101-YEAR-OLD NOT SITTING THIS ONE OUT
Calls Nov. 3 the most important election of her lifetime
Mary Jane Jacoby was a toddler when women first got the right to vote.
She was born on the heels of one world war and would come to know the horrors of living through a second.
She was alive when the first man flew across the Atlantic Ocean. She saw the Great Depression push the country into poverty. She saw a president assassinated. She witnessed a man walk on the moon. She lived through the fight for civil rights and gender equality.
Jacoby has seen an awful lot in her 101 years on Earth. She has seen devastating tragedies, triumphant victories and practically everything in between.
So it should come as no surprise that she’s not going to let a little thing like a global pandemic keep her from the ballot box on Election Day.
Jacoby said that on Election Day she will head off down the street, grasping her cane in her hand, to make the three-and-a-half block walk to her polling site to cast a ballot in the 2020 presidential election.
She jokes that the short trip will likely take her about 15 minutes to complete but that it will be well worth the effort.
“I’ve been voting ever since I can remember, so I’m not about to sit this one out,” the Pennside woman
said with a laugh. “I don’t trust voting by mail, and I want to know my vote counts — especially this year.”
Not worried
At her age, Jacoby is at high risk for becoming severely ill if she contracted the coronavirus. But she said she’s not worried. And, she added, if she’s not worried about it then others shouldn’t let it keep them from exercising their civic duty.
She said people should be
careful but not scared.
“The pandemic never has scared me,” she said. “We’ve lived through other pandemics and we have come out the other side. I don’t believe most of these figures anyway because they are so skewed. I don’t think it’s any worse than any other pandemic.”
Jacoby said that if people don’t vote then they deserve what they get.
“Voting is a right that a lot of people have died for and we should not take that for granted,” she said.
Too much at stake
Jacoby, a former accountant for the Continental Can Co. in Muhlenberg Township before it was shuttered, said she believes this is the most important election of her lifetime.
“The whole country is going in the wrong direction,” she said. “I don’t like what I’m hearing and seeing on TV. I’ve been trying to follow both sides, but I’ve heard too many lies for the past four years from the Democrats.”
Jacoby said she w ill proudly cast her ballot for President Donald Trump.
“You bet!” she said when asked if she supports his second term in office. “I think he’s in touch with the people, and I think the Democrats just want power.”
The self-described conservative said she wishes Democrats would have tried to work with Trump the past four years instead of against him.
“My goodness this country would be in wonderful shape,” she said. “But they put too many stumbling blocks in his way. I really think Trump was sent here for a purpose.”
2020 also happens to mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Jacoby said that is a good milestone to celebrate by heading to the polls.
“I think it’s a good thing women can vote because we have just as much to suffer with as men do,” she said with a laugh.