Columnist Susan Snyder: A vote for suffrage celebration

Saturday, July 2, 2005 | 12:15 p.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursday and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

WEEKEND EDITION

July 2-3, 2005

What started with a petition circulated among Henderson third graders in the fall has grown into what could become the next national holiday.

Thanks to Hannah Low and Destiny Carroll, we just might have a National Women's Suffrage Day.

"This is good on so many levels," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who will have both girls at her side when she introduces the bill in Congress on July 13.

"For these young ladies to circulate a petition and begin a national movement is nothing short of extraordinary," the congresswoman said June 22 during a telephone interview between votes. "It's the bedrock of American democracy. Individual citizens can make a difference."

Berkley's bill will ask for creation of a national holiday to honor and celebrate the efforts of those who worked to gain the vote for women.

Low and Carroll were third graders at Taylor Elementary school when they started circulating a petition to have a day to celebrate women's suffrage, said Teresa Bell, a director with the League of Women Voters. The league celebrates the holiday July 19.

Low was inspired to act after reading Kathryn Lasky's "A Time for Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen." The historical fiction volume is written from the perspective of an eighth grade girl who watches her mother, older sisters and aunt as they work to obtain voting rights for women.

"(Low) got really angry. She couldn't understand why they didn't want them to vote," Bell said. "It is neat that little girls today don't understand why they couldn't vote."

Berkley's bill won't have a specific date attached, so groups may choose whatever date they wish. The League of Women Voters chose July 19. On that day in 1848, women convened in Seneca Falls, N.Y., to discuss the "social, civil and religious rights of women." It is considered the birth of the women's rights and suffrage movements.

As the girls' petition gained steam, it caught the attention of one of Berkley's aides, who notified the congresswoman. But Berkley wasn't the only one inspired, Bell said.

"It happened right after the election. And I was so tired. I'd said, 'I'm going to get out of this whole racket,' " Bell recalled. "And then I heard their story, and I said, 'I'm back in.' "

The League of Women Voters will celebrate the day by registering voters from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. July 19 at area recreation centers. For information, go to www.lwvlasvegasvalley.org.

The bill still has to be discussed and approved by Congress, which Berkley said is never a sure bet.

But its support should be bipartisan and from both genders. After all, women never would have been allowed to hold office without having the vote. Plenty of men wouldn't have been elected without support from female voters.

(And some of us have a long memory for obscure votes when re-election time rolls around. We are life's scorekeepers, after all.)

"These kids are terrific," Berkley said of Low and Carroll. "It's good to be able to be a small part of their dream."

So raise a hot dog and sparkler to Hannah and Destiny as you celebrate our liberty Monday. Its future is safe in the hands of such young women.