[Vision2020] vote!

[Sally Perrine]

When I talk to young people who aren't going to vote because "it's
all corrupt; there's no difference between the 2 parties; my vote
doesn't matter anyway", it makes me want to scream (or smack someone!).
Compare the 2 presidential candidates - both men of privilege.  One of
them had no opinion about Vietnam, the defining event in our lives - knew
he wouldn't have to serve, took the easy way out by joining the National
Guard, and then didn't bother to serve out his term.  The other joined the
military, volunteered for Vietnam, then on his return, testified before
Congress in opposition to this war.  Which set of actions took leadership -
took courage - took integrity?
The excerpt below from a review of Kitty Kelly's book on the Bushes
made me laugh, even though it's really sad and scary.

"What few people realize about George W. Bush is that it takes balls to be
him – it takes
balls to go to room full of intellectuals in Cambridge, sit in class without
a clue, blast
the poor, and call John Steinbeck a commie. The same kind of balls it took
to invade Iraq
and get the nation into an open-ended war when the whole world told him over
and again that
it was a terrible idea. His unwavering belief in the righteousness of his
idiotic life of
privilege is so impressive that you almost come away believing he might be
right. The rest
of us have doubts; Georgie is always sure, even when he is toting pillows."
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/19888/

Sally Perrine