Your Vote Matters

We are entering one of the most crucial periods in American history. The next election is a watershed mark that will determine not only what 21st century America will look like, but also how America will act on the international stage, and, consequently, how billions of global citizens will experience American power...how billions of global citizens will live their lives. That is what is at stake in the next election...it will literally determine the future of the world as well as America. And, the two things, as we know, are tied up together.

Will the changes already wrought by the neo-conservatives of the Bush administration in terms of the erosion of civil liberties at home and direct and massive military occupation abroad...become permanent and timeless? If the Bush Administration cannot be beaten now, when they are at their weakest and we are at our strongest and most united...the game really will be over. The [changes] really will be permanent. And, it will be at least a century.

What are the impacts of this? The 21st century will be a time of environmental destruction on a scale we have never ever seen. It will be a time of barbarism, a time of genocide, a time of religious fundamentalism. And, a lot of this is actually driven by religious fundamentalists of all kinds, whether it is our own Christian fundamentalism (fundamentalists who exert such a powerful role in this administration), or whether it is the Islamic fascists like Osama bin Laden, or the Hindu fundamentalists who are in power in India. That is what the future of the world will look like.

And, given the awesome weapons at the disposal of human beings...I don't believe we will survive much into the 21st century...

American citizens have a special responsibility. What is being done is being done in the name of American citizens. It is being done in our name. And so we...have a special responsibility, not just for the election, but for the world that will follow it.

-Sut Jhally