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Wednesday, September 29, 2004 Operation Ohio Speech OK. This is the sappy speech I gave yesterday before the reading. I don't think I'll be hired as a speech writer anytime soon. ** Hi. Thanks for coming out tonight to enjoy this reading with us. Before we start I'd like to thank the Wexner Center for generously providing the space for this event and the people who helped put this together, especially Michelle Herman and Annie Logue who did so much to make this event happen, also all of the student volunteers. This is the first of three readings we're doing in Ohio to register voters and prepare to get out the vote on Election Day. By this point you're probably tired of political advertising, tired of another advertisement every time you turn on your radio or TV. With so much blather out there it's easy to turn off on the political process, especially with all the negative campaigning, and with contradictory information coming at you from both sides. So we've decided to just offer you cash. Yep, everybody that registers to vote today will get $50. I'm just kidding. That would be against the law. Also, I checked with some of the writers here and we'd only be able to register like three people. So. Ohio. I'm very fond of Ohio. A smart state, birthplace of Thomas Edison. Lots of good Universities. The most important election of our lifetime and it all comes down to Ohio. Well, the way I see it, if it has to come down to somewhere, this is a good place for it. I wonder, Did anybody here see Before Sunset, that movie with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delphi? I love that movie. Such a great movie, right? There's that awesome moment where they're walking through the park in Paris and Julie Delphi is regretting not meeting Ethan Hawke nine years earlier, remember, she blew him off when she they were supposed to meet, and she's like, "I just thought I would always meet interesting, good looking people on trains." You must be feeling that way too if this is your first election. You must be thinking, "I just thought I would always cast the deciding vote in the presidential election." Well, since I knew you were thinking that, I checked in with the committee for states that decide the presidential election. Do you know about these guys. They're like the olympic committee and different states bid to be the deciding state every four years. Apparently, and you're not going to believe this, but Oklahoma, of all places, has won the right to decide the presidential election in 2008. And 2012 will be decided by Alaska, marking the first time ever a presidential election will be decided outside the continental U.S. So you might want to take advantage of this opportunity. Seriously, none of us were paid to come here today. Our only payment is you registering to vote. We all hope you realize how important your voice is in this election. And I mean this on a very personal level as someone without health insurance. And I'm speaking especially to the young voters. When you don't vote you cede power to the special interests, the corporations, the anti-environmentalists the war profiteers. I'm not telling you who to vote for, but the truth is that if you, as a group, vote, then your concerns will be addressed. History has proven this to be true. You've heard the term all boats rise? Believe it or not voter turnout is actually good for both Democrats and Republicans. Because if more people vote, the politicians will adjust. Your voting will make the politicians more responsive. Ask any of your poli-sci professors. Some of the people currently holding office would probably loose their jobs but they'd be replaced by better candidates on both sides. Both the Republicans and the Democrats will shift their positions in reaction to high turnout. The focus will move away from the special interests, big corporations like Enron and Haliburton, the lobbyists and the donors, and back to the people it was intended for. But the only way to make the politicians responsible to you is by being responsible yourself. Politicians have been telling us for too long that we don't have to sacrifice but the truth is there's no free lunch. Democracy takes work and the very first responsibility of every member of a free society is the responsibility to vote. A lot of people think that if they don't like the politicians then they shouldn't participate. You know what it's like living in a society where people are too lazy to vote? It's like living in a house where nobody flushes the toilet. I actually have a story about that... but now is probably not the time. What I'm trying to say is if you turn off on politics politics will turn on you in a serious way. And if you don't vote and you find your environment being destroyed, your health care unaffordable or inadequate, your tuition going up and up and up, then you have only yourself to blame. And if you have friends your age in the military, serving their country, you are also