Let us have an optimistic view in addressing the future, one in which America can find a way to cultivate a more civil and safe world. We want the beauty of the world and not its ugliness to be experienced by all children and our children’s children. Let us be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

What? You are not going to vote in this year’s election? I have had those thoughts myself and can understand how some of my lady friends feel. In fact, I have heard it quite often.

History reports that Aug. 26, 1920 marked the end of a long battle and struggle. On Election Day in 1920, millions of American women exercised their right to vote for the first time. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaigns were not easy. Disagreements and strategy threatened to cripple the movement more than once. The passage of the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote in the United States. So what effect did women’s suffrage have on the politics of the 1920s?

Suffrage organizations encouraged women to be active in politics and to take advantage of newfound freedoms such as lobbying for women’s causes, political involvement, and advocating social welfare and equal rights. The amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American woman and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

Feminism, a movement that advocates for social, political and economic equality for women, originated in 1848 when a group of women gathered at the Seneca Falls Convention to discuss women’s rights. Over the years many courageous women have helped reshape the course of women’s history. Just to name a few: Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian science; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a key leader in the 19th century women’s rights movement who worked with Susan B. Anthony while raising a large family; Lucretia Mott, an abolitionist and women’s rights activist.

And, of course, there were many more brave women.

The struggle to achieve equal rights for women is often thought to have begun in the English-speaking world with the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of the Rights of Women.”

The National American Woman Suffrage Association pressed for more institutional changes. The granting of property rights for women was important.

In “Taking a New Look – The Enduring Significance of the American Suffrage Movement,” Robert Cooney wrote, “The achievement of the vote for women was extraordinarily difficult, infinitely more so than most people realize, since those who ought to have included it in history of this country simply obliterated the whole story.”

And moving on, as we tread life’s way on these soft, blue summer days and while the gentle laps wash our shores, we can enjoy summer’s special events. All are welcome to Flaherty’s Family Farm Event Barn. Free admission to listen to the Country Gospel Jamboree on Friday from 6-8 p.m. at 128 Payne Road, Scarborough. For many years we have purposely stopped at Flaherty’s for fresh vegetables, fruits, beautiful flowers and more.

— Zaffie Hadiaris of Saco is the host of “Zaffie,” a weekly television talk show on Channel 3 Biddeford public access. It can also be seen at biddefordmaine.org. Contact Zaffie at [email protected].