Well, This Is What I Think

Thomas Stewart Yolland, died 1957, 1939-1945 Star, Africa Star, Pacific Star, Italy Star, 1939-45 King George medal. Vote for Yolland if you can’t think of any other reasons.

A message to all Americans. OK, I don’t care whether you vote for Obama or Romney or one of the 1% candidates (Whoa! He’s lying right there, fact check him, quick!) but I do care that you vote.

You see, Democracy is dead simple. Use it, or lose it.

This little video makes the point SO well. I really hope all Americans view it, and show their 18 year old kids and their 90 year old grandparents, and their neighbours. It’s too late to register to vote if you haven’t already (I believe, I think I have that right, all the way from Oz) but if you are registered then this little video charmingly and intelligently explains why you MUST vote.

You. Must. Vote.

Quite apart from the fact that my Dad spent six years on destroyers in WWII to defend our right to a free vote, and it killed him. So if you can’t think of any better reasons to vote, vote for my Dad’s sacrifice. And for all the others who sacrificed, and still do.

Please.

You believed in what you did.
And I believe in what you did.
But all we are left with are the yellow photographs.
They get more yellow with the years. Time eats them alive.
They rust, like life. Until all that is left is a shell,
ready to crumble at the lightest touch and disappear.
We never had the days at the football.
We never had Christmas.
We never had a shared pint.
We never had a quiet laugh in the garden at dawn.
You had the waves, and the torpedos, and the fear,
and the cigarettes, and the fear.
And I got the yellow photographs.
That’s the way of it.