From the Iowa Caucuses to Obama vs. Hillary to the haunting rise of Sarah Palin to the Wall Street bailout (which both Barack Obama and John McCain supported) to the celebrated election of Barack Obama, 2008 was a year where anything and everything happened

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New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. ~Mark Twain

From the Iowa Caucuses to Obama vs. Hillary to the haunting rise of Sarah Palin to the Wall Street bailout (which both Barack Obama and John McCain supported) to the celebrated election of Barack Obama, 2008 was a year where anything and everything happened. As the empire crumbled, the empire was rebuilt. The contradictions the Bush Administration created came to a head and people took notice.

The American people unmistakably voted out Bush when they voted in 2008. Many were also happily voting for Obama and were pleased to have found somebody they could finally invest their hopes and dreams into after too many recent elections where the candidates were lackluster. What is unclear and still to be determined is whether or not the American people are willing to sacrifice themselves or their livelihoods for a better America; we know the American people will vote and volunteer for a rock star candidate but will they be compelled to do more?

I would not post an account of what I did this year and my expectations for 2009 if I did not think that I had set an example for other Americans. If more Americans were tuned in and involved in activities similar to the ones that I was this year, we would be even closer to the America of our dreams.

The following account, I trust, will compel you to step outside your comfort zone and do more than read articles which feature progressives or liberals baying at the moon.

This year, for me, the personal became the political. The political became personal.

With the two intertwined, I wrote articles from January to now describing the political landscape, the peace movement, why Bush and Cheney must be impeached, removed, and prosecuted, etc. There was nothing I didn’t seize upon and pick apart.

The first month of the year quickly saw the presidential campaign I was a part of, the Dennis Kucinich for President Campaign, become paralyzed and fade away.

Dennis Kucinich had been the contender I picked to win the presidential horse race. Without knowing the power media had to decide elections, I wrote many articles explaining why he would be the best Democratic nominee for president (and, unfortunately, I ignored Sen. Mike Gravel).

By the end of January, Kucinich had to run back to Cleveland to save his seat in the House of Representatives. I parted ways with friends who I had made in Chicago while campaigning for Dennis Kucinich.

It didn’t take long for the media to get the story they had been aiming for---the Democratic Party nomination would be fought for by a black man and a white woman. No matter what, there was a good chance that a huge landmark would take place in civil rights history either for women’s rights or African-American rights.

It’s still hard for me to forget that Obama and Clinton were the final two because the media ignored Kucinich and also refused to cover Gravel. At a time when antiwar sentiment was by many calculations on the rise (with a majority opposing the Iraq War), the media refused to properly cover Kucinich or Gravel (who as senator read the Pentagon Papers in a filibuster against the draft during the Vietnam War).

Prior to 2008, I had begun organizing with students from Columbia College who had participated in protests or rallies organized in Chicago by the World Can’t Wait. I had participated in my first march and rally in October of 2007. But, I had never participated in the organization of events to call attention to the crimes and injustices being perpetrated by our government.

I knew then that if the Democratic Party nomination was going to go to Obama or Clinton there was going to be a need for a vibrant peace movement. Both had antiwar credentials that would make Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. quiver (especially since many considered and still consider one or the other to support peace policies).

I helped organize and promote the organization of a protest, a march, and day of resistance to call attention to the fifth anniversary of the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq. The march involved thousands taking to the streets in the evening. The day of resistance involved hundreds across the nation acting boldly in many ways to call attention to the illegal and inhumane war that supposedly Democrats were going to end in 2006 but were doing little to nothing to stop.

The more I put myself out there, the more I was willing to take charge. I took on the task of developing a media reform group for students on Columbia College’s campus. The group developed into a group of 5 to 7 individuals, students and faculty/staff, who attended meetings and discussed media reform and justice issues. The meetings involved plans to go to the Free Press’ National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis.

Ralph Nader announced he was running for president on Meet the Press when I was returning from Spring Break. I smiled from ear to ear and was excited at the opportunity that presented itself.

For one, I was not going to have to vote for Barack Obama. I was going to be able to vote my conscience. (That’s not to say I couldn’t have voted for Cynthia McKinney.)

I also chose to call the campaign and volunteer to be one of the many college students who would Road Trip for Ralph and go around the country getting petitions signed so he could get past our nation’s draconian ballot access laws and onto the ballot of all 50 states.

In the third week of May, right after my spring semester had come to an end, I stayed at an Extended Stay America in Woodridge outside of Chicago and took a van into downtown for four days straight attempting to get signatures. It was rough, and for the most part, I failed. I let personal hang-ups get in the way and made too much out of simply asking people to sign the petitions.

