We Can Make It Happen

This is me on the far left at about age welve. 

I'd just hopped out of the lake for a birthday party which explains my soaking wet hair and shirt. 

I was also busy in those days learning how to think for myself.

There's no denying that the 2020 election cycle is heating up. 

Candidates have surfaced, 

town halls are happening left and right, 

and the Iowa caucuses are coming up fast.

Which puts me in a reflective state of mind.

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It's no secret what I think of our current president. Ever since he declared his candidacy in 2015, I have boldly declared my outrage at everything he stands for, and I object to his leadership on every level. 

And I know my voice has turned off some people in my life. 

You know what? I'm okay with that. In fact, it only makes me want to speak louder. 

Because I believe, more than anything else about politics, that we the people have not just a right but a responsibility to speak our minds, to ring out the truth as we know it, to declare to everyone who is within earshot exactly who we are and what we stand for. 

Because that, my friends, that willingness to stand up and speak out is where real change begins. 

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And sometimes, I think about that imperative to speak out, so deeply wired into my head and heart, so vital to my understanding of what it means to be an American, and I wonder where it came from.

Certainly not my mom, who held strong opinions but also believed in keeping her head down and not rocking the boat. 

Nor my many teachers and professors, who - each and every one - failed to connect for me the dots between learning about the past and acting in the moment to influence the future.

Nor did the vast majority of my other adult influencers and generational peers - friends, colleagues, family - stir up their own passions for social justice or encourage me to do the same through their example. 

No, I've lived in a world where good people say nothing about the outrage in the world around us. 

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Except for one strong and stirring influence; a voice - melodic and mature far beyond my tender years - that spoke to me in tones as clear as a bell. 

When I was eleven years old, by the decibels blasting out from my older brother's basement bedroom that literally rocked the rafters of our house, I was introduced to the band, Chicago. And while my first interests may have been the power chords opening 25 or 6 to 4, or the horn solos in Make Me Smile, my attention soon turned to the deeper, more resonant messages of the music. 

My heart for political action was stirred up by any number of songs on their first few albums, but it was this song, released on Chicago V when I was thirteen years old, that changed my life forever. 

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So be forewarned. As the election cycle spins forward, I will be speaking up loud and clear for what I believe, for the change toward civility and compassion that our country so desperately needs. And I hope you will do the same. 

Because together, we can make it happen. 

Dialogue Part I & II

By Robert Lamm

Are you optimistic 'bout the way things are going?
No, I never ever think of it at all

Don't you ever worry when you see what's going down?

Well, I try to mind my business, that is, no business at all

When it's time to function as a feeling human being
Will your bachelor of arts help you get by?

I hope to study further, a few more years or so
I also hope to keep a steady high

Will you try to change things
Use the power that you have, the power of a million new ideas?

What is this power you speak of and the need for things to change?
I always thought that everything was fine

Don't you feel repression just closing in around?
No, the campus here is very, very free

Don't it make you angry the way war is dragging on?
Well, I hope the president knows what he's into, I don't know

Don't you see starvation in the city where you live
All the needless hunger, all the needless pain?

I haven't been there lately, the country is so fine
My neighbors don't seem hungry 'cause they haven't got the time

Thank you for the talk, you know you really eased my mind
I was troubled by the shapes of things to come
Well, if you had my outlook your feelings would be numb
You'd always think that everything was fine

We can make it better
We can make it better
We can make it better
Yeah Yeah Yeah

We can change the world now
We can change the world now
We can change the world now

We can save the children
We can save the children
We can save the children
Yeah Yeah Yeah

We can make it happen
We can make it happen
We can make it happen