Two (and possible three of us bloggers) don’t have much time to spend on the road, so you can imagine we’ll be making the most of the opportunity. It’s all about how as women we specialize in maximizing our resources and working together, whether it’s in the present, past or future.

The idea of a blogging tour started with the suffrage campaign wagon called the “Spirit of 1776” that had a day of glory on July 1, 2013. That’s when the State of New York set aside July 1, 2013 as the “Spirit of 1776” Wagon Day to commemorate the centennial of the wagon’s first journey in 1913 from Manhattan to Long Island to campaign for women’s rights and the right to vote.

The resolution in the NYS Legislature took the combined efforts of the two heads of the state legislature’s tourism committee (both women), the state legislative women’s caucus, volunteers, plus a new organization emerging on the NYS scene, Votes for Women 2020.

Women organizing and helping each other has been going on a long time. Even if the venues change, we’re still doing it. Many people still don’t know much about the suffrage movement. Some people’s eyes glaze over when they hear the word “suffrage.” They ask: “Can’t you choose some other word than suffrage? It sounds painful.”

The good news is that over the next few years considerably more people will understand what is being referred to by the term “suffrage.” They’ll finally realize that this first wave of feminism took 72 years (1848-1920) and involved tens of thousands of women working together to achieve a goal –the right to vote.

It’s amazing just how many people who’ve even heard of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott and Alice Paul and Matilda Joslyn Gage and others somehow think that women’s right to vote resulted from a handful of Votes for Women leaders making private deals with high government officials in cigar-filled rooms.

That’s why we’re adding more names to those who rocked the cradle in New York State, including Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and many more. And this is why the Cradle Blogging Tour is such a great opportunity. It means you’ll be able to come along with us and perhaps even get inspired enough to take this journey yourself and take the family along.

The national park at Seneca Falls will be one of the stops, plus the Susan B. Anthony House in Rochester, and the home and center of Matilda Joslyn Gage in Fayetteville, plus much more.

It’s not necessary to leave home to join us on the blogging bus. There are no worries about parking, hotel overnights, meals. This road trip is intended to build interest in and momentum for the upcoming centennial of women voting in New York State in 2017 and the national centennial suffrage observance in 2020.

The suffrage movement or the first wave of feminism is a classic example of women helping women. Relatively few of these activists were paid for their work, other than a very few who received token amounts for expenses and speaking engagements. Most were volunteers who raised money by selling suffrage literature, newspapers, memorabilia and trinkets. Many devoted their lives to the cause, as did their daughters and grandchildren. Now that’s women helping women, and we need to spread the word. As women we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We’ve been helping each other for generations. Some might say that we have this instinct in our DNA.

If you think it’s early to be thinking about the future and preparing for it, consider this: We have an opportunity to create a splash with our fabulous history in the years leading up to 2020 (the national suffrage centennial), but it requires building interest in the opportunities these suffrage centennials provide. Join us and help make our circle wider.

Sign up for the Cradle Road Trip by visiting Let’s Rock the Cradle, a project of Suffrage Wagon News Channel, the web site and blog that tells the story of the suffrage campaign wagon in New York City and Long Island.

Get on the bus by signing up for the blogging tour at LetsRockTheCradle.com (http://letsrockthecradle.com)

Don’t make a fuss. Get a front row seat on the blogging bus. For more information, visit Suffrage Wagon News Channel (http://suffragewagon.org ) and LetsRockTheCradle (http://letsrockthecradle.com)

Tell your friends and be the first person in your community to sign up. And in every way we can, let’s rock the cradle. ++

The presidential candidates for the upcoming 2012 November election are scrambling to win the women’s vote. But relatively few  people nationwide actually know what it took to win the franchise. When the real story is told, women generally take voting much more seriously. And this perspective represents the thinking of New Mexico Women Who Rocked the Vote, the group organizing the New Mexico event. The August celebrations are an official events of the New Mexico state centennial (1912-2012).

New Mexico women owe their right to vote to the hard work of many activists before and after statehood. One of these is Adelina Otero Warren. Her story will be highlighted in two northern NM events on August 23 and 26, 2012 in Española, NM that are part of the statewide centennial celebration (1912-2012), currently underway. 

Three large banners showing women campaigning to win the right to vote are hanging from the ceiling of the Española Library during the month of August in order to bring attention to these special programs featuring the long and difficult struggle by women for the franchise.  New Mexico women campaigned for the right to vote before and after statehood. They won the right to vote after the state legislature ratified the 19th amendment in 1920.

“Mujeres Presente: New Mexico Women Who Rocked the Vote” is a special program scheduled for Thursday, August 23, 2012, 1 p.m. at the Española Library and then again on Sunday, August 26th, 1 p.m., at the Galeria Santa Cruz y el Espresso. The program features a cast of women who will present storytelling and a first-person historical characterization of Adelina Otero Warren, a Votes for Women activist and one of the first women in New Mexico to hold high public office. There will also be a display case at the Española Library during August 2012 featuring “Great Women in History” paper dolls decorated by Konweniahesen Lavina Gray, a fifth grade student at the Santa Clara Pueblo.

Residents of northern New Mexico will also participate in these two August programs by telling their own family stories of strong grandmothers, great grandmothers, and great-great-great grandmothers who either worked to win the right to vote or lived beyond the expectations of their time. The history of tenacious women and the vote has implications for the present-day and the urgent need for women to step into leadership roles in their own communities, exercise their right to vote, and participate in the democratic process.

A voter registration table will be available during the two “Mujeres Presente: New Mexico Women Who Rocked the Vote” presentations. A display case in the Santa Fe Library, La Farge branch (1730 Llano Street in Santa Fe), during the month of August also highlights New Mexico women and their campaigning to win the vote.

For more information, contact New Mexico Women Rock: nmwomenrock.wordpress.com or nmwomenrock at gmail.com