someone told me that the journo teacher at ukiahi wanted to put the football game on the front and election coverage on the back so i was like fuck that and wrote a letter here you go

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Dear Ukiahilite Staff,

We’re in the midst of a major crises. A war against terror founded on greed and power-lust, with what very basic scraps of dignity we have left contorted by those in power over the last eight years into constant volleys of fear, doubt, hesitance and an unwillingness to take risks; Our constitution contorted into a fragment of its former glory, exchanging freedom for security in the most brazen way; savages presiding over our entire populace with a chokehold on democracy as it stands today (and has stood for over two hundred and twenty five years), ready to chew its throat out. That’s what the recent economic bailout was, a snack. It was our fucking trachea. We’ve been abandoned by our leaders in exchange for seven billion dollars and a few tankers of gasoline. I guess I don’t blame them, though. With a population of 301,000,000, that’s a pretty good exchange rate.

This recent election was a monumental occurrence in American history. Not only was the very first African-American elected president, but the orchestration of a groundbreaking 21-month campaign, led primarily by local grassroots organizations, was successful in getting its candidate elected. And (finally) the decades-old archetype of ‘rich white guy’ as a necessary classification for holding political office was thrown out the window quicker than Sarah Palin’s credibility as a foreign policy expert.

Of the 120 million registered voters, 62 million of them voted for Barack Obama in 2008. In a country founded on the principles of equality, it’s taken a lot of hurdles to reach a point that should have been viable since Thomas Jefferson set his pen (quill?) to parchment and wrote what would become our declaration of independence from Great Britain. The reasonings for revolution back then (taxation, religious freedom, British imperial policies) were complex issues and yet somehow we’ve been able to overcome any obstacles in reaching responsible, if sometimes flawed, outcomes. Well, except for religious freedom, or rather, freedom from religion (see: California’s Proposition 8 passing). And yet our nation grew into one established on the pillars of slavery, intolerance, and a fear of the unknown. But in one day all of that changed.

Barack Obama’s face adorned the cover of every national magazine in circulation; Esquire, Newsweek, Time, even People for christ’s sake. It wasn’t even a question worth asking, of course he’d get the cover. The front page was his, and only his (except in the case of People, wherein he shared the spotlight with Beniffer), the moment that 62 million voters cast their ballots in his favor. To not realize the historical importance of this election is ignorance, to recognize and ignore is simply unpatriotic. To regard president-elect Barack Obama’s landmark disruption of America’s aged, stagnant political system as anything less than front-page news can only come from a worldview so narrow-sighted that nothing less than a nuclear bomb exploding next door could wake you up from your stupor.

Tanya Sparkes, I accuse you of hating America. Plain and simple words, laid out across the (metaphorical) table, but the implications they suggest are far reaching. As a high school teacher you are in a position that very few will ever have the opportunity to exercise, you’re able to help shape the minds of our next generation in a direct way. It’s up to people like you, teachers and counselors and principals and leaders of any mold, to teach this generation the importance of being involved in important occasions that will affect them for years, chief among them the political process. Even considering a high school football team’s short-term winning streak as, if not more, remarkable than the most unforgettable event since the eruption of the civil rights movement in 1955 is heresy. The reversal of American leadership, from President Richard Nixon committing large-scale coverups or President Bush waging war under false pretenses, to an age with transparent politicians and agendas, a world where distrusting your government is the exception and not the rule, cannot be understated. Where’s the lesson here, Tanya? What, exactly, are you teaching your students? You’re hitting them so hard over the head with meaningless, inconsequential jabber aimed at locking them into a life of uninformed daydreaming that I’m surprised you don’t have students coming to you with claims that they can see Russia from their back yards.

In the most incredible election cycle of American history on record, I’m not ready to be yoked by a single breach of negligence – to pull a plow with my neck through some frozen continent to prove a point. It’s the classic pendulum swing, away from rationale and toward nescience. I have a feeling the country will still be around when people like you get your greedy tonsils away from the voice of the people and things swing the other way.

Respectfully,

Cory Daniel

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