Get out and Vote...

So, if you don't plan on voting... whatever the reason, no matter how noble or revolutionary, or principled you think you are. If you are too busy, too tired, or forgot to pick up the dog food on your way home. If the kids are getting on your nerves, if you're trying to catch BET's replay of the Hip-Hop Awards. If you had planned on going to the movies, going out to eat, or even better yet going on a first date. No matter what the excuse is..if you don't get out and vote, you are pretty much an asshole.

Now I'm not a fan of gratuitous profanity, but I really thought buffoon and knave were just lacking a certain urgency here. Sean Combs "Vote or Die" campaign had a nice slogan, and was helping in raising voting awareness, but I propose we change it to "Vote...or you're an Asshole". I mean there has to be a public shaming/severe mocking reserved for those who are "too busy" to vote. We have to treat those who do not actively participate in the voting process the same way we treat those who do not wash their hand after they use the bathroom, they need to be pariahs, outcasts, the Bully's need new targets, instead of focusing your rage and impotent anger on those of different: race/weight/sexual nature focus your bullying on those who do not vote.

This is a fight for the heart and soul of this country. And to those dissatisfied with Obama's presidency so far I say...simply.. there is a huge difference between having an ally who is not moving as fast as you want him to, and having an enemy who is actively plotting your downfall. As Americans we have a problem with patience. America is the biggest ship in this ocean we call the world & this ship has been steadily sailing in the wrong direction for about 8 years. Now we have a new captain, and we are turning, albeit slowly, but we are turning, but because he hasn't been able to turn this ship on a dime people have questioned his resolve, and ability. You do understand that this country is not a unicycle, it is an Executor Class Dreadnought Star Destroyer (excuse me, minor Star Wars nerd over here) and it will take some time to dig out of this hole.

Now the enemies of this President are not going to give him that time. They are too busy calling him a Muslim/Communist/Illegal alien to be worried about giving him the time he needs to restore this county to a level field. But those of us who are allies of democracy, allies of a progressive movement, those of us who rallied in 2008, who knocked on doors, who dragged friends to the polls. Those of us who think Glen Beck is disturbed,  Michele Bachman is scary and Fox News is neither fair, nor balanced. Doesn't the President deserve our support, doesn't he deserve our trust? Doesn't he need our votes?

Are you willing to stay home, and hope that everything works out? Are you willing to hand the House back to the Republicans without a fight, surrender the Senate? Are we willing to see the small progress we've made in these last 2 years take backwards steps? I'm not, I'm going to go to the polls and vote, I am going to drag a friend or loved one with me. I am going to bug, and mercilessly mock those who don't plan on voting, and I am going to do my part to keep this country turning until we get on the right path. Because I know that 2 years of hard work, is not enough to overcome 8 years of a Bush Presidency, we need more time, the President needs allies in congress and we need to get out and vote.

Don't be an asshole..... get out and vote.

The Right Vs. The Left (How We Treat Our Heroes)

Say what you want about the Republicans, the Right Wing and the Conservatives. But they take care of thier own, and they make sure that others in the movement know what these people did for the movement. It rarely matters what the crime/scandal/embarrassing moment was it doesn't matter:

•  If you are G. Gordon Liddy and were an integral part of the Watergate scandal, and went to jail.
•  If you are Lt. Col. Oliver North and you took a proverbial bullet for Ronald Reagan for the Iran Contra scandal. 
• If you  Scooter Libby, and you work for the Vice President, and you lie under oath about outing a CIA operative.
•  If you are the Governor of Alaska and quit your job halfway through, 
• or if you are the Governor of Arkansas and you fail at your bid to become your parties nominee for the President of the United States. 
• Or if you were Newt Gingrich  Speaker of the House, and led the attempt to impeach Bill Clinton for cheating on his wife, while you were at the time ..CHEATING ON YOUR WIFE

It  does not matter, the right wing will take care of you. They will put you on the lecture circuit, or give you a talk show on Fox, or make you a Fox News contributer. They will find some way to repay your years of service to the cause, no matter how repugnant that cause may be, how much death it caused, or  who's lives it ruined.

But on the left, we often let our standard bearers fall on their swords and leave them to bleed on the battle field. There are countless number of heroes, and activists, who's families ended up penniless, who's names were tarnished and drug through the mud and whose lives were ruined. I bring this up because I look at the case of Tommie Smith. When I first saw Tommie Smith, it was at a poster shop in Maryland, I was 15 it was a picture of him & Juan Carlos, at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. I had to have that poster, it stirred something in me, I saw two black men in a foreign land, representing their country, and then showing the world that they wanted their country to be something better, in an extraordinary show of solidarity and power.

Then a couple of year ago I saw an HBO special called "Fists of Freedom", which chronicled the story of both these men, gave some interesting back story, and talked about what happened once they came home. They were largely blackballed, and shunned, it was hard for them to get jobs and be productive, because of the backlash. Then I read an article last week saying that Tommie Smith was selling his gold medal, now I'm sure the day he won is burning into his memory, and that the medal is just a small representation of that day for him. But a part of me was extremely sad, that he needed to do this. That people and  organizations, that benefits/honored his sacrifice had not stepped up to help "take care of one of their own". I would love to see a group of grass roots, professional athletes, and organizations get together, and make sure that medal gets to the Schomburg, Moorland-Springard Research Center, or the Smithsonian, somewhere where it would get the proper respect it deserves, and at the same time give some financial support to someone whose image is burned into the national consciousness.

I would like the Left, to start taking care of it's icons, as much as the Right does. And we have a long history of letting those who mean so much to us fall by the wayside, or we stuff them in corners dust covered and forgotten. There's the story of Jesse Owens resorting to racing horses at the end of his career because "you can't eat gold medals", or Rosa Parks almost getting evicted from her apartment in her old age, or letting others control the images, and legacy of the Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, and so many others.

If you cannot protect your heroes, your legends, if you cannot control how their story will be told, what does that say about us. Now these heroes do not do what they do in order to get rich, in order to make a buck. They do it because they have a calling, a feeling, a reason to rise above. And thats to be commended, thats to be treasured, and like they do on the Right, it should be rewarded, with more than empty accolades.