Between class work for the major I am pursuing here at Columbia College in Chicago and the election and now the transition for president-elect Barack Obama (among other things), I keep going back to this passage on pg. 19-20 in Naomi Wolf's new book Give Me Liberty:
The more I read the Declaration, the more unsettled I became. Did this mean that I was not free to sit by, check out, scan the catalogs, go on a long vacation, tend my own garden when I was sick of the mess on the homefront? Did this mean that I personally had to step up to confront abusive power?
How altogether different and more difficult an experience of oneself and one's country it would be if a "declaration of independence" for Americans means accepting personal commitment to defend liberty. Jefferson left us not a guarantee of a life basking in a lawn chair, but rather a guarantee of a life of personal upheaval and sacrifice when necessary.
I kept going over and over Jefferson's language. I was looking, I realized, for a loophole. Did the philosopher of Monticello make any allowance for my personal complacency? Didn't the language somewhere let me off the hook? Didn't he know I was busy?
No, I was forced to conclude, not anywhere. Thomas Jefferson implicated me.
For each person that I see who seems disengaged from reality, who seems to be bought off by gizmos and gadgets, and who seems to be demobilized by apathy or demoralized by their perceived powerlessness, my passion and ambition must be doubled.
I have known for sometime that I was implicated and that the onus was on me to begin reshaping this world so that future generations could live in a society that did not constantly make them fearful and defensive.
OpEdNews gives me a power that few Americans can understand and with it, I think it empowers me to really take on the task of being a defender of liberty. Being a writer here (in addition to my engagement with citizen groups in Chicago for protest/rallies), allows me to respond to the implication which Naomi Wolf so aptly describes.
I feel so implicated that class is secondary to me and has been for some time. For better or for worse, I am more compelled to share my perspective on the current social and political history of America instead of working on assignments for any class that I may have no matter how much bearing it may or may not have on whether I pass the class or not.
My so-called career or future is unimportant in the scheme of things. And in my opinion writing for OpEdNews and following my intuition will alow me to stake out a far better future than if I were to go about my business and conventionally seek to find a way to a future that will offer me security and a financial well-being.
I intentionally chose not to take film classes this semester because I knew that I would be consumed by this election and the need for civic engagement in America. I knew I would want to share my perspective and also put together reports on current hot topics that Americans needed to know about.
So, I sit here on a Sunday morning looking at a list of things I must do for classes I have on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
Last night, I went to a protest that, thanks to the Mormons in California, morphed from a dull protest against James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, into a vibrant protest against Proposition 8. The protest was held outside of the Renaissance Hotel in Chicago.
I desperately want to get a Proposition 8 article up on OpEdNews for people to read about the protest last night and learn more about Proposition 8's passage.
I am also looking at the Sunday editions of the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, which are loaded with Obama hysteria and mania about the next president of the United States. I feel a desire to go over that and post an editorial on the historic souvenir pullouts in these newspapers.
There also should be a vetting process going on here at OpEdNews. I will get to work on that if nobody beats me to it. I want to see writers posting investigative articles on the people being considered for the Obama Administration.
I live in Chicago, which means I need to do three times the work that other progressives/liberals are doing. Obama has and will have a presence here until Inauguration Day and with that in mind, citizen groups plan to protest and rally in Chicago and in his neighborhood for progressive change until January 20th.
Alas, I must go complete the class work needed to allow me to maintain my good grades. Thankfully, I am blessed with the ability to crank out pieces of writing in 30 minutes to 2 hours (depending on how long it must be) so the work shouldn't be too difficult.
I have long thought that work I do for class should be tailored in a fashion so that I could use it to promote progressive change and defend liberty. The topics of the projects I do in college reflect this thinking.
I do not claim superiority for responding to this "implication" that Naomi Wolf describes. I only mean to compel others to feel implicated as well.
I don't do this out of arrogance or false pride. If I wanted to be arrogant and prideful, I would bone up or muscle up and tryout for a sports team or I would go become a star on the next trashy reality TV show hit being prepared for VH1.
Please read David Sirota's "Obama, Be Progressive!"
This diary is my attempt to compel you.
When choosing to balance work and play, choose play.
(*Yes, I consider defending liberty to be play. It's fun. And if it wasn't, I wouldn't be doing it.)
