As we move to and too as well

Originally written 11.2.04

As we sit on the eve, and now the morning, of what is likely the most divisive, contested, and certainly the most hyped election in our nations history, I cannot even imagine what this day will bring.

I find I am nervous, deep down, but not on the surface. On the surface I hope that my canidate will win, and I am filled with the thoughts of joy if this happens. I am also not too concerned for today, as I certainly fear that the outcome will not come tommorow. I can give the following predictions.

1. The will be controversy, to say the least.

2. There is going to be at least 20 physicical altercations between people outside of polling places that get reported.

3. The outcome of this election, in four years time, will be drastically different, either way, and the importance of this event is almost mindboggling, as the focus of our country's future is going to be decided entirely on subjective views.

What is perhaps most mindboggling about all of this is the whole campaign season has been mired not with optimism, hope, attempts of progression, but with fear. I don't know if it is due to the reprecussions of 9/11 on the American pysche (the effect of which was one that for the first time since 1941, that America was not safe), but it startleing all the same.

On both sides fear seems to be the biggest driving factor for both canidates and campaigns.

Democrats are afraid of:

Being lead into further war and other countries.

Having the draft re-instituted (a murmur I remember hearing back in 2000)

A Neo Con who is rumored to believe he has a divine right to rule

Republicans are afraid of:

Having a very leftist leader come in a change the policies of one branch, and changing the decisions their leader made in four years (Tougher on abortion, tax cuts, and waging war against an enemy they are fundamentally (and fundamentalistly as in religion) opposed to, and for fighting against)

Having the country lead by such a pacifist leader in a time where world strife is at an all time high.

How a man who hopes to repeal a tax will help the economy.

All of the rallying cries of our parties, too, seem vested in fear.

It's not that democrats don't war, they are afraid of getting into and endless cycle of war. And moreso, they fear that is is not for the just cause that Bush said it is (but ultimately wasn't) in WMD's, but for oil and American dominacnce.

Republicans are out mocking and hating celebries for supporting Kerry and others for getting people to vote (and for the record, I don't think there has been a more misguided and worthless slogan that Puffy's "Vote or Die"), not for the fact that they are inherently on the other side, but that they may prove to help the opposistions charge.

I could continue, but I think the point is there, that for almost every single sticking point, and attack against the candidates from the other side has been drawn out of fear of the worst happening. (I don't believe that Bush's next four years economically would be that much different than Kerry's, in that the overall impact of what actually can and would happen would value differently. Even if Kerry was to be against outsourcing, there is little way to stop the massive corporations from doing it, and with Bush on the corps. sides, I still don't the he would be able to continue to give away his countrymen's jobs without serious reprehension, to the point where he would have to change)

And a lot of the whole argument comes down to faith, which in itself is wildly dangerous. I don't think there has been an election since 1960 where religion was such a factor. Then the Repubs feared (or at least claimed) that the Kennedy's (being Catholic) would be getting orders from the Vatican.

Many repubs fear and resent the fact that Kerry is catholic but seems to break away from the flock on key issues.

Dems fear that, as aforementioned, that Bush believes he is doing gods will.

But even moreso, much of this election and its ramifications boils down to not a matter of Christian/Catholic mass Americas values, but one of those who Believe in Christ vs. those of the world that believe in Allah and Islam.

Because of insurgents and radicals of both sides, we have had two major faith based world events in the last 4 years. Both 9/11 and the current war in Iraq are deep down, and on the surface about nothing more than faith. And of course, fear of the oppositions ultimate intention was the driving force.

Not only has this election become simply important for all of these reasons, it has made everything all the more unsure, and more so, the effects of the outcome on either way are inherently dangerous.

I have said before that Democracy failed us in 2000, and it was severely tested as a ruling doctrine with the California 2003 revote/farce.

We have gotten to the point where the most ideal, peaceful, and fair system of governance is being destroyed as a theory and proven to be just as weak as the other systems of government.

On one side we have celebrities using their clout to influence people. On the other, we have a group of people whose belief system for the weak is propped up by talk radio and faith based streams of information.

Even the issues themselves have been coded so deep in legalese that the average American is almost helpless to understand what the stakes of propositions and motions are intended to be. We as the voters are almost powerless to cast our share in what should be done because of politicking and campaign trickery. In California we have Prop 66. which is supposed to be a reform on the notorious three strikes rule (which sends people who have committed 2 crimes that range from anything from robbery, rape, or manslaughter to jail for a third offense for a minimum of 25 years, if they commit any felonious charge) This is good in theory, as it gets people of the streets who are habitual criminals. But in fact, it has sent many reformed criminals (and remember this is what America's penal system is based upon) back to jail for 25 years for, in many cases, stealing nothing more than a CD or pack of gum. Now, this initiative, which is supposed to change the law, is going to free 26,000 criminals if passed, is being opposed on both sides, with every living governor of the state united against it.

