48I Will Stand...

" Well I won't back down, no I wont back down
You can stand me up at the gates of hell
But I won't back down

Gonna stand my ground, won't be turned around
And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down
Gonna stand my ground and I won't back down

Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out
Hey I will stand my ground and I won't back down

Well I know what's right, I got just one life
In a world that keeps pushin' me around
But I stand my ground and I won't back down

Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out
Hey I will stand my ground and I won't back down

No I won't back down"
- "I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty

------------------

In this time of fear-mongering and disinformation its easy to give up and surrender, to tune it out, to just disengage. Its easier to say that "its just the way the world works", than it is to stand up and try to build a better world.

This year's superbowl started with a chorus of NFL athletes reciting the declaration of independence. Talking about patriots etc, it was typically over-the-top as only a superbowl pregame segment can be, but those words will still send chills down one's spine.

Then the half-time show came on and Tom Petty sang this song as part of a medley of his greatest hits.

Its a strong message. It talks about the fact that you only have one life and you need to stand up to a world that tries to push you around.

Some might say that this is just America and the NFL misusing brilliant words and sentiments to whip up "support for the troops" or some other "patriotic" venture against terrorism.

You can however look at it differently. You can see Tom Petty playing that song, the song that GW Bush had used in his campaign in 2000 (for which Tom threatened to sue and had it removed), you can see him playing that as a big Fuck You to the last 7 years. As OBAMA's television ads came on and urged us to be united, you could almost feel that this was finally the time when we could see the end of this kind of terror and fear. Where people said enough, I can no longer be disengaged, there comes a time when you have to stand your ground, when you don't back down, and that time is now.

Today Mitt Romney dropped out of the race, and that blue-blood aristocrat, in the dying breath of his presidential bid, had the indecency to utter these words:

"In this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

(Thus implying that a Democratic president would be tantamount to letting terrorists kill your children)

Read more here: www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/07/romney.campaign/index.html

I will not stand for that shit any longer, and neither should you.

McCain talks about the war on terror and calls it WW3. I will not stand for that any longer.

Its time that we kicked fear-mongerers to the curb.

Vote Obama '08.