From CNN's Campbell Brown:
In this election, young voters have been the toast of the town.
As pundits have told us, they will be turning out this year in record numbers. And if Democratic candidate Barack Obama wins, it will be the youth of this country who gave him the presidency.
Or it won't -- because early evidence suggests that young voters just might do what they always do: blow it off, stay home, space out and get a better offer.
In Florida, where early voting has been under way for 11 days, The Orlando Sentinel has been crunching the numbers. And guess what they found: People younger than 35 are so far the worst performing demographic group among the early voters
It's not just Florida. Gallup's daily tracking poll shows a similar trend nationally. Based on interviews they've conducted over the last few weeks, Gallup concluded there is scant evidence to suggest we are going to see a real game-changing youth turnout.
So what is happening here? All those seemingly hyper-enthusiastic stars of Youtube.com videos pledging to change the world, where are you? Are you really going to own this election?
Quite possibly, says one political scientist. Think back to your college days. You're cramming for a final, you procrastinate. But in the end, on exam day, you will show up. Or will you?
A reader wrote a Letter to the Editor in response to the Boston Globe's endorsement of Senator Obama. In it, he claims that Hillary Clinton is more 'up to the task' of President of the United States. You can read the actual letter here:
http://tinyurl.com/2fulru/
The following, whether it ever sees print or not, is my response:
The lack of knowledge many Americans have of other cultures is saddening. Worse still the lack of understanding among our so-called leaders. We, for the most part, suffer from a kind of arrogant isolationism that insulates us from the rest of the world. Senator Obama has been fortunate enough to have been exposed to the world outside our borders. He was blessed to have had a mother who insisted upon giving him broad and varied experiences. His whole family is like a mini United Nations, and so he is able to understand more intimately the fears and hopes particular to differing cultures, while recognizing himself and all of us in their eyes. His speech, 'The War We Need to Win' was one of the most insightful and comprehensive evaluations of the complexities we face in the world that I have ever read. Like a holistic practitioner, he doesn't seek to put a band-aid on symptoms, but reach beneath for the root causes and heal the whole body. Other politicians and would-be leaders attempt to surgically remove a superficial growth, while the deeply rooted cancer continues to grow and metastasize inside only to erupt again, and again at a different location, as a symptom with a different name. Obama looks below the surface and treats the cause. That is the only way the body can heal. That's the only way the world can heal.
I have never been this moved by a political candidate since RFK. Those who are too young to remember the kind of character and leadership qualities exhibited by both Bobby and John F. Kennedy, and those of Martin Luther King, perhaps cannot fully appreciate what we had, and then had so brutally taken away from us. Still, the younger people being drawn to Obama know there is something special, something quite different about this man that makes them feel hopeful for the future.
I want to start off by referring you to Eli's blog here:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/elicorp/CxRb
I was going to add this as a comment but it is far too long.
This is all becoming very disturbing. I was doing some web surfing this morning and came upon this story at TPM. The comment section was the biggest eye-opener.
Here's a link to the story and comments:
http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/11/cnn_denies_diamonds_and_pearl_girl_was_forced_to_ask_question.php
I'm going to excerpt the most disturbing parts. After reading, you'll see that there were more than a few things just a little bit fishy going on in 'Sin City' Thursday night.
read on...
With regards to the situation in Florida, and Senator Obama pledging not to campaign here, I think the Senator needs to reach out to the voters and let them know his reasoning.
I live in Florida, and quite frankly, I think the state was wrong to try to manipulate the election process this far into the campaign. But, the party leadership is also to blame. There have been serious problems with our election process since at least 2000. I was still living in NY at the time, but as a consequence of Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris's manipulation of felon lists, and the whole 'hanging chad' fiasco, Al Gore was stripped of his rightful place as president. Many will never get over that year. Worse still, were the thousands of legitimate examples of voter intimidation and black-box vote manipulation that resulted in John Kerry's loss in 2004. People in this country, and Floridians in particular, feel that for 8 years their voices have been silenced, and their very existence in a participatory democracy devalued or completely ignored. For eight long years, nothing substantial has been done to correct these enormous problems, and for that I blame the party leadership.
Now, when Florida seeks to manipulate an already faulty system that the party has seen fit not to adequately address, they are punished by the party that has failed them. I understand the need to adhere to rules, and as I said, I disagree with the state's attempt to manipulate them so late into the campaign, but the real victims here are the voters, who once again, are being made to feel that they are having their voices stripped away by political wheeling and dealing. It isn't fair and it isn't just. It is yet another reason for people to lose all sense of hope of change and resign themselves to the cynicism that all of politics is corrupt so why bother to show up at the polls at all.
