Going roughly five miles per hour in her dark olive-colored electric wheelchair, Marlen Rust, a resident of Bloomington for more than 50 years, travels through the halls of Bell Trace Senior Living Community every day. She identifies herself as an active member of the senior living center, always voicing her opinion when she feels it’s necessary.
This includes voicing her opinion on politics as what she sees as her American duty.
“I have voted in every election since I could,” Rust said. “I’ve got lots of those stickers.”
Rust said each time she votes, she feels she is following in her mother’s footsteps, who worked as a census taker and acted as a pollster on most election days.
“I make an effort to vote in every election because my dad told me to,” Bell Trace resident Emalou Schaffer said.
Schaffer expressed her desire for more selections of candidates, particularly in the general election, but that wouldn’t deter her from exercising her civic responsibility.
Rust, along with other female residents of the assisted living community, see voting as one of the most important things to do as an American citizen, looking at the current election as a prime example.
“I don’t like the choices we currently have but that won’t stop me from voting,” Schaffer said.
Voting gives her a voice as a woman, a mother and a citizen meaning, she said.
On Oct. 11, political statistic website FiveThirtyEight tweeted an election map that showed the outcome of the general election if only men voted. In the map, Donald Trump won by a landslide, taking more than 300 of the electoral votes. From this map, the hashtag, “#Repealthe19th” formed and trended nationally.
Although some people were using it as joke, there were many individuals that believed the United States would be better off repealing the 19th Amendment of the Constitution and only allowing men the ability to vote.
Blasphemous, unbelievable and preposterous were some of the words the Bell Trace residents used to describe this movement. Other residents didn’t see the movement as an issue, saying the female vote doesn’t affect politics enough.
“My mother would be aghast,” Rust said. “I don’t know if she was old enough to vote for the first time women could, but I always feel I am in her footsteps.”
Coming a long way since the 19th Amendment was enacted in 1920, 53 percent of voters in the 2012 elections were women, which means they determined the outcome of the presidential election.
If the 19th amendment were to be actually repealed, this election could have had a different result.
“Of course it’s absurd,” Rita O’Shaughnessey, a Bell Trace resident, said about repealing the amendment.
O’Shaughnessey said there was no need to elaborate on her statement because as far as she is concerned, it is a given that it will not happen.
“I don’t even know who thought of that,” O’Shaughnessey said. “Someone, some heathen.”
Lory Chaplin, another Bell Trace resident, said she was confused why repealing the 19th Amendment would ever be considered an option.
“I have already voted,” Chaplin said. “I make an effort to, and I always have.”
Chaplin said she never discussed politics with her late husband when he was still alive but she thinks they voted the same way.
“He was brought up the same way as I was, and we kept on board together,” Chaplin said.
The opinion of her husband was not stronger or swaying of any of her personal opinions when it came to politics.
“Women are just as educated as men and sometimes equally qualified and have been active in service,” Chaplin said.
Armel Meadows, a Bell Trace resident, said he calls himself a Republican and will never change that. He said that a woman like Hillary Clinton would not be able to hold her own with a bunch of men in negotiating the various items that would come up as president.
“I’m 95 years old, and I’ve voted in every election since I’ve been eligible,” Meadows said.
Meadows said he didn’t have an issue with a woman running for president, but he saw no purpose of Clinton running for the position.
Referring to a female candidate for president, O’Shaughnessey said the female leadership was long overdue. Nevertheless, she said she didn’t think the American public has really found many women who would probably “qualify” for the position.
“Hillary has got her baggage, lord, her baggage, god knows,” O’Shaughnessey said. “But I’m hoping and praying that her judgment is good.”
O’Shaughnessey said she hopes Clinton can make a difference if elected in office, particularly in foreign policy. That is where she said the Obama administration is flawed mostly in her opinion.
Rust referred to the many other female leaders of smaller countries throughout the world as examples to why it is about time for a female president.
“Women bear the children, and they seem to have so many responsibilities with respect to children and to us older generation,” Rust said. “They take care of us older people more than the male side does right now.”
This can change, Rust said, but, in today’s society women are still the primary caretakers.
“A woman is fine with me, as long as it’s a good one,” Chaplin said. “They can be better than some man.”
Chaplin said Hillary Clinton was a good candidate in her opinion due to her time in the political service, which makes her a lot more qualified for the position than other candidates through her eyes.
O’Shaughnessey said she likes to go to the polls every election day, rather than voting early. She said she makes an effort to vote in all elections, but when it comes to the general election she looks at it as a priority.
“All I know is I think the Middle East is in shambles,” O’Shaughnessey said. “That’s a generality, but I would like to see a government that works together to solve these issues.”
O’Shaughnessey said anything is possible, and the fact that Donald Trump is the candidate for the Republican Party proves that to her.
“Women are just as educated and are becoming more so than men in today’s world,” Jean Harvey, another Bell Trace resident, said. “I think there is no reason why a woman couldn’t do it.”
Harvey said no woman would allow a country without the female vote.
A movement taking away from the rights of women will go nowhere, Harvey said.
“Women have a different perspective on things,” O’Shaughnessey said. “Women don’t always look at something the same way as men do. So I think it’s time.”
