Keeping the Dream Alive

For reasons I can hardly fathom, voting has always meant a lot to me. Perhaps that explains why as a young married living in Queens, I allowed myself to be dragged (not kicking and screaming, but reluctantly) to a meeting of the Northeast Queens League of Women Voters (LWV). There I was, trapped in an upscale living room with 20 stunningly smart women, all of whom seemed much smarter and more well-informed than me. Statistics on air and water pollution filled the room with other facts and figures that seemed to trip lightly off their tongues, as if they were reciting poetry. Sure, I had a college degree,  but I didn’t know any of this stuff. It struck me then that if the torch of women’s suffrage was lit by the ladies of Seneca Falls, it is also true that it has been kept alive by the LWV. Only in retrospect did I realize how the LWV changed my life. I began to look deeper into issues. I found ways to measure them by research and not by partisanship. I began to believe that I could make a difference. And, for the first time in my life, I had a mentor. ArtsWestchester is proud to be partnering with the League of Women Voters of White Plains for our upcoming exhibition, “Give Us The Vote,” which previews on October 7th in our White Plains gallery. The exhibition celebrates 100 years of women’s suffrage in New York State with a shout-out to the ladies of the league who keep the dream alive.