A Question from the Past and the Future

Last election cycle, I came up with my video called "Let's Leave Iraq". It played on local TV many times, including last night. With the hot foul wind of election politics once more blowing our way from Washington, D.C., I have regretfully concluded that it's time to get involved again. I am the accidental activist. I preferred playing music and kidding around. Sure, I would follow the news intensely as I still do, but I didn't really participate. These years have forced me to get involved. In that sense, I have to admit this administration has made me a better man. I can no longer sit on the sidelines watching what these clowns of darkness are doing to this country. It would be nice to use this blog as a way to relax from the pressures of it all but the dire nature of the situation has enlisted every means of expression into the cause. I'm actually playing poker for my own soul here, as there are many times where I want to say, "Screw it." The thing I dread is the idea that I could live long enough to have a young person not yet born, ask me, "Why didn't average people rise up and stop the Bush administration if you knew what they were doing was so bad?" My first goal would be to succeed in halting this Republican power lock with the Elections of 2006. I recognize the voting process in this country is compromised to the point where that may be a ludicrous plan. But if that fails, I want to be able to say I tried everything I could think of, and I want to mean it. Yesterday I began working on my mailing to counter what I see as the Republican strategy. I want to finish the one page piece on the 4th of July. Already I've felt just a tiny bit of what the Forefathers must have felt. Thinking and writing about the concepts of liberty, courage, and freedom is exciting stuff. As a writer, I keep thinking what a rush it must have been the day they finished the Declaration of Independence and signed it. That day was 230 years ago tomorrow, and while everything the Bush administration does seems dated from another time, the words in that document retain the freshness of being right. I don't think our Forefathers would have been too impressed with George, Jr. and Dick Cheney. I imagine the writers of the Declaration of Independence asking us the same question as the unborn kid from the future, "Why didn't average people rise up and stop the Bush administration if you knew what they were doing was so bad?"