I'm in that place where the juices aren't flowing and my head is cloudy. I've been like this for a good 48 hours, which is completely unacceptable. I think that happens sometimes with writing/ studying. There's like a seal you have to break. I can't think of a good analogy for it... except maybe a ketchup/catsup bottle (I really just wanted to see if my auto-spell check would find 'catsup' acceptable. It does.) I think that analogy is actually pretty good because sometimes you've got a nice flow going but then out of no where it turns into a sloppy mess and everything is ruined and salty. Blergh.
I want to work on my paper. But I need some good democratic/ proud to be an American inspiration. Oh, I know, I'll watch 'West Wing'- duh. My paper is basically about how it's not the fault of kids today for being "apathetic" when we dont teach them about America and Democracy and how to be proud of the fact that we were founded on a bunch of ideals. And how they only really show up to vote when there's some like celebrity-esk candidate that they can look up on the interweb/ youtube. But how the candidates have figured out how to reach out to this population (via internet and cell phones, etc) but we have to do a better job with the message because if they dont care about the process (a) we lose the common ground with the "other" side so nothing can get accomplished (ie- we'll continue to become more and more polarized between parties thanks to cable news and Newt Gingrich (newt.org = scary) so the celebrity candidates everyone loves so much will never be able to do anything) and (b) we risk completely crashing in burning if we arent invested in repairing the system when we need it (ie California= also scary). This is all supported by statistics because (a) there has been a decline in civic education (b) parents aren't as invested in the system and probs not saying positive things at home (watergate, wmd, i did not have sexual relations with that woman?) (c) kids are showing up to vote only when celebrity candidates (d) kids know about issues but dont care/ dont vote because of them (see gay marriage) (e) while there is a dramatic increase in kids showing up at the polls, they still the the govt as "the" govt rather than "our" govt.
Anyway. It's hard to break down to just a paragraph, but it's intuitive and genius and the idiots Panettta made me talk to didn't get anything. It's so annoying. So I have to make my paper so good.
That's the sort of thing I've been thinking about. That and I'm sad about Christmas, basically all the time. I don't really want to talk about that though.
I've got to go eat something then really get to work.
Peace, Love, and Newt.
-C
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