I just found out about this remarkable woman, known as Granny D. The text below is from her website, and posted here for purposes of discussion. The website is: Doris Haddock's remarks at a Youth Summit in New Hampshire September 7, 2000

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Vote your Heart and let the chips fall where they may.

Thank you very much.

You are quite fortunate to live in a great nation and to have before you an opportunity for a superior education. I hope you are taking advantage of all the resources that will help you develop a healthy mind and body. You will need both if you intend to live a long and productive life. The less you abuse your mind with junk ideas, and the less you abuse your body with junk food and other substances, the more you will be able to enjoy life and help the people you love. Treat your body as if it were a temple--or at least a juice bar-- and cultivate your mind as if you were an Einstein or a Curie, for you are: Each of us is a genius in our own department, if we can only find it. And we CAN find it, if we live honestly and openly, listening to our own heart over the trashy din of our shallow but energetic and interesting culture.

Because you live in a great and free country and upon a beautiful earth, you will be increasingly drawn willingly into the great struggle to keep the nation free and to keep the earth alive and beautiful. No generation that has ever lived on this planet has ever faced a greater challenge than you. I envy anyone who has the privilege of facing a challenge so great that only by appealing to the full greatness of their hearts can they survive.

Good luck.

To do what must be done on this continent and in the world, you will need to be citizens of a self-governing nation.

Today, the government is not in the hands of the people. It is controlled by those who can afford to give millions of dollars to political candidates, and who demand in return that the candidates serve their interests, rather that the people's.

This is a formula for environmental disaster and it is an equation to force an end to democracy.

I therefore hope your first objective, personally, will be to get big money out of politics so that real people can get elected, and so that all citizens can approach their representatives in a free exchange of ideas and needs, unpolluted by money and the obligations of money.

Abraham Lincoln described what we still long for: a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. If you do not bring his dream forward, your elder years will be lived upon a ruined planet, ruled by invisible and brutal powers. Do not let me be a prophet: prevent these things with your love today.

Long before Lincoln, Native Americans ruled this continent with a constitution that we might well take as our own founding document so that we might try to live up to it.

We would do well to install our new senators and representatives in the same way that we Americans did when we were the Five Nations of the Iroquois. Here is a part of the ceremony, addressed to any new representative arriving at council:

"Your heart shall be filled with peace and good will and your mind filled with a yearning for the welfare of the people. With endless patience you shall carry out your duty and your firmness shall be tempered with tenderness for your people. Neither anger nor fury shall find lodgment in your mind and all your words and actions shall be marked with calm deliberation. In all of your deliberations in Council, and in your efforts at law making, in all your official acts, self-interest shall be cast into oblivion."

Young friends, the only hope for our planet is a new generation of leaders who have cast all self-interest into oblivion. It is not easy to do. Pride and greed raise themselves anew in every generation. Can you do better than those before you? You will simply have to in order to survive.

Now, for the next few years you may think that your choices in the election booth are so poor that you may as well not vote. Your friends may think that. Let me tell you why you must vote anyway.

Of course, I cannot get you to vote if you do not care about such things, or if your life is so focused on your own daily needs that you cannot make an investment of an hour in your civic beliefs. I cannot do it. And, if you are so selfish that you will not help promote fairness and justice in the world through your votes, or if you are so dense that you do not see how the future hangs on your decision to vote or not, and how lives are at stake, then there is nothing I can do about you. You are determined to be a wage slave in someone else's system. All I can do is wave good-bye to you as you slip under the waves of other people's power over you.

But if you are deciding to not vote for more practical reasons, let me talk to you. Let's argue.

Many people say they will not vote because there is nobody to vote for, or that the people they would be willing to vote for cannot win, so what's the point of voting? People do not want to waste their votes.

There is no such thing as a wasted vote, and I will explain why.

First, forget the idea that your vote is a short term investment in short term candidates. Let us see our votes as more important than that -- as long term investments in our long term strategy for bringing our values into action.

If we vote for the best candidates, we are voting for their ideas and we are moving those ideas forward, whether or not the candidates win.

We will be building a voice that will, in the long term, have its day and elect its candidates.

So, vote your heart! Be a strategic, long-term voter. You will shape the America and the world of tomorrow.

Don't outsmart yourself by spending your one vote in an attempt to keep the worst candidate from winning. America will never get great leaders if we vote that way.

What happens if the worst person, in your view, gets elected by one vote--because YOU voted for the best candidate instead of the second worst? The world does not end. Parties reorganize to attract the emerging blocks of reform voters. The pressure for real reform continues to build toward the next election, and those who do get elected must look over their shoulders at the growing numbers of voters who demand change.

If you are not adding to that block, then you are not investing your vote in your values. Vote for the long term--vote your values--and be patient.

A vote cast in fear for the lesser evil is a vote which evaporates the day after the election. A vote cast in love and passion changes the American political landscape for all history.

Vote your heart and let the chips fall where they may.

Freedom. Justice. Nature itself. We are entering a time of great political struggle. It is a struggle of the human soul, and aren't we all fortunate--and you, especially--to live in an age when so much is at stake, and when we must rise to our greatness as a people, and as individuals?

You know in your heart what is right and what is wrong in the world. You must educate yourself continuously so that your instincts are wise and well informed. And you must take the weapons of your heart and mind out into the world to do battle under the banners of love, justice, understanding, service, forgiveness, tolerance, humanity, and brotherhood.

If you leave it all to others, you are missing all the fun and all the reason for living.

Thank you.

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-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), September 16, 2000

Answers

Hope I fixed it now!

The website was dragnfly@chorus.net), September 16, 2000.

Third time a charm?

Granny D

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), September 16, 2000.