I took a train home from Chicago to Mishawaka, Indiana (where I live) to see if this was for me and see if I wanted to do this for an entire summer. It seemed like something worth doing if I could get used to asking people to sign for Ralph Nader. But, then on a Saturday night when I was getting ready to return, I began to have intense stomach pains.

The intense stomach pains developed into something unbearable. I spent most of the night curled up in front of my toilet wondering what to do because my body’s insides would not let anything out in either direction. What went wasn’t going out and what went down was coming back up either.

With a history of digestive problems and an infanthood filled with surgeries and trauma of this nature, I went to the doctor. The doctor assessed the problem and sent me to the emergency room. The nurses in the emergency room did the proper procedures and quickly got me into a room in the hospital (which I would be staying in for a week).

Twenty four hours later, I had surgery because my small intestine had twisted and wasn’t letting anything in or out. There was a blockage hours away from bursting and causing severe damage.

As I think back, I wonder what would have happened if I had not had health insurance. What if I had not been under a plan that my mother was still paying for which covers me until I am out of college?

I was told it could be weeks before I recovered from the surgery. How I would get an income so that I would have money to live off when I went back to college was up in the air. I would not be returning to any job until July.

I had plans to go to the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis. And, I also was going to be helping the production of a documentary called "Seriously Green" when the Green Party National Convention was held in Chicago.

So, what do you think I did? Against the best wishes of my family and maybe even the doctor, I took my Vicodin and went to Minneapolis to cover the NCMR for OpEdNews and to learn about media reform so that I could grow a group properly on campus.

The experience was a start to a summer that was one of the most fulfilling periods of my life so far. The summer took me to the Green Party Convention in Chicago, the Democratic National Convention in Denver, and finally, as college was starting back up, the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

In Chicago, it became evident that the Green Party’s nominee Cynthia McKinney was a great candidate but the press was not interested. You could count the number of press people at the convention on two hands and while there was independent media there, the mainstream news networks would not be bothered with McKinney despite the fact that she was going to be a black woman candidate for president.

In Denver, I saw for the first time how easy it is to turn any area in America into a police state. There, I participated in protests, helped the Iraq Veterans Against the War conduct Operation First Casualty for people in Denver, and marched down to the Pepsi Center with Rage Against the Machine, The Coup, and the Flobots in support of IVAW and their demands for Obama to support immediate withdrawal from Iraq, reparations for Iraqis, and benefits to veterans returning home. Our presence forced Obama to accept a letter from IVAW.

In St. Paul, I witnessed what government at all levels will do to silence people who feel compelled to use their First Amendment rights. On the final day of the RNC, the city deployed over a hundred police with gas masks to trap about 250 people intent on marching to the Xcel Energy Center. Bicycles, horses, batons, dump trucks, and bulldozers were used in a standoff that ended with police deploying chemical weapons and arresting and detaining press and protesters who had been trapped.

At both conventions, I assisted with further production of a documentary called “Seriously Green” and in fact, ended up getting into Invesco Field to see Obama speak because we shot footage of Obama's acceptance speech.

After a fun-filled summer, I struggled to stay focused on school throughout the fall semester. Compelled to write articles and focus on politics, I spent most of the semester giving class less attention than class deserved.

The 2008 election had me fully engaged. I spent much of the final months arguing in favor of third party candidates like Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney. (I will forever be proud of the interview I got with Vice-Presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez days before Election Day.)

I saw firsthand (again) how the peace movement was in ruin as Chicagoan activists organized a successful but small protest and march in the Pakistani community in Chicago. Everyone spoke out against Obama’s suggestion that he would go after terrorists and wage war in Pakistan. The event was empowering especially as the media drowned and washed people in false hope and change but only a few hundred showed up when we held the protest/march in October.

My media reform group at Columbia College held a film festival throughout the four weeks before Election Day. We showed Free for All, American Blackout, and An Unreasonable Man to bring attention to two candidates for president and voting irregularities that were being ignored by the media. The final event, the An Unreasonable Man screening, featured Ashley Sanders, the youth spokesperson for the Nader/Gonzalez campaign.

In the first presidential election that I could legally vote in, I voted for Nader/Gonzalez. Obama did not side with the people enough and in fact, primarily sided with government and corporations instead. (I also voted for all Green Party candidates.)

I was lucky enough to be able to get tickets to go see Obama give his victory speech in Grant Park and attended the event with a couple friends. It brought back memories of Invesco Field.

