i love people with a passion. as long as they're artists, parents, lovers, friends, activists and not just politically ambitious.

have either of our presidential candidates, their spouses or children have addressed the arts or their own (even amateur) efforts in playing music, singing, writing poems or short stories, reading, etc? and, even as a supporter, obama's memoirs don't count.

isn't that sad? and hasn't that happened at the end of every national historical epoch? when fear, rhetoric, diversion and short sighted avarice trump the soul of human expression?

oh, i do go on.