THE DAY BEFORE THE ELECTION, ME 'N WOODY G. WEIGH IN

A reminder that:

FREEDOM is something we can lose in a heartbeat

and, that even in my lifetime, in the United States of America,

citizens have DIED for their right to VOTE.

You must not give up. You must not give in to apathy and cynicism and hopelessness. You must not let those who act out of fear and ignorance drown your voice. You must not let those who are intolerant of others and allow hatred to spread like cancer make the rules of the game. You must step up for all of those whose lives will be deeply affected by the outcome of this election; they are counting on you to care. You must vote to ensure that the dangerous extremism that has gridlocked our nation into a division so dysfunctional that we are at real risk of social and economic collapse is removed from power. You must think past your own self-interest to the welfare of your community, your nation, your world, for each choice we make, even the smallest one, impacts everyone else in some way.

If you haven't yet voted, GET IN THE LINE AND DO NOT STEP OUT until you have finished voting -- it is FEDERAL LAW that if you are in line prior to the closing time that you MUST BE ALLOWED TO VOTE. DO NOT give your ballot to any party or person other than your official polling place or your post office. DOUBLE CHECK that you have all the ID and information that your state requires you to have to vote, and TRIPLE CHECK that you are going to the correct polling place. QUADRUPLE CHECK that you are correctly filling out every single piece of your ballot, including any signatures and dates. Help others to do the same. DOCUMENT ANY VOTING SHENANIGANS YOU MAY SEE. Remember, you are allowed to photograph or videotape on public property to your heart's content; that's also the law.

You must not give up, ever. If you feel outnumbered, if you feel intimidated, if you feel alone when you go to vote, I will stand by you and hold your hand, even if it's just in spirit.

“I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim or too ugly or too this or do that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard travelling. I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you. I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kind of songs and to sing the kind that knock you down still farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think that you've not got any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I'd starve to death before I'd sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your songbooks are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow.” 
― Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie, "All You Fascists Bound To Lose"