These are the opening lines to a movie that I rather enjoy. Although it was somewhat panned by critics when it came out, I say F*%# them and watch it anyway. And in honor of tomorrow election I decided to watch it tonight. It's call ALL THE KING'S MEN. Granted the things in the movie have nothing to do with the election that is going on tomorrow, but I recommend it all the same.
I'll tell you right now I am the last person that will ever get political on people, and I love the stuff. I love talking about politics and listening to people talk about politics, hell I love arguing about politics. But with all that said I rarely ever get into any of these confrontation that I use to get into in my formative years. I know that not everyone is political minded and most people these days it just seems like they don't even care. And I start to say to myself today that I respect that. I say to myself, "Hey, that's their right. They don't want to care about politics, they don't want to vote more power to them."
It is at this exact point that I begin to get a upset with myself. I know for a fact that I have become complacent. I use to have this fire burning in my, and not just about politics, about all sorts of things, but it feels like at some point I just let my own fire burn out. But not anymore. It is not okay to not be political, it is not okay to not vote. My entire generation is nothing more that a bunch of money grubbing, self involved, assholes. I mean year after year I have to listen to analyst talk about how younger people DON'T get out and vote and how they can't be counted on to. And I want to think that isn't true, but I know that it is. And why is that the case.
We just don't care. Even though it does effect us, we all think that it doesn't effect us. I had a thought today when I was listening to yet another twenty something that I know tell me that they aren't registered to vote, and how they don't see how it matters one way or another. The thought that came to me is a thought that comes to me often these days. And maybe it's just because I'm getting older but it is something that always seems the clear up those gray areas that seem to come about from time to time. And that thought that I am talking about is what would my grandfather think?
Most of the time that single thought scares the shit out of me. And it is that thought that brings me to my point. My whole god damned generation hasn't had to fight for a damn thing. I mean really fight and struggle for something. There was a time in this country when a person with my skin color wouldn't be allowed to vote, a time when a person of my skin color wasn't even thought of as a person at all. There was a time when women couldn't be allowed to vote. And my grandfather lived in this time period, and he struggled through this time period, so how in the hell could I look at myself in the mirror with good conscience and not vote, and not care about the political process.
I know that at this moment I am up on my soap box and there are those of you out there that are going to read this and not give two shits about it, but really and honestly I just hope that's not the case. Because all of this does matter. It matters a great deal to the people that have come before us and really and honestly even if you don't know it right now, it matters to those that will come long after us. I think I'm done now, I'm sorry if this was a waste of your time, but I really and truly hope that it wasn't.
But I guess I'll leave you with this last little bit from the All The King's Men, you're welcome Coop, "If you don't vote, you don't matter!"
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