Become Part of History Today

By Fred Mills

I'll keep this short and sweet: Go vote.

An editorialist recently characterized voting as a privilege, not a responsibility. I completely disagree - unless you did something stupid, became a convicted felon and are now barred from voting, it's a right and a duty. Lord knows I sat enough elections out during my 20s and 30s, so I think I've got a pretty good handle on how ridiculous a person appears when they bitch and whine about the way things are going in this country yet they don't even rise to the occasion when they have the chance every four (or two) years to make a difference.

Here's my story: in 1972 I wasn't quite yet of voting age, but I campaigned vigorously, in my own way, for McGovern. I'd grown up in a political-inclined household - my mom was on the local school board when integration finally reached full implementation in NC, and my dad was a state legislator, so I knew right from wrong and the difference between justice and injustice - and deep down I knew that Nixon was a venal criminal and not someone worthy of representing my country in the highest office. I took a lot of grief that fall at my high school, too; I distinctly recall being one of three kids in my history class who raised their hand for McGovern when the teacher took a straw poll in order to relate what was currently going on in America to our civics lessons. I also remember telling folks about "this Watergate deal" I'd heard about on the news and they just laughed at me and said I was dreamin'. Maybe it was a bad dream, I dunno. But I still wore my McGovern-Shriver button proudly (and I still have it). I was crushed and heartbroken when Nixon beat McGovern in a landslide. And the sense of vindication when Nixon resigned a few years later wasn't enough to raise me up, and for a good while I considered myself a political agnostic.

Cut to 2004: crushed and heartbroken again. So many worked so hard - editorializing, organizing, performing, canvassing, etc. - only to see the Bush machine steamroll over Kerry (and possibly over due process, too).

This year's like 2004, sort of - but very, very different, too. In a very real sense, it feels like 1972 again, or at least I feel like I did in '72: hopeful, defiant, proud, scared, prone to weird waves of conflicting emotions so intense that my teeth feel like they're vibrating at times. This despite all of the insanity that's currently surrounding us - for a visual encapsulation of what I'm trying to get at, go view the "Wassup 2008" video, and make sure you watch it to the very end.

I voted two weeks ago, and right after I post this to the website I'm going to take my 7 year old son out canvassing and working the phones for Obama. How are you going to spend the next 10-odd hours?

Go vote, if you haven't already. Become a part of history today.

This has been a BLURT public service announcement - with guitars.