I spent the final month of the semester distracted and unable to focus on my work. While the election had come to an end, ever since the Wall Street bailout I had been transfixed by the downward spiraling economy and was following it on a daily basis. I also was very into the Obama transition and prepared for the worst.

Christmas Day with my family was surprising because between my grandma and my uncle (who has family in Detroit) we talked about how Americans are living beyond their means cannot live like that any longer. We talked about corporations and their “good ol’ boy network” and how everyday Americans do not have a seat at the table.

Christmas had never featured talk like this before.

No matter what, Americans will not be able to live in 2009 the way they lived in 2008.

As Americans coast into 2009 happy to see Bush leave and ready to relish the presence of Obama, I am not so dazzled by the prospects of hope and change Obama puts before us because I do not know what effect Obama will have on the American people.

If Obama is not a challenging or transformative personality that takes on the white power structure in America, the American empire will crumble further in 2009.

If Obama does not ask us to do more than consume, troubling times will continue.

If Obama does not restore the rule of law, end the wars, or consult science instead of faith when making policy, Americans and others around the world will continue to suffer.

In order to quell the uncertainty I have within me, I write. I find through my writing a means of therapy which turns the dreadful and inexcusable into an example of why we must fight and struggle with others for a better world.

I used to think that I wanted to be a filmmaker when I left high school. But, Bush and my political interests led me to partially disown my passion for film, for escapism, because I did not think people could continue to be like those in Plato's Cave who watch the images on the cave wall. 

I believe in writing because you do not have to give up writing to spend most of your life being politically active.

Writing for OpEdNews has been something that I do as if it were my job yet I do not get paid. I find the more energy I put into articles (even if they are not read), the better I feel.

I do not know what 2009 holds. I do not expect Barack Obama to do anything. That doesn’t mean he won’t do any good. What it means is that I do not plan to wait for Obama to fight for peace, justice, and freedom.

I plan to continue mobilizing for peace, justice, and freedom and I plan to continue writing about a better way forward than the weak alternative to Bush that the Obama transition team is piecing together for the world.

I wish for the American people to make sacrifices in their lives to make the hope and change they voted for a permanent reality. Such an idea may be utopian, but nothing was more utopian than believing that somehow Obama would fix our woeful nation.

I wish for the American people to be inquisitive and read books and dig deep into the nooks and crannies of libraries to find stories and examples from history of what this nation has been and what it is and what we must not allow it to be in the future.

I wish for the American people to question authority and the customs and traditions which are outmoded primarily because they put rational thinking in the backseat and let a raw and fine-tuned, narcissistic zeal for American supremacy take the wheel.

I wish for the American people to, for once, consider all that they have and why they have enjoyed abundance for so long.

I wish for the American people to think of how that abundance has created freedom and how the freedom to consume has turned us into a society that may siphon away our prospective future living any sort of life whatsoever if we do not collectively stop being Earth junkies.

I do not know what I will be doing when 2009 is over. I know that I want to write as much as possible and be published in as many places as possible.

I have my name attached to the "Seriously Green" documentary which is almost in post-production and I am going to be helping CitizenKate.TV at the Inauguration. I hope people get to see these works completed and enjoy them.

I would like to see my writing in more places than OpEdNews. I would like to work on my writing, fine tune it, and improve my writing and then find out how to be published on Huffington Post, Common Dreams, and other sites.

I would like to write a book and I would also like to write a few screenplays. I would like to write short stories. I would like to publish books online and possibly sell a book or two.

I have this voracious urge to create and live vicariously through my writing and use it to explore ideas and concepts that need to be at the forefront of human consciousness.

As I’ve noticed more and more lately, I’m a poor excuse for a capitalist who has no will to survive in this system created for those who are callous, reckless, deceitful, unlawful, and incapable of feeling guilt or sustaining enduring relationships with others.

In 2009, I’m going to buck the system and do things in a compassionate, responsible, frank, and legal manner and encourage you to do the same.

If you want to create and get your art out there, let me know. And if you can help me get my art out there, please do.

Together, maybe we will shape the world. We will create an ethos that will leave Americans wanting not just hope and change but also peace, justice, and freedom from the misery the government and corporations heap upon them day in and day out without any remorse whatsoever.

[I apologize if you were looking for something detailing what politically happened this year. I cannot commit to offering my full perspective on what I consider to be the main political events of this year, but I certainly will try to get something up by Dec. 31st. Thank you for reading this lengthy piece.]

Authors Bio:
Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof Press. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, "Unauthorized Disclosure." He was an editor for OpEdNews.com