"I can change the world, with my own two hands. I can clean up the earth, with my own two hands."

Last Thursday, October 23rd, one of my room mates asked me to attend a speech with her in Farthing Auditorium (An auditorium on campus where some bands come to play, dance recitals are held, and speakers come to reach out to our Appalachian community).

"Robert F. Kennedy Jr.!!!", my room mate kept saying it over and over again to me with an
enthusiasm I couldn't deny (not that either one of us really knew who he was).

I had just gotten off work and wasn't really in the mood to sit through something she was going to because of a mandatory assignment in one of her classes, but I agreed. Stocked with a small bad of Swedish fish, some chewing gum, and my nalgene, I squeezed by the the large crowds of people to what seemed to be the last remaining two seats on the first floor.

The start of the hour was a bit rocky. I wasn't in the right mind frame at first, and was paying more attention to Kennedy's mannerisms and voice rather than the words and meanings behind them. As my bag of goodies began to run out, I quickly became preoccupied with other things and wasn't really paying much attention. I remember thinking about how Kennedy's voice was so shaky, that it seemed that he was either EXTREMELY nervous or he was slightly intoxicated.
But as I began to listen and focus; the following moments in my life were ones for the record books. These were the moments that you live for.

Robert F. Kennedy is an advocate for environmental action. He feels and voices his thoughts that "Nature is the infrastructure of our community." He is the chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper project, which involves a major patrolling and law enforcing of waterways. Kennedy's main point of his speech was to discuss the environment, mainly the rivers and how protecting them is SO important, but he began to steer off that topic into his interests about energy.



We borrow about 2 billion dollars A DAY from foreign suppliers for oil. In ONE year we give over 700 billion dollars to these foreign oil companies!! Companies which reside in areas of the world that do not particularly care for the United States either. Kennedy also threw another number out at the audience. . . One Trillion. He said if we spend 1 trillion dollars into redesigning our infrastructure for renewable energy, we could provide FREE energy FOREVER!!

FOREVER!!! Imagine never having to worry about a gas crisis ever again, because instead of bartering with shady foreign countries and their policies, we're just using FREE renewable energy. Imagine a cleaner life. An easier life to breathe in. An easier life to live in.

If you're like me, FREE anything sounds pretty awesome. But this isn't something small, like those free, stale cookies that Harris Teeter leaves out for crying babies or starving college students, NO this is FREE energy we're talking about!

Kennedy is already working with a car company to make Israel an electric car hub. They're in the process of working on creating electric outlets for every parking meter in Israel. They're also working on an electric car that holds a travel time of 300 miles, and goes from 0 to 60 in less than 5 seconds. And yes, they've even gone so far as to look out for those people who have to travel over 300 miles. There will be stations (kind of like car washes) where cars drive in and the exhaust pipe (the battery basically) is replaced with a fresh fully charged pipe. . . for FREE.

Renewable energy is the greatest energy!! Kennedy's plans are starting in Israel and he plans to move around after that. He's already gotten the go-head with some areas in Europe and he says his plans for the future involve the USA too!!!

Robert F. Kennedy's ideas are amazing and very interesting!! He is so passionate about the environment! His passion for a better and cleaner world is so inspiring to me. It was great to hear that smart people in this world are using their powers for good and fighting for something worth while.

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!! Check out ESPN2 at 8pm.. App is playing Wofford...and hopefully dominating!!

Until next time,

-Abbie

"Given the chance, I'm gonna be somebody."

This month has flown by and so far it has been an experience to say the least!

This year, 2008, is an epic year! With the election just around the corner, I can't walk anywhere around campus without being bombarded by advocates for McCain and Obama. But that is okay, because I am very inspired by the student involvement with this election! North Carolina is considered a "swing" state in this election, meaning that no one really knows if it will be a Red state or Blue state because the support for both candidates is somewhat...equal. I attended a forum last week where two representatives talked about particular actions that were and were not working for either political party. It was really interesting! I learned that according to some statistics recently gathered, 52% of people are going to be voting for Obama in North Carolina. 52% for any presidential candidate is considered extremely high, but for someone like Obama who is a minority and not particularly accepted by certain demographics because of his race, that is an insane percentage!

Here at App we've been given a great opportunity to vote EARLY! It really is a great idea, because the lines on election day are going to be really long. I went and voted already and it was a cool feeling because my vote is part of the growing voice for those who want to have their a say in what happens in this country by voting for who they think should be the leader of it.
For once I can have a voice in something other than a trivial decision of who should be the next American Idol or which video MTV should play at number 1 on TRL for a whole 20 seconds. No, this is a decision that will decide how the next 4 years of American history will pan out.

That is why I think it is SO important to, if you have the ability, VOTE! Vote or Die as P.Diddy would say it. I mean, if the youth of this nation would actually go out and register to vote and then actually vote, we would be the deciding factor of who would run our country, because we outnumber any other age group in this country. And, personally I think that we should take this to heart and vote because as we age, we're going to be the ones who run the country soon. We'll be the politicians and brokers and doctors of this nation eventually, so why not take advantage of what we have now....for a better tomorrow.

I'm not going to use this blog to tell you who you should vote for, but really it's time for a change! Anything is better than what we have now, thanks George.
And if I was going to use this blog to help sway your vote, I would be throwing out facts like the McCain campaign is spending over 22,000 dollars for Sarah Palin's makeup, just ask Amy Strozzi (the highest paid staffer of the McCain's campaign), she has her name on the paychecks for the past two weeks. But I'm not here to tell you who you should vote for, I just telling you to GO VOTE!!!

So go out there and raise your voice!

Until next time,

-Abbie