Best Article Of The Week?

The Best “Big-Picture” Article Of The Past Week?
by The Old Hippie Because If You Didn't Read It, How Can You Say... “I Know.”

“We're Gonna Frickin' Lose this Thing”

“Stop saying that!” my wife says to me.  But this is not a high school football game and I’m not a cheerleader with a bad attitude.  This is an election and as things stand now, we’re gonna frickin’ lose this thing.  Obama and McCain at best are even in the polls nationally and in a recent Gallup poll McCain is ahead by four points.

[ link to entire original article. ]

“As long as the greatest crime of the 21st century remains unprosecuted,
we all...  can only blame ourselves, and deserve our collective fates.”

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =  <  B e l o w  T h e  F o l d  >  = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

A “Below The Fold” bonus -related- Video...  Enjoy...



http://www.werenotgoingdown.com/ the link to the his website, where he says, in confession;

My name is Freddy Wexler. I’m a singer and a songwriter here in New York City.  I’ve spent the last year of my life trying to get a record contract so I’ve been writing, and performing, and spending a lot of hours in the recording studio.  So maybe that's my excuse for being completely blind to what's been going on in this country.

I was talking to a friend on the phone last week and he asked me who I was gonna vote for.  I said, I don't know.  Does it matter?  He kinda jumped on me for that which was surprising because I never thought of him as being all that political either.

When I got off the phone I decided to go online and see if I could find a reason to care about this election.

I don’t wanna be overly dramatic, but I felt like a guy who had just woken up from a four year coma.  Just surfing around, I saw pictures of the war, and pictures of New Orleans after Katrina, and I read a bunch of articles about how screwed up everything is right now.  At one point, and this is at like 2 in the morning, I called my girlfriend and woke her up.  She actually watches the news and has political discussions with her friends, but I'm always busy doing something else.  So she answers and I said, “How could you put up with a guy who has absolutely no idea what’s happening in the world?”

I knew there was a war going on but I never took the time to try and figure out WHY we are at war and what is going on over there.  When it all started coming together for me...that hundreds of guys MY age are getting their arms blown off by roadside bombs while I’m trying to pick out a cool t-shirt for a concert.  It’s ridiculous.  I’m embarrassed.  Seeing those pictures and reading about what’s really going on, it hit me that I can’t be blind anymore.

That same night, I wrote a song about that night.  My revelation that I have to do something.  That we ALL have to do something.  That everyone like me in their 20’s, whose so busy trying to get their life started, has to stop for a minute and think about how to save our country.

For the first time in my life, I feel like my music and my songwriting has a true purpose beyond just getting me a record deal.

So I finish writing this song, then I jump on my piano and work out the music.  I stayed up all night.  At 7am I called my friend Matt, another musician and I asked him to come over and help me.  At 10:00 that morning, Matt and I were at my girlfriend’s apartment with a piano and a guitar, and a guy with a video camera.

The video and the song is called “We’re Not Going Down.”  If the message hits you, if you've been like me, just completely unaware and you realize it's time to stand up and do something, then I ask that you email the link to the video to as many of your friends as you can.

So here it is...
WE’RE NOT GOING DOWN

-- Freddy Wexler