By Charlie Garcia

I watched the 30-minute infomercial by Barack Obama, and felt really bad, that with the skills that I have to create a piece myself that would change people's minds and encourage them to vote for Obama, I was too late.

So I hope this email will help amend that, and somehow I can change your views on your candidate, or your decision to vote or not to vote.

I never got to catch the 30 minute long ad by Obama on the T.V.  I am so sad I didn't, but of course thanks to the internet, I got to see it online on youtube as well as on different sites.

If you did not see it, you have to put down everything you are doing, and take a look at it.

I was truly thinking about not voting at all because of the thought that votes can easily be changed, especially now that technology takes a bigger part in the process. But as I watched the video, I was deeply moved, and decided that if I do vote, and got everyone else I could to vote, even if our votes got "changed," we'd still make a difference. Because if was true, and many votes got changed, then my vote could be sacrificed, and somebody else vote would have counted, or the other way around.

Because if Obama does win, nothing would change, at least for the good
Because if Mccain wins, and everything stays the way its been, me and every person my age, would have to look forward to a really bad future.
Because if I vote, and get everyone I know who was not thinking about voting to vote, I would be becoming part of the incredibly fast growing group of people who will help change the country for the better.
Because if Obama does not win the election, the world will stand up, and the biggest revolution would take place to change our world.

But, the thing that really struck me is this: The youtube video, which received 1 million 300 thousand views on the first DAY of being uploaded, recieved 630 comments, and unlike most videos of the election, which are full of arguments and online fights and very insulting remarks, did not recieve a single bad comment, from anyone.

I have never seen this before ever.  There are always people coming online to leave nasty comments about Obama or McCain in their videos, but not this one. This one felt so pure.

But on top of that, it was the comments that struck me the most was people from other continents, leaving comments like these

"zanderzander05  (21 hours ago)
+589  <image.tiff>  <image.tiff>

 Britain for Obama :)"

The +589 represents 600 people who gave this person a thumbs up, something I never see on youtube.

Here are more:

JoBossFpr  (21 hours ago)
+626  <image.tiff>  <image.tiff>
I'm not allowed to vote for Barack Obama - but I want to tell how moving this is for me. I'm from Berlin, Germany. I heard his speech here. For the first time, my view on the US is changing dramatically. Now I'm reading 3 books about american history, I begin to understand you and your beautiful country. I wish you the best. God bless America!

glenakin  (22 hours ago)
+24  <image.tiff>  <image.tiff>
Damn. I'm not American but for the first time in a long time I envy you guys. If you have this man as president, I think things will be better for you.
This is your chance to get back what you've lost, Americans. The answer is in your hands. Vote now. Vote for Obama. God speed.

outofpaper32  (1 day ago)
+13  <image.tiff>  <image.tiff>
 Beautiful, just beautiful !!!

Republicans for OBAMA !

bwanakeino  (1 day ago)
+1515  <image.tiff>  <image.tiff>
 We love you Obama. Kenyans for Obama'08.

Alongside comments like these are hundreds of comments from Americans, cheering him on. Times have changed.  Our media doesn't come from the T.V. and newspapers anymore.  The internet has connected us, let's create change.

Charlie Garcia is a student of the School Of the Art Institute of Chicago who at the early age of 15 decided what he wanted to do with his life, become a director of photography for film. At age 19, he achieves his goal, and gets his first role as director of photography for the independent film "The Appointment".  At the same time he works as a cameraman for a Television show that airs on WJYS Chicago. 

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