Voting, Hamlet Style

To Vote? Or Not To Vote?
But should anyone actually ask themselves that in relation to a presidential election?

I think voting is a privilege. So it blows my mind when people don't vote. As Americans, yes it is a right, but people need to realize how many countries in the world where voting is not a right.
I am more excited for the first time I get to vote than I was about the chance to get my license. Before I or my friend's turned sixteen, all they could talk about was a license, I was dreaming of voting. Which sound's silly, but it's very important to me to exercise my American right. The right to have a say in the government. The right to decide for myself who I would rather have lead my country.

The common refrain, I've heard, is that voting doesn't matter. Your vote is just one in eighty million. One vote doesn't change anything. But if everyone listened to that, then no one would vote. When Bush was president people criticized him and would say "he's not my president", these same people did not even vote in the election if they didn't even try to help his opponent get elected, then they have no right to criticize him. I think that with voting you get the right to disagree, as well as the right to say that you had a say in the politics of your country. It's like people who voted for Obama, they can say they had a hand in electing America's first African-American president, that right there is exciting.


I was not old enough to vote in the last election, but had I been, I would have definitely gone to my local polling station and cast my vote.
Even though I had no say in the election I watched the debates, read up on the candidates and did all I could to get educated on the election.
I live in a very opinionated family, so when everyone is together you can bet there will be a lengthy debate related to politics. I think that is one of the reasons I try to be informed when it comes to political things.

If I had been able to vote in the last election then I think I would have voted for John McCain. I don't consider myself a Republican, I am conservative minded, but sick and tired of Republicans. I would have voted for McCain mainly because I agreed with him more overall than Obama. That's not to say, I did not agree with Obama on anything, but I just leaned more towards McCain.

In conclusion, I think that were voting thought of in America as more of a privilege and less of a right, things may look different.

Character Versus Image

In Media and Society class this week, we have been talking about image in politics. How the way a politician looks can affect the amount of votes he will receive. The first televised Presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon changed the way Americans voted. J.F.K. was more appealing visually than Nixon and it is believed that is part of the reason he won.

Still hard to believe?

As an example think of Abraham Lincoln- his character shined at the times America needed it to. But the belief nowadays is that if Lincoln ran for office in this day and age, he would not be elected. Why? The answer is actually embarrassing for me as an American, but it is believed he was not good-looking enough to be elected in this day and image obsessed age.



After looking at the picture of Lincoln, what do you think? Would you vote for him based on character or not based on appearance?

Now consider the last Presidential election in America. Do you think appearance played in to Barack Obama being elected instead of John McCain?









Take into account that at the time of the election, Obama was 48 and McCain was 73.
Now I would never say the only reason Obama was elected is related to his age or his appearance- but it poses an interesting question.
Are Americans more interested in someone who looks good than someone who could effectively do the job better?

To clarify- I am not trying to start a debate over who should have won. I am just asking a question.
Does appearance mean more to Americans than character?
Does it mean that America would elect anyone who looks good over true political skills?
I sincerely hope that as life goes on, even if appearance plays a part in elections that Americans will remember good character means much more.

Downloading Music

I think the first time I ever downloaded music was when my brother installed a file sharing program called: "Lime Wire" on our computer. I didn't download very much music and when I did it was mainly European music I could not buy in America. I didn't know it was illegal until I started reading about people being prosecuted for sharing music. I removed Lime Wire and all the songs from my computer and decided to listen to the music I wanted on You Tube- no fear of prosecution there.

I think musicians have a right to be angry at people who illegally download their music. They work hard to write songs and make music so for people to steal it and the musicians not to get compensation is not right.

Recording companies need to take a different approach to putting a stop to illegal downloading. They need to educate people on why downloading music illegally is wrong. They need to show how it hurts the industry and the consumer (less new music, higher prices...etc)

Finally I think there need's to be stricter regulations when it comes to problems like this. I think people may stop downloading if the fear of an expensive lawsuit or even jail time is looming. Although using fear to curb the issue may not be the best approach. Perhaps people just need to be informed, it's hard to continue doing something illegal with your conscience reminding you of the consequences.

Me and Music

Music has always been a big part of my life. My musical interests have changed and expanded with age.

I grew up in a Christian family, so growing up I mainly listened to “Christian” music. The only times I did not was when I went places with my dad, he instilled in me a love for “oldies” music, which meant anything from 1960-70’s. When my siblings enrolled at our local high school, then the world of music opened up even more. My brother started listening to “screamo/hardcore” music. Screamo is a style of music where lyrics of a song are screamed and not sang. As a ten year old girl, I loved the way the singers growled out the lyrics. I loved the rebellious feeling listening to it gave me. When my friend’s brother would talk about screamo and I knew the bands he liked, it made me feel proud.

When I first became a teenager the “cool” type of music was rap. Rappers like Jay-Z and Kanye West were all the rage. As I got older popular “mainstream” music became more and more similar. Singers seemed more digitally done than actually talented. One of the big crazes was “emo” music, emo is short for emotional, so the songs dealt with emotions. Bands like Taking Back Sunday and Hawthorne Heights renewed the interest in the style of music originally started in the 1980’s.
I didn’t go to very many concerts, usually because of a lack of money or a way of getting there. Festivals were the best way for me to see bands I wanted all in one place on the same day. A big deal when I was a teen was Vans Warped Tour Festival, full of music and people skateboarding. I was really excited to go, but a bit disappointed when I arrived and found out how far the music style had shifted from earlier years.

I remember hiding my music from my parents. I was afraid of their reaction to the swearing in songs I listened to or just the overall content. I would bring CD’s into the car and skip half the songs, so I would be lectured. I remember when I bought a CD by a singer name MIKA and I was with my dad in the car after I bought it, I put it in and cringed afraid of what he would think of the content. But the music my dad grew up with made him pretty lenient when it comes to what I listen too, not only did he not care, but he liked MIKA. Not exactly the response I thought I would get.

Overall I think the music I listened to changed with age. When I was just becoming a teen and changing in every way, I listened to screamo and metal to get out my frustration. As I got older I started listening to more subdued music, music I could fall asleep too. Music types come and go with each generation, none better than any other- just different. But they’re all important, because each type of music has a fan somewhere.

(Image from: http://www.stmattsmanly.org.au/youthie/userimages/1243746816_arts-music-graphic.jpeg)