in the unlikely story that is america, there has never been anything false about hope

It is so easy to be dismissive, to not be involved, to think “this does not apply to me.” It is so easy to think that your vote does not count, that your voice cannot be heard- that none of it matters. We are a generation that has no draft impending up on us, we have our faces buried in our cell phones. We get our news from Facebook feeds, from John Stewart on the Daily Show. We maybe argue with our parents and the way that they vote. Maybe we did not have Myspace in high school, but we got in soon afterward, and that is kind of how we exist. Online. Our fingers plugged into some keyboard, sending signals out to somewhere and still we believe we can provide no change? That it is just too much? Too terrifying?

With all this technology, education, and resources we have available and then still- still we have the nerve to act as if we cannot have hope? As if having hope would mean admitting stupidity, or admitting defeat? When did hope become synonymous to naivety? When did caring become so uncool- so uncool that we could not stop for ten minutes, not even for ten seconds to think outside of ourselves.

And yes, so maybe, maybe you can say that all we hear is the same things on Fox News and CNN- that it’s not the truth, that democrats and republicans are the same, that your voice doesn’t matter- that it never will. Yes, it is very easy to say all of those things and then to walk away- but what does that do? What does that help? To be a coward, to not put in any effort. If you don’t feel like you’re getting the true story on CNN, explore your options, take the initiative. I am sure your grandmother doesn’t do too well using a google search engine, but I am sure you can. I am sure that if you try you could hear how it’s said every where around the world, that you could find the news from many different perspectives, that right in front of you, on the screen next to myspace.com you could find blogs, radio programs, newspapers and endless articles that could help you form an opinion. That could help us stop being a generation that is full of excuses and indifference.

Do something. Do anything. Yell at me for writing this, make a phone call, read a translation of a foreign paper, go see someone speak at a local college. Just stop saying that there is no way that anything will change.

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If you live in North Carolina or Indiana, I hope you vote for Barack tomorrow. I have already been bumping heads with my friends about this, but I just don’t understand why people don’t want change and how people my age are really so jaded and proud to have this attitude where they keep insisting that government can’t change. I hear so many people say to me “do you really think things could ever change?” and they say it with this tone where they sound so exhausted and exasperated and fed up, and all I want to scream is “why don’t you try? Why don’t you at least try and do something to make change happen, or believe in something enough to let change happen?

I feel the same way about people voting for Hillary Clinton right now as I did when people voted for George W. Bush four years ago, I look at my peers and I just do not understand. Hillary Clinton runs this campaign where she just acts like a monster, where she talks shit and lets out the occasional “shame on you Barack Obama,” and then donates five million dollars to herself and I just do not get it. I do not get how this resonates with anyone my age, how they can look at her speak and feel hope, I am just not exactly sure, because when I listen to her speeches, I find them unsettling.

After the results came in in Pennsylvania, I listened to her speech and then Obama’s speech, and I could not understand how anyone could listen to what Clinton was saying and feel good- she offered up some brief history lesson, let her fan base let out chants of “Yes She Will,” and had some kind of gleam in her eye that just did not resonate with me. Really, I just cannot understand it. I watch Barack speak and it feels good, and it feels possible and it feels real.

I have even heard people get upset and say “Oh it is just trendy to like Obama,” with this whole fuck this attitude as if to say that if people like it then it must not be the best option to do it? Or what even? I have sat around with my friends and I have heard some of the things they have to say and it surprises me. I mean it feels different here in New York, but when I talk to my family in Ohio- when my aunt tells me she is voting for Hillary because “it takes a Clinton to clean up a Bush’s mess” I imagine this dynasty of Bush then Clinton then Bush then Clinton then Bush, then maybe Clinton again and I don’t know what’s happened or how this could be possible.

It seems right now that the democratic party is hurting itself, that again we are seeming unorganized that we don’t have someone up and running and John McCain sits their smiling, telling some war story.

I do not think I know everything about politics, I don’t think I am an expert with any of this. But I feel very strongly about this. I feel very strongly that my peers should step up and make some kind of difference. I feel like we have to do more right now.

I believe that we can change this, I believe that even one step is such a big step. I believe this so strongly. I know that I want to get my hands in it- that I want to get my fingers deep in it, I want the dirt under my nails, I want my hands to bleed raw and I know that it will feel good. I know that any amount of education, any amount of change, and any amount of hope is everything. Maybe that is all I know.

I am a registered voter in the state of Florida and my vote did not count directly, I hope that your vote will.