voice mail

kennedy/nixon debate

i was working on a track for the record today and didnt hear the phone ring, but i got a message later from a college student who was supposed to be at a friday night party but didnt get there because there was a crowd on campus watching the "presidential debate" in the common room, and they stopped to listen. i had heard yesterday on my way home from teaching a class listening to kut radio that the "president" had arranged a conversation with obama and mccain, regarding the "financial situation". ?? really? why those two? why not other candidates as well? have the elections already happened and i hadnt heard? i suppose the ratings are already in and its a shoe-in? why hold the elections? and the two fellows "put aside" their bipartisanships and got on with talking about the "financial". anyway, here in the caller's words (excluding some color which some folks wont read as feeling or emphasis or emotion, which is what it is) is what was left on my message machine:

"just watching the presidential debates....man! it's all a game, its so depressing. dear god! you know, they're like debating back and forth, back and forth, and obama's saying,'yeah, man, we've gotta get in there, we gotta kill the taliban, we should never have taken our eyes off of afghanistan to go into iraq, blah blah blah, we gotta kill osama bin laden, we gotta find that ...., we gotta take him down!' while, um, while other [dude] mccain is saying 'no, man, we have to get to iraq, we have to kill THOSE ....., i mean come on, let's prioritize here!' anyway, it's all a game, what are they talking about ALLIES, allies for our country? what does our country STAND for anyway? who cares who our allies are? and can i ask you something? um, no matter which president we get, will it change anything in our own lives? do WE actually matter? do ANY of us in this country, actually matter. or is it just the silly little game that we play in middle school and high school, except on a bigger scale with a huge budget, dealing with international affairs with countries they know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about. but they think they have the right to mess around in their political games? it's so, it's just ... insane, i've - i don't understand. i don't understand, how'm i supposed to vote? how'm i supposed to vote for obama? i don't understand how i'm gonna do it. im so sad, i haven't even been able to register to vote, i don't know what to do. anyway, i had to leave, i could only take, i guess i was there, from .. for (looking at watch).. oh my god! i guess i was there for an hour and twenty minutes, i don't know how that happened. but it was painful. it just got to a place where i was like, allies? ALLIES? allies for our country? allies for our country which is about, WHAT? killing osama? (sad laugh) obama, osama, whatever, ok. anyway, love you, call me back, bye."

i couldnt have said it that well so im quoting again. i think its the heart of the matter, when a college student is thunderstruck by the horror show of the political circus prior to voting for the first time and particularly wondering if anyone gets heard. its a big deal. this isnt someone who was raised to have a particular view or other, just their own.

on the other hand, i was hugely influenced by the political climate in my own household, and the country at large, but at that time, when it most impressed me, i saw real passion, and engagement, because the ones i was watching knew they could make a difference and that their voices were being heard in an unprecedented way. not so now. i remembered being at the caucus back in march for the primaries and how several people voting differently from their counterparts (read race, demographic, etc) actually looked scared.

my view of watching the news is that it is a narcotic i dont happen to cotton to. its an inoculation against freedom to listen to the drooling drivel of that great tv show called THE NEWS. who's damn news? not mine. i dont actually believe i have to choose between two idiots arguing over what's the better political choice of targets. i dont actually think i need to vote for warmongers, no matter if theyre dressed up to appear like The Great New Hope or The Hip Conservative with a Spitfire Gal Running Mate. boring. sounds like another episode of law & order to me, with even better ratings. i wish this whole country would wake up and no one would attend the polls and see who gets voted in then, even if theyve already engraved the name on the new presidential door plaque, in bronze, to match the doorknob.

check out the little web site: http://www.bloggingthedebates.com, interesting discussions over there. just so's you know, there are alternatives to curly and moe dancing around like bloodthirsty bears on the abc/nbc/cbs affiliates.