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| January 2008 Hey everyone. Mark from MFA here. Its been a while. I've always been a bigger fan of bad jokes than of serious moments, so I'm going to cut to the chase on this one. I'm sorry to say that MFA will not ramp up operations for the 2008 calendar year and beyond. The young people who started and ran MFA have bounced across the country doing new and exciting things and no one is left to fundraise and manage the organization. This sort of thing happens to non-profits and start-ups. We are all, of course, sad to see MFA go. But we are NOT despairing. Why? When MFA first started up in 2003, “politicking” inside concert walls was about as popular as panhandling. Mainstream musicians would take a bullet to the gut before taking a political stance. And the “youth vote” was mythically non-existant, like Bigfoot, the yeti or Canada’s beloved mountain sasquatch. MFA changed all that, through 4 years of voter outreach and issue education at concerts across the country, every night, in all 50 states. We were a group of kids who wanted to make politics and civic engagement relevant to people’s lives the same way that Thom Yorke and Billie Joe Armstrong are relevant, and we were determined to have a blast while doing it. It didn’t hurt that Billie Joe and an army of musicians were down with the cause. Today, musicians who speak out are applauded by mainstream media and awarded at the Grammys. “The scene” has been freed from it’s apathetic-hipster-shackles and is using it’s popularity to raise awareness of important issues like global warming and ending the war. And the 18-30 crowd is more active than ever before, voting at the highest levels ever, and volunteering in our communities more than any other age group… just in time for the 2008 election. The reason we don’t despair is this- you don’t need us anymore! We already reached you, and now you can’t forget us. When we said that voting in ‘06 was the quickest way to stop George Bush and his cronies, you listened and you voted the opposition party into Congress. When we said there will be 80 million 18 – 30 year-olds eligible to vote this year for the 2008 presidential, you listened and you got registered. And now, when we tell you that 80 million votes is a majority in any presidential election year, and that our generation is in the position to fix everything wrong in America for decades to come, we know you’re going to listen. If ignorance is bliss, we are all officially not bliss. Can’t go home again. 2008 is the first of many years to come that young voters f*** sh*t up. That being said, in order to build on the momentum MFA has created, we are turning you over to the League of Young Voters so you can stay abreast of 2008 election madness. The League empowers young people to be players and winners in the political game. They make politics relevant, fun and meaningful to young people. They are MFA's closest and most revered ally. And they have a cool logo. The League are good peoples. Take some time to get to know them, and check out the Young Voter Presidential Primary Facebook app they're launching today. MFA would like to sincerely thank all of our volunteers for all their hard work since 2003. If you have any questions, gripes or comments, drop them on our Myspace page or email mark@musicforamerica.org. (i promise to reply to every email i get) We hope you'll be able to plug in to the League and keep finding ways to make activism as relevant, interesting and fun as it was with MFA. Devil horns to the sky. Love, Mark, Molly & the rest of the MFA family p.s. We just want to thank some of our most important players one more time. HUGE thanks to Andy & Deborah, Dan, Mike, Franz, Josh, Taya, Kevin, Rachel, Aja, Joe, Elizabeth, Tully, Otterpop, Lipski, Krist, Erin, Don Menn, Amy Dials, Samuel, Zack & Neil, Ari, Suh, Rebecca, Ruby, Nate, Steven, the Wallace Foundation, Patrick, Larry, Roger, Stephanie, A.J., Lily, Barsuk Records, JC, Epitaph, Jordan, Nicole, Kate & Sarah, Lennox, Meinert, Bill, Ben, Sabrina, Michael & Mercedes, Yobie, Billy, & SEIU. Enter TheLeague.com |
