Wednesday, October 8, 2008

You say you want a Revolution? Well, you know, we all want to change the world...

During my early morning ritual of blasting my ipod to ignore the depressed Wall Street suits surrounding me on the rush hour 4 train, my shuffle function chose Country Joe's "F.U.C.K cheer/I-feel-like-I'm-fixing-to-die rag." I found myself thinking, as I often do when one of these late 60's hippie anthems pop back onto my radar, "Why doesn't my generation have an artist that could call us into action with music? Have we failed to unite because no one has challenged us to ask 'War (uh, good God, ya'll), what is it good for?'" I know that we have a tendency to glamorize the hippie culture, but let's be honest, my parents' generation really knew how to come together when they believed that things mattered.

And this lead me to thinking about last night's presidential debate (try to follow my train of thought here, people). Not even the debate, so much, but the coverage afterwards. While watching *all* of the pundits praise Obama, I was legitimately shocked to hear the phrase, "We can't call this election yet though, folks. Don't forget that Barack Obama is black." Now, although this sounds like an intensely racist comment (and, lets be honest, it is), these pundits went on to explain that Senator Obama could lose UP TO 6 POINTS based on his race alone. This, for our great country, is sickening. But then, the ray of light: "But also, lets not forget how important the youth vote is here. And when you look at the youth vote, race goes completely out the window." And there it is. Maybe we didn't unite in the way of previous generations, but we still have our legacies. While our parents had the chance to vote for those who would make equality possible, we are the living, breathing proof that it's working. So, 20 somethings out there, please vote, and vote for who makes the most sense in your life. But, please, take a second to appreciate that our generation may be the first to truly view race as a non-issue. And be proud of that.

1 comment:

The Fearless Fowler said...

Well said, and well worth noting.