We honor Martin Luther King, Jr's vision of a society without barriers based on race, gender, or economic status. We honor his commitment to achieving that vision through non-violence. And we honor his courage in persisting in the face of the threat and, tragically, use of violence. Indeed, today we celebrate the courage of all those who overcame personal fears to pursue the dream of equality. Too many paid dreadfully for that courage, for that dream.

Ever since our country became independent, we have been talking about how to make our country a place of equality for all people. We hear it today's when our schools talk about whether girl's sports should get as much attention and money as boys sports programs. Although, in our country, we often don't agree about what equality means, there is one thing we generally can all agree about. That is in the equal right to vote. When we vote we choose our leaders - the people who make the rules for our country and state - the people who decide how we will spend the tax money that we contribute to the government.

The right to vote is the most powerful right we have in our country. Indeed, some of the worst violence of the civil rights movement occurred in the early 1960's during the voter registration drives in Mississippi and Alabama. The white people who enjoyed political and economic power (owned everything and got to make the rules) recognized that if the black majority could register and vote, blacks could no longer be kept out and be discriminated against. To stop black people from registering, public officials who should have been protecting the people who were registering new black voters, helped to intimidate and even murder those people who were working to get more black people to vote. Perhaps the one thing segregationist and civil rights worker could agree on was the power of the right to vote.

Vermont's founders were well aware of the power of voting and, more than any other state of the time, made it possible for many people to vote. Our 1777 Constitution was the first to allow people who did not own property to vote and to hold office. And, in 1835, Vermont became the first state to elect an African-American (Alexander Twilight of Brownington) to its legislature. This was long before most states even allowed black people to vote, much less elected them to office.

But equality and democracy are always works in progress. Each generation must look at our democracy in light of the changing world. When Alexander Twilight became a state legislator, Vermont women were still not allowed to vote or hold office. In 1869-70 there were constitutional debates within Vermont over whether to extend the franchise (the right to vote) to women. Proponents of women suffrage - people who believed women should be able to voter - argued, "When the black man of the South was made a free man, the ballot was given him as the only sure mode of protecting his freedom and the equal rights freedom confers." If this was true for newly freed slaves, these proponents argued, then why not for women? Again to quote from Vermont's constitutional debates of 1869: "We believe that woman, married or unmarried, was made to be the companion of man and not his mere servant; that she has the same right to control her property that he has to control his; that she has the same right to aspire to any occupation, profession, or position, the duties of which she is competent to discharge, that he has. A right is worth nothing without the power to protect it. The ballot alone can do this." (Note that the above quotes were, from necessity, those of men. Women could not directly craft the language of the amendment nor vote on its passage.)

The proposed suffrage amendment was defeated in 1870 and Vermont women would not have the full power to vote until 1920. The 1920 state elections were not only the first in which Vermont women voted, they were the first in which a woman was elected to the General Assembly. That woman, Edna Beard of Chelsea, quickly demonstrated the truth of the arguments of 1870. She brought a new perspective to the General Assembly and for the first time women could directly express their issues and concerns within government. What was the first bill introduced by Edna Beard? It raised the money allowed for the support of single mothers with young children. And her bill became law.

Today we continue to believe in the power of the ballot as the best way to protect our freedoms. We have, in recent years, extended the franchise to young people between the ages of 18 and 21, and sought ways to make both registering to vote and voting easier. We have adopted the motor voter law that makes it easier for people to register to vote - in fact each time you get or renew a drivers licences (but you have to wait until you are 18!) We are also studying the reasons why people dont vote - too often we think that our vote doesnt count - but if you ever believe that - just think back to Edna Beard and what the vote of women did for the state.