I sincerely hope that the state and party leadership can come to an understanding, which should have been done before such drastic measures were taken. Both the state and party leadership should know, this does nothing but strengthen the republican party. In the meantime, what I would like to see, is Barack Obama reaching out to the people of this state. They need to know that he has not discarded them as dispensable tallies on a delegate map. They need to know the reasons he has signed the pledge not to campaign here until a resolution has been agreed upon, and that he will do all he can to assist in that reconciliation, because every one of us must have a say in our government and our future.
I don't expect or want an answer to this message, but I hope it is relayed to Senator Obama. My feelings are being echoed by everyone I know, and I fear it will have serious implications on election day.
I was just a little too young to vote for Bobby Kennedy, and then had that opportunity stripped away from me. How much different the world would have been had he been allowed his rightful place in history. My duly elected president was denied that office in 2000 due to corruption and the vagaries of a Supreme Court. How much different the world would have been had he been allowed his rightful place in history. Now I see the only real light of the future being stripped away from me again. I don't want to know what the world will be if Senator Obama is denied his rightful place in history. It simply cannot be allowed to happen.
To say that I've been angered and disgusted by political wheeling and dealing at the expense of representative democracy would be an understatement. I have been fighting and screaming about the dire need for election reform from financing to voter suppression; from gerrymandering to jerry-rigged black boxes, for more years than I care to think about.
For some segments of our population, the right to vote was denied for generations, and to some extent still is. For the last decade, at least, ours is not more representative of a government of, for and by the people, but less so. From political maneuverings to corporate personhood, it seems that individuals have had less say in the kind of democracy we profess to want to export to other countries.
Having moved down to Florida 4 years ago, this has now hit home in a new and appalling way. With the state and party leadership playing politics with my most fundamental right to have my voice represented in government, I am seeing our best and perhaps only chance for restoring the ideals this country was founded on being co-opted by the same powers that have been responsible for those ideals being sullied and nearly destroyed. This is not something I will allow to happen, and neither should any of you.
I encourage everyone to contact their representatives and the Democratic Party leadership. There needs to be a fundamental change in our government and to my mind, our best hope for that happening is with Barack Obama as president. We cannot allow political manipulation, media spin or party power-plays to rob us of the rightful say we have in our common destiny.
This is OUR country. This is OUR future. It's past time we took it back!
I've heard many argue that this Independence Day, there is little to celebrate. I beg to differ. I've heard it argued that patriotism is an abomination to peace and justice and to some degree I understand that sentiment. But those who stand firmly by it misrepresent the term as fully as those who wrap themselves with the flag and pledge blind obedience to a government.
What America is, is not a government. What America IS, is the ideal set forth by our founding fathers, and that ideal, as completely unfulfilled as it is, IS worth celebrating. What America IS, is a land of, for and by the people. And the people, with all our human imperfection, is worth celebrating.
Our nation was founded on rebellion against tyranny. Our nation was founded on principles of justice and liberty and freedom of expression. Though never fully realized at its inception, those principles live in the very soul of our people and burn as brightly in 'we the people' as they ever have. It is a work in progress, and slow as it may be in coming, that progress is what defines the very soul of who we are.
As a representation of that burning passion for truth and justice, I give you this representation of what I celebrate today....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmrcpDiv_ac
(the link function isn't working, so paste that into your browser .. a must hear!)
Today I do not mourn the tyranny that continues to try to restrain and define us. Today I celebrate the America that refuses to be restrained and defined by corruption and mendacity and fear-mongering politics. Today I celebrate the true, the real America, and her continuing evolution toward the ideal set forth so long ago.
"In the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it." ~Barack Obama
And THAT, my friends, is something worth celebrating!
"Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right
Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
It's all right"
Don't you feel it? Maybe you have to be as old as I am to feel the difference, the new day dawning on a very long twilight. As I've told others, and many of my generation have echoed my sentiment, I haven't felt this good, this hopeful for the future since I was flower-child of the 60's. Back then we were going to change the world, and the world we knew was in desperate need of change...war, poverty, segregation and a looming nuclear crisis fear. It was a turbulent time, but we had a vision for a future and beacons of hope that would lead the way. Martin Luther King led us toward a mountaintop, Bobby Kennedy challenged us to "dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world." We watched a man walk on the moon, talked of peace and love and unity and sang about getting back to the 'garden'. And then night fell. One by one, our beacons were taken from us and we fell into a long twilight.
These days, the twilight has become increasingly cold and barren and devoid of stars. But I sense a new day dawning. And I see a new beacon of hope. And for the first time in a very, VERY long time I feel a new day dawning for this country and the world.
Yes, America, here comes the sun, and I feel all right!