responsible for them. There is no Democracy without participation. You can't sit around waiting for the politicians to come to you. If you're waiting for the perfect politician to come along you'll be waiting your whole life. This is a non-partisan reading and I'd like to explain what I mean by that. Obviously, every author that's going to read today has an opinion about whom you should vote for. So does every journalist and all of your teachers. But as a group we are not affiliated with any party and none of the authors were asked their political affiliation or told what they could or couldn't say, since there's no point in inviting artists to read only to censor them. The only question asked of any of the authors who are here today was, Would you like to come to Ohio and register voters. Some of the authors are probably planning on reading something political, others aren't. Some might say things you disagree with about George Bush, others about John Kerry. At the end of the event there will be a question period. If you don't agree with something someone says please wait to the end to question them about it. But first the most important thing. You'll notice there's tons of people here ready to register you. It only takes a minute. If you didn't get a registration form would you please raise your hand. Remember how I said nobody paid us to be here and that our only payment is registering voters. Well, if you're here and you haven't registered yet you are screwing us over. And that's messed up. Why would you want to do us like that? Also, there's two parts to what we are doing today. The first is trying to encourage people to register to vote. The second is we're collecting a list of people under 24 that would like to receive a voting reminder phone call from an author on Election Day. Most of the authors here are making phone calls on election day, as are authors that were unable to make the trip: Tobias Wolff, Aimee Bender, ZZ Packer, Jonathan Lethem, David Rees, Michael Chabon, and many others. If you'd like to get that phone call be sure to find one of the people with clipboards in the white shirts. We'd love to give you a call on Election Day. Just a friendly little rise and shine, don't forget to vote today, kind of thing. Again, thank you for coming out tonight and we hope you are as happy with tonight's reading as we are all thrilled to be here with you. posted by Stephen Elliott 7:51 AM | link | |
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"Any true love story, if told with the urgency and animal intelligence of love, isn't for the fainthearted. On every page of this profound, distilled work of art, Stephen Elliott wrestles with the unknown and unspoken essences of love, and articulates that unknown so beautifully, with such clear-eyed fearlessness... Imagine a glass of pure water with one drop of blood hanging in its center, about to dissolve... Then drink it and be transformed." -Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City "There's an emotional courage to these stories, and a sense of urgency, that are thrilling to encounter. Elliott writes as if his life depended on each sentence. It is not overstating the case to say that he does for the BDSM community in this book what Denis Johnson did for lost druggies in Jesus' Son." - Steve Almond, The Believer Magazine Best of the year: Salon.com, San Francisco Chronicle Reviews: Salon.com, LA Weekly, The Believer Excerpts: My Stripper Year, Just Always Be Good Purchase from Amazon, Powells, Cleis, and your local bookstore 
"Happy Baby is surely the most intelligent and beautiful book ever written about juvenile detention centers, sadomasochism, and drugs." - Curtis Sittenfeld, The New York Times Book Review Best of the year: Village Voice, Salon.com, Chicago New City, The Journal News Awards: Finalist Young Lions Award, Silver Medal California Book Award Reviews: The New York Times, Salon.com, Village Voice Excerpts: Stalking Gracie Part 3 Purchase from Amazon, Powell's, and your local bookstore 
"Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer, Richard Ben Cramer: the great, all-American genre of the political campaign in extenso (and in extremis) has had its Homers and Boswells. To that list we can now add Stephen Elliott. Hilarious, strange, electrifyingly written, and heart-pumpingly idealistic, Looking Forward to It wins every literary caucus and primary in a landslide." -Tom Bissell, author of Chasing the Sea Best of the year: Village Voice Reviews: New York Magazine, New York Times Excerpts: The Dennis Kucinich Polka, A John Edwards Almanac Purchase from Amazon, Powell's (cheap!), and your local bookstore 
"A Life Without Consequences was harrowing, hard as nails, brutal, and soaring. Stephen Elliott has to be watched, because he knows things almost no one else could." - Dave Eggers, author of A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius and What Is The What Excerpt: Adlai Stevenson House Reviews: Austin American Statesman Purchase from Amazon |
