Boughs Aflame
I wrote this for the Insurgent. It's uhhh, well rated R for offensive content so read on at your own risk. You wouldn't believe how strongly people feel about this!
Oh, and before I loose you with my banter, there's a Halloween party this Friday at my house around 9. Eight bands, two stages, and a shit load of people, you know the works. 1670 Alder St. Be there!
I’m wondering how many people have been paid to stand around campus to ask that question that we all know so well, thinking that half of the student body, even with all this badgering, still won’t mail in the ballot, and knowing full well to which half I belong. Honestly now, why vote? And more to the point why so much faith an institution that has been built on greed and blood. Does the American public honestly believe that it matters who receives the most votes? Is our national memory so short as to forget that the powers that be bullied their way into office? Has the education system truly succeeded in convincing everyone that our government cares more about “the people” than corporate interests? Am I the only one who sees the constant destruction of the environment, indigenous cultures, domesticated and wild animals alike, and even our own bodies by the byproducts of our civilization, our government? Unless I’m delusional, merely voting for another corporate puppet under a slightly different label is not going to change a thing. Maybe Iraq will be handled slightly better, and the economy will improve enough to lighten the load on the already affluent. Maybe oil prices will go down so we can all continue living in denial for just a little longer. Or, maybe this whole voting thing is just an extremely effective way to divert attention from what is really happening around us every day. What if everyone spent as much time working for what they believed in as they do watching debates? What if all those people on the streets weren’t asking for registration status, but demanding that we take the time to wake up and open our eyes. What if…
I don’t claim to come from a particularly popular point of view on this issue. I know that it’s easier to mail in that ballot than actually go out there and do something, that really, there isn’t all that much we as individuals can do beyond pick a party hand keep our fingers crossed. I myself have only just begun discovering the little power I have as a twenty-something white female by writing and doing what little activism I can. I know how it feels to read the paper everyday and feel a sense of numbness creep through me. I have been there on the streets with signs raised against war, beating on deaf ears only to see the bombs dropped live from a sofa. I see young girls going through puberty earlier and earlier, more and more kids on Ritalin, a drug for everything, depression, eating disorders, cancer at every turn, dirty rivers, and war war war. And I haven’t done a thing about it. My actions cannot compete with the trends of our culture, and so, I understand why that vote, that golden ticket, that one chance, is so captivating. This is my street corner. I’m asking for a moment of your time so that maybe we can all open our eyes just a little wider.
This is a call to action, go beyond the minimum, beyond voting, beyond hoping. Reach those parts of yourself that make you cringe when you read the death toll in Iraq, see a dirty river, or find a family member with cancer, and use them to create change, even in the smallest ways. Realize that you are the architect of your own reality and that freedom doesn’t come from a piece of paper or a book, but from your willingness to take hold of it.
Oh, and before I loose you with my banter, there's a Halloween party this Friday at my house around 9. Eight bands, two stages, and a shit load of people, you know the works. 1670 Alder St. Be there!
I’m wondering how many people have been paid to stand around campus to ask that question that we all know so well, thinking that half of the student body, even with all this badgering, still won’t mail in the ballot, and knowing full well to which half I belong. Honestly now, why vote? And more to the point why so much faith an institution that has been built on greed and blood. Does the American public honestly believe that it matters who receives the most votes? Is our national memory so short as to forget that the powers that be bullied their way into office? Has the education system truly succeeded in convincing everyone that our government cares more about “the people” than corporate interests? Am I the only one who sees the constant destruction of the environment, indigenous cultures, domesticated and wild animals alike, and even our own bodies by the byproducts of our civilization, our government? Unless I’m delusional, merely voting for another corporate puppet under a slightly different label is not going to change a thing. Maybe Iraq will be handled slightly better, and the economy will improve enough to lighten the load on the already affluent. Maybe oil prices will go down so we can all continue living in denial for just a little longer. Or, maybe this whole voting thing is just an extremely effective way to divert attention from what is really happening around us every day. What if everyone spent as much time working for what they believed in as they do watching debates? What if all those people on the streets weren’t asking for registration status, but demanding that we take the time to wake up and open our eyes. What if…
I don’t claim to come from a particularly popular point of view on this issue. I know that it’s easier to mail in that ballot than actually go out there and do something, that really, there isn’t all that much we as individuals can do beyond pick a party hand keep our fingers crossed. I myself have only just begun discovering the little power I have as a twenty-something white female by writing and doing what little activism I can. I know how it feels to read the paper everyday and feel a sense of numbness creep through me. I have been there on the streets with signs raised against war, beating on deaf ears only to see the bombs dropped live from a sofa. I see young girls going through puberty earlier and earlier, more and more kids on Ritalin, a drug for everything, depression, eating disorders, cancer at every turn, dirty rivers, and war war war. And I haven’t done a thing about it. My actions cannot compete with the trends of our culture, and so, I understand why that vote, that golden ticket, that one chance, is so captivating. This is my street corner. I’m asking for a moment of your time so that maybe we can all open our eyes just a little wider.
This is a call to action, go beyond the minimum, beyond voting, beyond hoping. Reach those parts of yourself that make you cringe when you read the death toll in Iraq, see a dirty river, or find a family member with cancer, and use them to create change, even in the smallest ways. Realize that you are the architect of your own reality and that freedom doesn’t come from a piece of paper or a book, but from your willingness to take hold of it.