The Nineteenth

My mom, winter resident of Arizona, helped me select my Arizona woman of note. Gabby Giffords is a woman my mom encouraged as a strong advocate for her beliefs and perseverence. And I couldn't agree more. Arizona was the 31st state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on February 12, 1920. Ms. Giffords, the third woman to sit on the US House of Representatives from Arizona, resigned following a severe brain trauma from an assassination attempt in 2011. Early in her business career, she returned to Arizona as the CEO of her grandfather’s tire company “El Campo Tire Warehouses”. Following that, she moved through the Arizona politics until being elected to the US House of Representatives. Starting her third term, she was shot in the head during an event with constituents in a mass shooting and assassination attempt. Eight months later, she regained her ability to walk, speak, read and write, and returned to the House floor to a standing ovation. She returned on last time to Oba

I am taking the opportunity to break between states to share my experiences voting. I have grown to be an avid voter, every ballot. It is my voice, my right. Regardless of the outcomes, speaking out does matter. I registered to vote in 1995 in Washington State, and have been a voter for this state for now 25 years! My photo is of me voting while in graduate school in 2004. I was excited to register to vote in 1995. Not because of the legacy that was behind me. I didn’t feel political when I was 18. I didn’t have strong views. I didn’t talk about current issues because I didn’t spend the time listening or learning about why our country is the way it is. What happened to grow us into a country of freedom. It was just a new right at 18. The first major election I voted in was for Clinton in 1996. It was a stable election that I likely voted more for consistency than anything. It was four years later in the vote in 2000 that showed me the need and stress of voting. The vote between

Sacagawea brought white people through her lands to our new home. My home. The land that I grew up in (Richland, WA), studied (St. Louis, MO), worked (Astoria, OR) and explored forever was the Lewis and Clark Expedition. And as they traveled the terrain of North Dakota westward, mapping and charting the new American lands, she led them. Idaho was the 30th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment 100 years ago today on February 11, 1920. Sacagawea was daughter to the Shoshone chief, and became the only woman on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Her name translates to “bird woman” or “boat puller”. Kidnapped from her Shoshone tribe as a child by the Hidatsa Indians, Sacagawea was sold to a French-Canadian trapper, Toussaint Charbonneau, to be one of his wives at her age of twelve. He brought her to the upper Missouri River in North Dakota area. In 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark entered the area on their “Corps of Discovery” to explore the new western lands and in search

One movement of history that changed my own path is the history of photography. The photographers of the Farm Security Administration, led with Dorthea Lange, changed how information was offered to the public. People changed their understanding of current events, questioning what they were previously allowed to know and demanding information. Our world today is different because of photo journalism. New Jersey was the 29th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on February 9, 1920. Learning in high school that she was destined to be behind the camera, she attended Columbia University for photography. Trying to explore the world, she traveled with a girlfriend until stranded in San Francisco. At that point, she started a career and connected with the local photography scene. In the 1930s with her second husband, she began documenting rural poverty and migrant workers. Joining the Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration, Lange’s portraits brought the reality