(Article changed on October 31, 2012 at 06:17)
When I was a music producer and audio engineer in Los Angeles, I worked at a small studio in North Hollywood. The owner was an interesting man, into UFOs and other oddities. And he had a great sense of humor.
Those were the days when the walls of a studio were lined with racks of audio processing devices __ reverbs, delays, compressors, flangers, EQs __ and the inside of the control room looked like the Starship Enterprise.
One of our modules, however, was very unique. It consisted of a single multi-space panel, maybe 11" wide and 4" high. In the center of the gray panel was a single huge knob. Below it read one word . . . Quality. As a joke, when we were in the final stages of completing the mix of a song, one of us would go over to that knob and say, 'I think we need to up the quality here just a bit.' Then we'd make a big show of adding some "quality".
Of course, it was just a big laugh. There was nothing attached to the knob. Behind the panel was empty space. But our clients joined in the fun and got a kick out it.
That knob makes me think of this election.
Sure, we'll go in and pull our levers, push a button, hit enter on a computer-based voting machine, or in the really archaic voting districts, punch holes in a card.
Make no mistake about it. There's nothing attached to the lever. There's nothing behind the panel. We'll all join in the fun and get a big kick out of it, eh?
But nothing will change.
The wars will go on. The plundering of our national wealth will continue. The waste of our valuable talents and energies through unemployment and underemployment will march forward. Social Security and Medicare will be chipped away until sometime in the future they are hollowed out and meaningless. The rich will get richer and most of us will be grateful for the few scraps we get.
The media is full of dramatic proclamations and everyone is talking about what a historic election this will be, how we are at a fundamental crossroad.
But given the choice __ or more accurately the lack of it __ represented by the two major parties, beholden as they both are to the tiny few who own them and command the real reins of power in our sham democracy, there's nothing profound or historic about this coming election day. It will not be a day that changes anything!
It could
be. It could be a day that changed the world. But this would have
nothing to do with our voting for a Democrat or Republican.
The day that changes the world will be . . .
- The day we by the millions pull our money out of the big banks and put them in small community banks or credit unions, where the people who own the facility and work there live down the street, know your name, and care about you and the quality of life in your area of the town or city you live in.
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