Every time I tried to point out something, he just hit me with more.  My viewpoint wasn't worth listening to.  Certainly nothing I was going to say was going to change his mind.  On Sat., my sister was very pointed about how it was wrong for Obama to infringe upon Catholic's religious beliefs.  I wonder what those who were killed during the inquisition would think about that comment.  I live in a very strongly Republican area of Ohio....one where the few Obama signs in our neighborhood, and others, were torn down...ours just once (hey, only 4 houses out of 12 had them), but in other neighborhoods, repeatedly.

The negativity in the advertising is horrific.  The division dire.  Compromise doesn't seem to be in anyone's vocabulary anymore.  A family friend posted on Facebook today about a conversation she overheard in a restaurant yesterday.  One woman asked another if she was going to vote.  The response:  "Nah--it's not an important enough election.  Our votes don't matter anyhow."  Apathy.  The feeling that no one is really listening...and that we don't count.  Scary.

Then on top of this...the shenanigans which have taken place in my county (Miami, OH).  First, some people were accidentally sent two ballots when they requested absentee ballots.  Then, it was discovered that the vending company failed to send out 35 to people who had requested them.  But the biggest problem was reported yesterday:  it was discovered that 177 absentee ballots requested by residents had never been processed by the vendor, Dayton Legal Blank.  To top it off, my neighbor stopped in and said that while she was in the polling place, a young man had to vent to her....his mother, who was home bound because of her attachment to medical equipment, was one of those who didn't have one of the requested ballots...He was told to go to the polling place.  The polling place said at first that they would send someone to her home to take care of it....but then they decided they couldn't do that.  So, the poor woman who followed the rules and requested an absentee ballot is not going to be able to cast her vote.

This is the travesty.  The vote will probably not be decided for days....because of things such as this, and of course the problems the poor people in New Jersey and New York face.  It seems awful that not only do have they lost their homes, belongings and are cold and some still without power, that they too are struggling to find a way to vote.

It is ironic, that Augusta Anderson Broberg had limited powers to vote (municipal elections from the time she reached majority until she was married (her husband then "owned" her legal rights) when she lived in Sweden.  She came to the United States, and worked hard, and succeeded  owning land and doing well despite having lost her husband at a young age.  She died before women in the United States won the right to vote.  I think that perhaps she would be proud of her great-great granddaughter taking such pride in exercising her right and responsibility to vote..after researching the issues and coming to her own decisions without the bullying of her neighbors and family.  I can only hope that we are able to move forward and live in harmony regardless who is elected.

Getting Out to Vote

I just got back from voting....which wasn't without some consternation.  We have two polling places.  In presidential years or years when there is expected to be heavy voter turn out, we vote in one location which is actually closer to my house.  I have to go further down the road to vote at the second station.


The first spot is at a church on a corner, but set back about 50 yards from the street.  The second place is in the township garage and it is at the back of an industrial complex off a state road.  The church's only designation as a polling place today was a small yard sign placed in front of the church's door and a 8 x 10 flag stuck in the ground, neither of which was very visible from the street, but there was a plethora of political signs for and against issue 2 and with the Troy Legal council candidates.  The second location was blocked by a semi-tractor trailer turning around the first time I went, and again, no signs except right in front of the building back beyond sight from the road.  I had to stop at the church to figure out WHERE I was supposed to go....I guess you're just supposed to intuit these things as they weren't published in the paper....however there was 59 pages of the full text of Issue 2 which was the proposal to limit Government union contracts as well as other Government employment contracts.

I always try to vote.  I have been unsuccessful twice, and it wasn't because I didn't try.  I feel that it is important to vote because of how much so many people have given to give me the right to vote, from the service men and women who have fought in various wars to the Suffragettes.

The quilt above is Judy V. Gula's, of Artistic Artifacts fame.  Called "Suffragettes Picketing in Washington, D.C."  The right for women to vote took a long time....100 years in America from the first part of the movement in the 1820s until the 19th amendment was passed in August of 1920.  African American men (but not women) obtained the right to vote in February, 1870.  Interestingly, section 1 of the 15th amendment reads:  "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."  You'd think that included women...but evidently we weren't citizens.


