OPINION: Too many (non)voters take this right for granted

Antonia Petrash, director of the Glen Cove Public Library, is writing a history of the suffrage movement on Long Island.

In one revelation after another recently, we have learned of public figures - politicians, business leaders, sometimes even offspring of presidents - voting irregularly, or not at all. Caroline Kennedy's sporadic voting became an issue when she was being considered for New York's open Senate seat last year. Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, both seeking office now in California, are also under fire.

Susan B. Anthony must be rolling in her grave.

Today, Aug. 26, marks the 90th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which finally, on a federal level, granted all women the right to vote. The battle for the vote was a long, arduous one, representing 72 years of nonviolent, determined struggle. Over those years, thousands of men and women made it their life's work to write letters, publish articles, march in parades and demonstrations - all to achieve a right that so many now take for granted. Many of them were abused and beaten, yet they persisted.

As Americans, we are comfortable with our rights; they are among the undeniable pleasures of being citizens of our great nation. The very right of openly sharing an opinion is unavailable to many throughout the world, yet we think nothing of it. Unfortunately, too many of us think nothing of our right to vote, exercising instead our right not to.

It's not just the right to vote that women now take for granted. What woman today could envision not being able to own property in her own name, to keep the wages she earns, to testify in a court of law, to keep custody of her own children?

Each of these rights was won through hard-fought battles waged by both our foremothers and forefathers. My grandmother could not vote for much of her life; my mother-in-law couldn't obtain a business loan in her own name, because, as a woman, she might become pregnant and not be able to pay - even though she held a job and her childbearing years were long gone.

Today's young adults consider such stories ancient history. Perhaps that helps to explain why less than 49 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 24 years voted in 2008. Their older brothers and sisters - 25 to 34 years - didn't do very much better, at 57 percent. This, during a record-turnout year, when almost 62 percent of men and nearly 66 percent of women exercised their right to go to the polls. We can only hope that this reflects the busyness of their young lives - not an endemic apathy of their age groups toward this hard-won privilege.

During midyear elections, voters are traditionally more apathetic, though elections in those years are equally important. New York - in the middle of the worst fiscal crisis in most of its residents' memories - is electing a governor, two U.S. senators and an attorney general, in addition to all the congressional representatives, state senators and Assembly members. Members of the legislature elected this November will vote on new district lines based on the 2010 census figures, and such decisions can influence the lives and fortunes of communities for many years to come.

In 1971, a joint resolution of Congress designated Aug. 26 as Women's Equality Day - an annual commemoration of the suffrage victory, and a reminder of women's continuing efforts for equality throughout the world. Let's not forget in the two months between now and November that the right to vote was worth those seven decades of battle, and is crucial to the continued guarantee of the rights that our forebears, both men and women, worked so hard to secure.