To the editor:

This month marks the 95th anniversary of the ratification of 19th amendment to the Constitution of the United States, guaranteeing American women the right to vote. Women’s suffrage was first publicly addressed at the Seneca Falls Convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York in July 1848. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an early pioneer in the women’s movement, attended this formal gathering known as the first women’s rights convention. The work that began at the Seneca Falls Convention laid in the foundation for the women’s suffrage movement that culminated in amending the Constitution on August 18, 1920.

As another election cycle commences, voters need to remind themselves of the importance of voting to a free society. In the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th U.S President) “The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.” That statement has never been truer than it is today. Please take a moment to reflect on what the right to vote in a free country means to you and exercise this right on the next election day.

Mary Jane Hatton

Houghton