It was one of those places that insisted I return.
I had a long list of places I simply HAD to see, but they fell away as I sat at the small table outside the identical brick buildings and wrote. My pencil moved as if on its own as I felt the breeze comb through my hair.
It was nearly silent and I felt nearly at the doorway to heaven.
Ironic that the place I sat in complete peace is the same place suffragists were held, forced fed, and brutalized. They were subjected to a clearly documented “night of terror” on November 15, 1917, when women were kicked, hit, punched and had their heads slammed into iron bed. One woman had a heart attack.
They were imprisoned because they stood up and asked for the right to vote, for the right to be counted as full citizens of the United States of America.
Did you see the date this happened?
It was less than a hundred years ago.
I visited in July, 2013. At a small table I wrote of freedom, freedom unknown to these women who gave their lifetimes to this work and to the women before them who died without ever getting the opportunity to simply place a vote in the ballot box and play an active part in the governing of their country.
I sat, writing. I wasn't afraid of offending anyone with what I said.
I took photos. Freely. I asked questions of whomever I encountered. I bought art. I explored nooks and crannies.
I couldn’t stop smiling to see what some forward thinking city planners did to turn a place with a horrid history into a place of artistic rebirth.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were more places like this? We need vivid reminders that we may all be reconceived and rebuilt, not forgetting the pain but honoring it and pledging to remember so that it may never happen again.
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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at a First Friday in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
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