This is an excerpt from the noiseforobama.org homepage. Please follow the (large) link in the center of your screen to check out many more artist testimonials and consider leaving your experiences on their contribution page.
- Jameson
“Political non-participation in my social sphere often stems from not wanting to
‘play the game.’ But I’m pretty sure that if you are standing in a city,
driving a car down a public road, emailing whoever for whatever, or
eating food not grown within walking distance (and even then) you ARE
playing the game.
“Earth (and beyond) is the board, and it needs your
help to stay a cool place to play. Your town, the country, the entire
planet is interconnected now more than ever. We share resources across
the globe and we need to participate in our little corner to hold the
whole puzzle together. It would probably take me about half a day to
walk to Boston or half a day to fly to China. One big neighborhood. I
vote in all my local and national elections, and though it won’t solve
my every problem, it might effect something. It might mean more money
for science, or a more flexible, inspired educational system. It might
mean marriage rights for all or government incentives for new energy
research. Sure it’s a “maybe”, but it’s an easy one to reach for.
Picture a huge heavy ball with hundreds of people trying to push it, add
your little bit of weight and at that moment it may give, the ball is
rolling. Four years ago Lightning Bolt was in on tour in Europe right
before the election watching the debates when we could, I specifically
remember watching Edwards debate Cheney. Cheney, his pals probably
seizing contracts to rebuild Iraq already. What a scheme they had, blow
a country up and get everyone to pay you to put it back together. At
this point I wouldn’t be surprised if Bush had an adviser with a bodybag
company. These people are my representatives? Touring in Europe and
apologizing to everyone for being from the USA. My country, a country
that invades sovereign nations. A country that from the rest of the
world’s perspective is a thuggish bully with the capacity to nuke the
planet to atoms.
My eyes welled up with tears listening to Obama speak at the DNC, finally a
person who I can be proud of, a figurehead who respects intelligence and
speaks with intelligence. Politicians constantly promise this that and
the other thing so I listen between the lines, trying to judge if this
person has the ability to reason, learn, listen and empathize and has a
humanitarian perspective. But of course while a president needs first
and foremost to be able to filter information they don’t work in a void,
they have a wealth of experience around them. Hillary will be there
with all her fire and knowledge; McCain (for better or worse) will be
there with his military experience. Biden will be there with his grip on
foreign policy, Kucinich will be there with his vision of peace, but
Obama will tie it together and make the mature decisions to put us on
the path towards reason and renewal.
And on top of that I love voting. Providence always moves my spot around. Me being in
a not so wealthy area, they are probably trying to shake us off the
trail. So I’ll wander into whatever school gym or apartment complex
lobby I’m assigned too and say “chippendale” and the volunteers will all
giggle and I’ll make a joke about my rich stripper uncle or something
like that. Then I’ll vote, we will all smile and I’ll get my “I voted”
sticker and walk out happy that I shared a moment with a few new people
from some other walk of life. All of us participating in this grand
democratic experiment. “
- Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt, Black Pus) 8/30/2008
——————————————————
Obama is good for us. i don’t know if i can speak for this whole country or the whole world, but his views on foreign policy,his views on health care, his views on abortion and so on are right where we think things need to be. The last few elections have been real tough, we were so excited to nominate Gore, then again with Kerry, but in the real scheme of things we were choosing the lesser of two evils. Obama is a real human, and we believe in him and his decisions for the better of our country. The human country. Please vote
- No age 9/10/08
