Can a Nation’s Youth Really Stop a War by Refusing to Fight It?
October 23, 2007
A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from some very nice people at MTV’s Choose or Lose letting me know that I’d been selected as one of three finalists to represent Washington State next year during their election coverage. My final assignment was a four minute video. I didn’t share it with you all until now because I didn’t want to identify myself publicly until after the videos were turned in, which was yesterday.
There’s nothing you guys can do to help me win. No voting or anything like that. But I thought that you might be interested in watching my video and leaving me your honest feedback here:
It was very unfortunate that the video could only be four minutes, since I gathered SO much media for this project. In no particular order, many thanks to:
- Lietta Ruger for agreeing to talk to me. I’m so sorry that our interview didn’t make the video. I promise that if I get the job, I’m going to use some portion of it in a future video. And I hope that we’ll have many more chances to work together to draw more attention to the major issues facing today’s military familites.
- Adam Kokesh for sharing his story with me. I wish that I could have included our whole wonderful discussion in the video.
- Sgt. Williamson of the Central District Army Recruiting station for taking the time to speak with me (in uniform!) about recruitment.
- Dan Kirkdorffer for introducing me to Lietta, and for all his helpful advice.
- Davon Bash, Tre Owes, Joe’l Harris, Kamal Brown and Quierra Farr, the kids I spoke to at various points throughout the video. You guys are so intelligent and articulate. I’m proud to have met you all. Stay in school! If any of you ever Googles yourself and finds this, please feel free to e-mail me for college advice.
- Doug Nielson and Linda Jansen from Iraq Moratorium for speaking to me on camera.
If you’re really interested in seeing all the wonderful media that went into this project (videos, interviews, etc.) it’s available for download in ZIP format here. Just right click on the link and download the file to your hard disk. The full video of Lt. Watada speaking can be found here.
I can’t see your video.
Same here. I’m sure the Quicktime plud-in is working for me, but there is a problem with your embed.
Teresa,
If they could choose anyone who’d be right for the job, I can’t think of anyone better. You’re awesome and I’m glad you’ve got the chance to be a voice of some import! My sincerest congratulations, Teresa - you’ve earned it.
I’ll download your media ZIP when I get home.. my office frowns on downloads that size. I look forward to watching the video! I’ll comment again once I’ve seen it.
I wish I could see the movie — but it prompts “click to download plugin” — then it won’t download.
Do you have it to post in another format? Maybe cause I have a Mac?
You can access the video at http://files2.fluxstatic.com/0098A91600989FB6001744FDFFFF, and then you need a player that plays FLV files. You can search for those or use something like this simple free one.
Hmmm…Im getting the audio, but no video!
Weird. This wasn’t working all day, then it did last night, but now it isn’t working again and it prompts me to install the plugin again.
I think there’s a problem with think.mtv.com. I’m going to get clearance from them to upload the video to Revver and then embed that here as well.
Will you let us know if your video makes the cut for MTV ‘Choose or Lose’ ?
Will your video at some point be available on youtube?