Women campaigned to obtain the right to vote and many were beaten and imprisoned for it (Lorton Prison, later called Lorton Correctional institution in Lorton, Virginia, near Artistic Artifacts, was where many of the Suffragettes who marched on Washington, D.C. were incarcerated.  In 2008, a portion of the Lorton Prison was opened as the Workhouse Arts Center.  Some interesting articles on Women's suffrage in the U.S. can be found here.  While the term "Progressive" has come to be something to be spat from the mouth by some people today, it is important to remember if it weren't for the work of the Progressives and the Progressive party, women and persons of color would probably not have the right to vote today.  The Night of Terror is outlined here, and if that isn't a reason to vote, I don't know what is.

Judy's lovely quilt shows some photographs of the Suffragettes, as well as ribbons similar to ones which would have decorated the signs, placards, buttons and chests of the Suffragettes. The backing of the quilt is composed of the shirt samples, and the lovely buttons are period mother of pearl buttons which would have graced the dresses of the women at the time.  The square and round objects through which the ribbons pass are vintage mother of pearl belt buckles.  


I think that she captured the feeling of the period quite well, in addition to answering her own challenge nicely.

Her second piece is Suffragettes Suits of Power.


I think she sums it up nicely in her artist's statement for this piece:  "Are we woman of today taking our responsibilities seriously? My Mother told me that I had opportunities in the world that she did not. What did she mean? She was young. To the generations of woman before me who carved our rights, opportunities, and power from the stone of male politics, thank you!"

Election Day

Ever since I was old enough to vote, I have tried to vote in every election. I guess I feel that since some people in this world can't vote and women and blacks in the United States fought so hard to obtain the right to vote, that I owe it to them to make sure that I do some research and cast a ballot in every election.

I do this, however, with somewhat a jaundiced eye. When I was in High School, I was on the debating team. Our freshman year the topic was "Resolved: that the United States should significantly change the method of selecting the presidential and vice presidential candidates. I took the position of first affirmative and my team mate, Karen Bole, was an amazing second affirmative.

Basically, the issue boiled down to a couple of items: should the U.S. employ a direct vote, doing away with the electoral college; and secondly, should there be a single national primary (all primaries being run the same day).

Karen was the mastermind for our platform, I was merely the deliverer, but we worked incredibly well as a team. Usually, the opposition took the position that the U.S. populace wasn't informed enough to make direct decisions. I remember being incensed at this and insulted that this was being put forth. Of course Americans were informed enough! Of course Americans were intelligent enough. As an adult, especially after working with the neighborhood association in Connecticut, I am not so sure and I definitely cringe at my naivete when I was younger.

Take, for instance, two items which were on the ballot today. One was an Ohio constitutional amendment to allow casinos in the state (known as Issue 3). The amendment was very specific detailing where the casinos would be located, who would run them , and how much these casinos would be taxed. The second was another constitutional amendment which set up an Ohio Livestock Commission to supposedly to oversee the health and well being of Ohio's livestock (issue 2).

My biggest problem with both of these issues was not the allowing of casinos (which I'm not particularly thrilled with but acknowledge that all the states surrounding us have casinos largely populated by Ohioans), or that a livestock commission should be set up, but that they were CONSTITUIONAL amendments. Constitutional amendments should be for significant items and should not handle the amendment in minute detail. Once something goes into the constitution, it is hard to change. It seems to me that both of these items should have been done through legislation, not an constitutional amendment. Certainly, the livestock commission shouldn't be written into the constitution.

I don't think that people in general realize this. I know that I should have written my state congressmen and express my outrage at the fact that these were even on the ballot...but I didn't.

The Livestock Commission is interesting....on the surface, why wouldn't you want to have one? Granted, my biggest beef (no pun intended) is that it shouldn't be an amendment. However, in talking about this with small farmers, they were saying that the amendment favors large Agri-business and puts the small, family farms at a disadvantage. They also feel that it will drive up the cost of production which will be passed on to the consumer and that it is unnecessary. In looking at the results, I was interested to see that the counties with the highest percentage of No votes were the ones which had the most livestock farms.

I just wonder....who looked at this in detail and really tried to understand both sides of the question before they cast their ballot.