Election Day!!!!

OK... It has been way to long since I last posted so I thought I would use this blog to mention a little politics.

As an artist, I am made very aware of the lack of support arts receive. "Why would I pursue something that has little support within the community and for which is often overlooked?", you might ask.

Well to be quite frank, I love it (dance, music, film, visual art, theater, poetry, fashion, and any form of expression). My forté is in dance, but I appreciate them all. They also all interrelate at some point or another. Dancing to music; creating music through dance. Filming dance; dancing to a film.... so on and so on! There are endless possibilities.

Not only do I love art at surface value for the end product, but I also benefit from the process of creating art. It is sometimes really hard and frustrating at times, but it makes me even more aware of my own voice and opinion because it is constantly being challenged and changed. It is exciting!

Now, you're maybe wondering, "OK, that's great! What does any of this have to do with Election Day?"

I thought about not voting today. No... last week, I decided I wasn't going to vote today. Between all the propaganda seen on TV and heard on the radio, I was at a standstill. Why on Earth would I vote for anybody they way the tear each other apart? Then I realized or rather was told by a number of people in my life that it is important to vote.



Napoleon Dynamite



If I chose to not make myself knowledgeable about the candidates and not vote today, how could I take myself seriously as an artist. If I didn't even make an effort to participate, I would be devaluing myself and my voice. I don't pay too much attention to politics on a regular basis because I would probably shoot myself in the face out of frustration, but it's not because I am incapable of comprehending the candidates and the debates. I found a really wonderful website called Project Vote Smart that helped me in looking through all the candidates and rating them according to how alike their positions were to my own.



Use it! It takes only a few minutes depending on your Internet connection... 

Please care! 

I didn't care, but then I thought about what would happen or not happen because of my silence.



Even though change isn't going to happen over night, I must make a stand to express what I want for the future of my government. Even though I am not well represented within government, it is a right to represent one's individual self; it's the only platform I have that connects me to the government. Even though I don't care about either party in particular, I want a balanced government that works together to make decisions that impact ME! (It's all, pretty much about me)

For all of you that vote today, Happy Election Day regardless of if you identify as a Republican or Democrat. For those who are making a choice not to vote, recognize that there isn't even a small percentage of your voice being heard and your opinion being important!