SO WHO ARE WE WORKING WITH?Your elected leaders of 2012:

President Barack Obama:As hopefully you already know, President Barack Obama was re-elected for another term in the White House this past week (If you don’t know this than we are failing you). He will be serving his second and final term in office this up and coming year. In his thank you speech, Barack Obama was quoted saying this, “And whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, I have learned from you, and you’ve made me a better president.”

Senator Tim Kaine:“This is your victory. Your hard work, support, and faith

made it happen. Thank you so much.” Newly elected senator, Tim Kaine, has a rich political background. Kaine really started his political career when he was Mayor of Richmond City from the years of 1998 – 2001. During this time, he had a 55% drop in the city’s homicide rate. Pretty impressive. He eventually went on to become the Governor of Virginia from 2005 – 2009, and the Democratic Party Chairman from 2009 – 2011.

Representative Bobby Scott:This is not Bobby Scott’s first time in congress, he has been doing this for years. Rep. Scott has been a member of the house almost continuously from 1992 until now. Often times Rep. Scott runs unopposed, but when he does have some competition, Rep. Scott destroys the competition, typically getting around 70% of the vote.

WORDS:BLUE STATECONGRESSMANDEMOCRATICFLORIDAMAYOROBAMAPOLITICSPRESIDENTRED STATE

REPUBLICANRICHMONDROMNEYSENATORSWING STATEUNITED STATESVIRGINIAVOTE

V - O - T - E

“I don’t know much about the candidates other than Obama and Romney.”

“I haven’t been following the races.”  

"I’m not really able to talk about the election.”

Typically, those are the responses you'd most likely hear from the youth in our city who are voting for the first time or have little knowledge of local politics. On November 2nd, Young Richmond began it's quest to change all that. First Fridays in Richmond are one of the biggest social gatherings in the city and has tremendously progressed over the past few years. Armed with 100 cupcakes, 20 informative zines, and an epic playlist that featured The Shins & MGMT, our non-partisan design coalition made it's official debut outside of 1509 Main Street Studio and left nothing but positive impressions on those who stopped to visit. We took a great amount of pride see the youth in our city enjoying our treats, being informed and absorbing our ideology: get involved, be engaged and don't let ignorance keep you from voicing your opinion. It's an exciting time to be a millennial voter, and we discussed with our visitors and patrons how a big part of our generation is using social media as an outlet to voice our thoughts. National politics depends on local politics. If we want good men and women guiding our city towards a brighter future,

then we need our youth to arm themselves with strong knowledge and confidence in their voice. It matters that men – and wome – with principles and integrity hold government office and political power in the town, city, county, and state. Then this virtue, this goodness, this integrity, will move up the chain of power into national politics. As we packed up our gear and sold our last cupcake of the night, we shared a collective faith that our new friends and social media followers took the the time to absorb our message by encouraging themselves to learn about the processes involved in city, county and school district business, and share the information they obtain with others. Most importantly, we ended our fundraiser hoping that you, the young Richmonder, will enjoy our designs, seek out information about local candidates for these offices, and use that information to participate in your local government in the most important way; by being an informed voter.

WHY POLITICS

If I bring up something about elections or policy within our or another country(thanks to NPR and AFR) I will often be cut off to hear “ah I’m not interested in politics”, or “oh its boring, I cant stand it.” I understand where this idea is coming from, I’ve often felt the tedium of trying to absorb these wide often blandly presented political speeches. I’m fully annoyed by the barrage of ads w’eve had this election but I enjoy the produc-tion value, almost hollywood esq. The substance is ugly but the surface is beautiful and we forget the importance of blending beautiful art into academia. I think this ,the feistiness, and the human drama have made this voting turnout more plentiful than ever before, its seems to be a subconscious thing, just as animals react to drama in nature more strongly than nice little grooming shits and giggles. The attention just within my own social circle is shocking. It could also be the “culture war”(AFR) going on.

I think to bridge the peoples schism to politics there needs to be the beauty of a great shot, a great image and/or a personal connection so we can better connect our lives to the ones that rule our lives. With this strong natural emotion from connec-tion it will hopefully ignite the possibility that we are all the fucking same. Politics are not just boring speeches and compli-cated problems. Politics are our want and motivation to correct and organize the external stimuli and Infrastructure problems that create negative emotions for those around us. I love this Infrastructure we rely on ,because of its beauty and its ability to cradle people with plentiful, medicine/soap,oil, water and electricity. Its not perfect especially at its current state of being

but it can be with a more ethical approach to the world and our own less fortunate so we can all rely on ourselves as the human machine.

I’ve heard “Oh well Im just thinking about myself and thats hard enough”. I think there is merit to self sustaining so our whole can operate more equally and efficiently for the good of all but some people do not start out with the same education or financial comfort. They will suffer from their starting point because the color of their skin or the orientation of their sexual-ity.Or even whats between their legs. This is not ethical, this is elitist and controling. Dignity lies within choice and great art and progress comes from deep dignity. When one has to worry ONLY about the self they can not branch out to creativity and human progress as a whole. Brain space is limited only within the realm of the self. Politics is the key to organizing human progress which will ultimately lead to the future of our chil-dren and our race. Without this organization, if we were to sit a dark room for our whole lives we would be nothing more than a feral animal. We are nothing without each other.

produced by young richmond staff.

Contact Us At:twitter: @RVAyoungfacebook: facebook.com/youngrichmondRVAtumblr: youngrichmond.tumblr.cominstagram: @youngRVAgmail: youngrichmondRVA@gmail.com

designrebels.org

Cover & Interior Layout:Harding Coughter & John Sawyer

Poster Designs:John Sawyer

Love cupcakes? Join us at our next fundraiser! Check Facebook for the location and time.