@LawrenceofVA

4 years ago

Thanks for this important message, Tim. I do not remember if you were a big voter back when we were hanging out (it was during the Reagan years). I was a non-voter. until I was 40. When I finally DID start voting, I became so involved that I left Hollywood, went back to my home town of Charlottesville, and ended up receiving the Democratic nomination to run for Congress in 2014 (you can look it up on Google or Ballotpedia). I also started a non-profit called GOV360. The point is, a lot of artists, musicians, and creative people do not look at our system as something to get involved in, but see it as something to ignore, avoid, or even dislike. We might write songs or make art reflecting our feelings about the broken system. Two examples of cynicism in music come to mind ("meet the new boss, same as the old boss" or "when you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice"). But, rather than use all of our disdain for the system as an excuse to remain uninvolved, why not look at it as a representative form of government that is only as strong as the power of the people involved. In my catalogue of original music, I do not have a song that is related to this, but I know Tim wrote a song a long time ago that I still think of as having a socio/political message, "Signs Are Coming". I love that song and still listen to my live recording of it from 1985 at the C&O. Tim, if you ever play that live with your band, please video it and let me know!! Rock on!!

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