The biggest question is: why is this even on the ballot? Why is something that everyone is against and that is bad for the state even in the hands of the voters in the first place.

What scares me most of all, is how divisive this election has made every voter. I have seen people at work get into near fights over the issues. It is one thing to argue over how the government should spend our taxes and have a debate forum between a coffee talk forum, but this year it seems that it is so much more deeply contested. My own view on this is that when I came from Indiana, a red state, that during the 96 and 2000 votes, people argued but they took the other opinion in stride as that they just kind of heard them out, maybe tossed the ideas around in their head, and then decided they were right in the first place. Now, it seems in this year that people don't even want to hear others opinions. And this is in California, the land where weed and swinging are state hobbies, and where they elected a muscleman to run the world's 5th largest economy.

For Bush of 2000, as a man who claimed to be a uniter not a divider, this is not the man he promised to be, nor is it the country he planned to run. Has the past 4 years with a two wars and 9/11 changed us that much?

As for me, I am scared of both sides.

I hate that the fact that the man I am voting for is a lesser of two evils. I am voting for a man whose main appeal is that he is not the other candidate. I am not voting for him because I truly believe in his convictions, as many have pointed out, his voting record is spotty, but because I think he is better than the other, because he offers a change. This is not democracy.

I too am terrified of the bumper stickers of the other canidate. For every 1 Bush/ Cheney 2004, I see 5 W stickers on car. It's not that I am afraid of a Neo Con, but I am afraid of his followers who seem to have an utter devotion to a flawed man. In the same way that many will not admit that Reagan has flaws, they seem to pass over the many mistakes (and mind you Bush has as many mistakes in number, though maybe not in national impact as Bush, that Clinton had) and harp solely on the seemingly good.

In California, I have hated thinking of myself as a Democrat because of the absolute mess of the others of my party who tote out slogans of "Bush is a coke head" or "No Blood for oil" or "US out of my uterus" simply because most of those carrying the signs, do drugs, drive cars, most of them SUV's, for needless amounts of traffic mostly for the weather out here, and have promiscuous sex. I hate the idea that these people tend to think not of the effects of what they do on the environment, society and the world, but because they, like the celebrities that urge you to vote, (and they urge you to vote democrat, make no two ways about it) because they are fearful of others and want people to do as they say but not as they do.

But I guess, this all brings me to the point of all this, and why I have written so much of what even with a side taken, is a piece of ambiguity, The Red Sox and Eminem.

Eminem's new song Mosh is out, and the firstly time it started to make rounds was last Wednesday, the same day that the Sox won.

I wrote to you all about what the Sox win was for me, and how it felt so good and moreso, felt like it was the right thing when they came back from dead against the Yankees. It was like it was something great that was supposed to happen finally occurred, and the record 3.2 million who showed up for the parade is a great testament.

For me the win over the Yankees, the old guard, and contestant winner was the big one, and the series win was merely icing on the cake.

But when I had finished watching the game 4 postseries report, I turned over to MTV to see Eminem's video for Mosh. While the song is a rant against Bush, it represents something more, it is a rallying cry for the youth nation, it is the first song from a truly major and relevant artist that calls upon our generation for action without being preachy or cowardly/hippie in nature. It asks people to put the blame on those who caused it, and to march against the wrongdoing.

And it's not so much what he is asking for, but who he is asking it to. It is a cry to our generation, starting somewhere between 1970 and 1980. We are a generation where the strifes of racism, religion, oppression and many of the major issues have been passed. Black vs. white is our fathers and mother issues, not ours. The oppression of the female in the workplace and the rest of society is our mothers fight, and while we will continue to strive for equality, this is no longer a revolution we have to carry the burden for.

We are a generation of absolute freedom and one of no boundaries other than those we impose. We were raised on the greatest kids TV shows, Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings, MTV, Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Nintendo and other video games, and The Shawshank Redemption. Those items of media are our media. They are our mythology. They have taught us that the correct choice is worth fighting for, and that we can make a difference. There is good in this world and it is worth fighting for, and sometimes worth dying for.

Nevermind the nihilism of the X-ers. Forget the flip flopping of the Baby Boom which partied in the sexual revolution and then rescinded from their actions to impose their moral, but not actions doing, will.

Eminem, as much as I have hated him in the past, is the beginning of our time. The reasons I have really hated him was because he never lived up to his potential and always took the cheap and easy path for fame, eschewing his best interests for his greater wealth. I always believed he took the potential of his ability in the wrong direction to focus on his strife. But now, he is, with this song, taking all of his potential and the national microphone to make a statement about how he feels. It is the first courageous rap song of major note since Public Enemy.

Eminem is one of out generation. He has been given the education and knowledge without much of a

The Election of 2004, regardless of the outcome, marks our beginning. With everything under the sun seemingly done in a new way, it's time for us to do it the right way.

This is now our chance.

This is now our time.

And I believe, and I am not afraid, that we will be the best thing to happen to this county in years before and years to come to happen.

David Turner