Thanks for a great start to the morning. Was this by Granny D. or Mr. Townsend, my high school government teacher. I guess the true greats all look in the same direction (anywhere they choose, just without blinders on). I know that on election days, I like everyone else, form my opinions and may reform them many times as new issues come to light, even changing my view as I pull the curtain to behind me. Some say this is too complicated, but freedom never is and seldom comes with a complete instruction manual.. Mr. "T" taught us to believe only one of his views, " It's a compicated mess, but it's our right to have it and exilerating to be a part of it'. Thanks again for a great thread.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), September 17, 2000.

Granny D put it very well. Thanks for sharing this. As I've tried to tell people, if you vote for the lesser of two evils, you are still voting for evil. Even writing in a name if your state allows it (Arkansas where I live doesnt) says you care enough to vote, but dont think highly of the choices. To me this is not "wasting" a vote. It is saying give me better choices. Not voting just says you dont give a damn one way or another.

-- Hermit John (ozarkhermit@pleasedontspamme.com), September 17, 2000.

I find life ironic at times but this post completely changed my mind. The wisdom of elders I still find amazing ! I think that at age 47 it is so wonderful that I am still a student. I will be a long term visionary and I will cast a ballot.

It might be a "wasted vote" but I will make a mark for my beliefs in a kind, loving, peaceful attempt to warn the leaders that we are here and watching.

My vote will have to be a write in, and I don't know or care if it is allowed ! My Vote goes to Colin Powell ! No, I'm not a Republican, I am a citizen of planet earth that does care about where we have gone wrong. I find this man the best suited human to steer us back on course !

Thank You for giving me a moment to reflect and learn. Thank Grannie D for expressing a wonderful lifetime in such a provocative manner ! Thank You, Joy for posting this. I guess it will be a joint effort of Bullitts and Ballots !

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), September 17, 2000.

Well, well, well...

Be still my heart! Joel, You're going to vote?!?! If so, welcome to the greatest army of ANY democracy, the registered voter! You'll notice that the troops on the firing line don't always shoot at the same target or even on command, but then, whadda 'ya expect from a rag-tag bunch of volunteers? That's what sergeants are for. *LOL* So, how many chevrons on YOUR sleeve?

(:raig

-- Craig Miller (CMiller@ssd.com), September 17, 2000.

Exactly the point I was trying to make in the "Dems at it again" post. Just because you don't stand a chance in H**l of winning doesn't mean your vote is wasted. All voices in a choir make a noise whether you can hear any particular one or not. However a voice singing a different song altogether is heard, and the more that join in, the better it is heard, even if you know you won't change mind of the choir leader as to what song he wants you to sing. Just keep on singing your own song, and if enough people prefer yours and sing along, pretty soon the choir leader has nothing to say about what is and isn't going to be sung. PS: sing loud, sing proud, and don't forget to give others a lyric sheet if you expect any help at all.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 17, 2000.

This lady is 90 years old! And she's walking all across the country! I posted that above but lost it in my HTML errors.

Lots of other interesting things at her site. I have been having terribly long "wait times" for downloads this weekend, so maybe you want to try on a weekday. Course, maybe it's just my server!

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), September 17, 2000.

Just wanted to add one point all of us have sort of overlooked. No matter how we vote, no matter who wins, we get another chance in 4 years and 4 spring plantings to keep us busy. And don't forget, we have congressional elections to balance it out. Enjoy it and vote.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), September 18, 2000.

I'm running out of 4 year periods, period ! I just thought that if enough people wrote in his name it would change his mind. I have watched him from a distance for 5 or more years and He has Character, Integrity, Vigilence and his mere presence demands respect ! He is highly intelligent but tempers his size and authority with a calm, soothing personal touch. He Stands and Delivers as we all we watched him keep us very well informed of the Golf War. He resigned rather than to serve under Clinton.

For the nasty post I received--Yes, I know Colin Powell is a African-American. No, I don't want a N_____, in the white house but I would like Colin Powell there. You can stay out ! I'm afraid I don't share your prejudiced even though I am a Redneck. I judge people on the content of their character !

Craig, I wear no stripes. Many address me as a bird, but I assure you--I have done nothing to earn that title and it is purely honorary or symbolic.

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), September 18, 2000.

Joel, regarding the nasty post (email?) you received, that illustrates a fear I have had -- that if Colin Powell were to run for President and were elected, I fear that he would be assassinated in short order. Because there are still many, many prejudiced morons out there. I absolutely cannot comprehend how the shade of one's skin could be deemed more important and more defining of a person, than their brain and their character! *shudder*

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), September 18, 2000.

Joy is right -- I voted for Alan Keyes in the primary, and wish he would've been selected as VP candidate since he didn't win that -- but I did have some concern in the back of my mind over his personal safety if he was elected. There are still a lot of idiots out there who don't seem to realize that you only have to go back about three thousand years or so to find the human race all one big happy family, literally! (Pre-Tower of Babel) External appearances may differ, but it's what's inside that counts. And probably if Colin Powell had run, I would have voted for him, but I really liked what Alan Keyes stood for. Problem with voting your heart and possibly letting Gore get elected is that much more of that type of regime may see us lose the priviledge of voting, since 'big brother' always knows what is best anyway.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 18, 2000.

Guess I still have a lot to learn - I can hardly believe that someone on this forum would send Joel an e-mail with that kind of hatred and ignorant bigotry in it. It probably loses some of its impact when printed, and not in its original crayon.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 18, 2000.

Crayon! That's a good one, Soni!

Hopefully, it wasn't anyone "well-known" on this board -- a lurker or something! >:-(

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), September 18, 2000.

I get some real winners in my private mailbox--some from here ( not many) most from others that read my stuff. You can't hide from ignorance--you confront it. Usually they all have fake E-mail addies, so--cowards hide, heros stand up !

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), September 20, 2000.