For my summer digital media class final review I made this:
(Go to YouTube and watch it in High Quality!)
After the Civil War but before being shot, Lincoln decides that a big-ass building would totally unite the country. Money that would have been funneled into the military flows like a river of glorious gold into the new Tower of Freedom. FDR picks it up as the core of the New Deal, ushering in a new era of peace, prosperity, and civil engineering. Architects, far from being the dirty whores of society, become its pampered concubines. HOWEVER, all is not well: bitter pro-war agitators, angry at the tower’s diversion of military funds, plot to bomb the tower. In September 1971 Freedom Tower crumbles in a midnight raid of dozens armed with pointy sticks. An enraged President Robert F. Kennedy declares the Tower to be the very foundation of the country, and reconstruction begins anew, bringing America’s second Golden Age and manifesting its true destiny.
The best part about this project was that it was 100% the fun part (making cool things) and 0% the boring part (figuring out the practical stuff). Putting together a neo-Baroque building was surprisingly fun—it sure beats having to make something “new” all the damn time.
Last year, Barack signed a promise to accept public financing of his general election campaign if his Republican opponent did the same. Now it’s general election time and McCain has accepted public financing. Barack has refused, and some people are understandably pissed—they don’t like Barack going back on his word. But I think Barack made the right choice.
The reason is found within intent. Public financing gives each candidate up to $84 million in taxpayer money in return for forgoing private funds. The point is to severely limit the financial influence of special interests. Does it work? No—like cockroaches and rats, when it’s not the will of the candidate then tainted money finds a way in. Barack has already stated he hasn’t and won’t take money from special interests. Moreover, his campaign is unprecedented both its innovative fund-raising prowess and its grassroots support from small donations (55% less than $500, versus McCain’s 31%). He’s already fulfilling the intent of public financing and then some, refusing money diverted from other government programs in favor of legitimate interest from the American people. Combine that with the most successful fund-raising apparatus in history and refusing public funding is both ethically clear and pragmatically correct—everybody wins except the McCain Campaign.
But doesn’t this mean Barack is untrustworthy? I’d argue that’s a useless absolute. Politics isn’t black and white, it’s a constantly changing tableau where the current reality takes a front-row seat. Barack went far beyond the signature and considered context, intent, and impact—he found the pros outweighed the cons and made the smart decision. He didn’t hide anything—everything happened in plain sight. He realizes, regardless, that he’s gone back on his word; he’s prepared a clear and concise case for doing so and is prepared to defend it against detractors. Barack’s demonstrating exactly the sort of astute logic, judgment, wisdom, and pragmatism the American Presidency is sorely lacking, and for rational people he should come out smelling like a rose.
Barack Obama, Democratic Nominee for the President, of these amazing United States, this incredible country which has been kicked and tarnished and shat upon but which will always, always pick itself up. Even in the darkest Bush days I think we all understood: flush in the veins of every American is hope, redemption, the chance every four years to fix by our will what we grievously wrecked.
And now that chance is close, so close. We looked at eight long years of fear, hatred, anger, blood, division, and despair, we looked it in the eye and said no, fuck no, this is a country that not long ago was an inspiration and an ideal and a beacon and hell no we will not die by our most primal instincts, we will not go quietly into that dark night, we will fight this and we are not alone, we the majority are waking to what made this country great and we want it again.
Tonight, we took the hand of history and we walked straight towards the light.
I ended up with 2.5 jobs. I’ll be doing 40 hours a week for the Building Project, hopefully relaxing interior cabinetry work and not climbing on our matte black metal roof. When I’m not doing BP, sleeping, eating, or on the pot I’ll be doing freelance work for some professors, namely painting a basement and working on the drawings for a house addition in New Haven. This is sort of crazy but it works out in Google Calendar so blow it, I’m going to have a try. I mourn the bloody death of my summer but this is the way adults roll—this way I won’t have that dirty, guilty feeling that comes from having fun and enjoying myself for extended periods of time.
There’s one thing I’m worried about, which is that I’m digging my New England hole deeper. On the one hand, my establishment architecture school is slowly brainwashing me into thinking that the hottest, most boutique firms are all somewhere between New York and Boston, and that the best thing possible would be to add to my East Coast network and subscribe to The New Yorker and buy a golden retriever named Ollie and get a nice compound in Hyannisport and stay here for the rest of my life. On the other hand, I sort of want to get the holy hell back to California, the part of the country that didn’t originate 200 years ago as a strange growth on Cornelius Vanderbilt’s butt.* Taking jobs here adds to scenario one—I’m getting adverse to starting over again and again—and yet how can I refuse?
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