Hello this is Carl Brown With MTV’s Street team ’08 today I am in Oakland California reporting live from my home studio. After 44 weeks of historic coverage MTV’s Street Team “08 has come to a end. All year each street team reporter has been producing written and video stories about social and political issues that are important to young people in their state. Armed with video cameras and laptops we covered stories and individuals far from the spotlight of mainstream media.

My first story was about the manufacture of Biodiesel from recycled waste oil. One of the issues that young people mentioned again and again was the need to develop alternative forms of renewable energy.

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I spoke with a couple of high school students making phone calls for Barack Obama and Joe Biden in downtown Oakland. I asked them what local propositions they were either for or against.

Both felt very strongly that proposition 4 and 8 would take away rights and make it more difficult for teens to get adequate health care. They both agreed that these issues along with health care and the environment were reasons that they were supporting Obama even thought they couldn't vote

Proposition 4 requires parental notification for teens receiving reproductive health services. Many argue that this will discourage teens from making responsible choices and getting appropriate health care, especially in cases of rape or incest.

As many of you know proposition 8 will remove the right for same sex couples to wed in California. Opponents to this bill say that for the first time the constitution will be used to strip rights away rather than expand rights.

Thanks to 100,000 poll workers polls are opening all over California. After days of rain the sun is shining and everything seems to be going smoothly. I visited one polling place early this morning as they set up to get ready for the onslaught of voters.

Check out the video at: www.think.mtv.com/carldbrown

Does anyone else feel exhausted?

Am I doing it to myself?

CNN and MSNBC, The NY Times, NPR and even SNL... The candidates, the economy, national security, health care, rhetoric, attack adds, the youth vote, the senior vote... I even caught my partner listening to my talk radio show in the car... I am not sure if I can take too much more of this.

Luckily I only have 17169 minutes until the polls close on election night in California.

But then what? I have gotten so...

no mo money …

The total sum of my life’s savings is in the hands of two separate financial institutions, both of which have failed in the past week.

Maybe I should be alarmed…

The total collapse of Washingtonb Mutual and Merrill Lynch has done little to alarm me… The disintegration of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac didn’t make me worry about our new mortgage… I have lost very little sleep whether I will be able to continue to support myself as a freelance media producer…

Maybe I am naive… but what I see is possibility… not just monetarily but socially…

The unsustainable lending and financial practices that have lead the nations largest banks and investment firms to their knees gives me hope for a better tomorrow, Maybe the crumbling of these mighty companies will provide some motivation for individuals to look at the way they live their lives.

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September 11th …

I remember where I was on September 11th 2001…

I was working as an instructor at a therapeutic wilderness academy in the high dessert in southern Utah. As a lead instructor I was responsible for twelve teenagers and co-instructors. Having just put our group out on Solo’s, a period of isolated camping designed to stimulate reflection, I took my break in the form of an hour run along a 4x4 road through a grove of aspens.

As I rounded a bend a goat herder rushed me. Running down to the track from the grove of trees he yelled, “we have been attacked, ...

I am proud to call myself a resident of California...

I have spent the last month highlighting organizations and festivals that support young media producers. From film festivals that showcase young filmmakers to an international NGO that teaches refugee youth how to express themselves through photography, this state is littered with amazing people supporting the next generation of truth speakers.

This culture of self-expression and acceptance is one of the many reasons that San Francisco, one of California's most progressive cities, hosts one of the worlds largest Gay Pride Celebrations. With the newly passed resolution overturning the ban on same sex marriages this year promises to be one of the largest celebrations yet. From Frameline, the world's largest LGBT film festival to this Sunday's Gay Pride parade the whole bay area has been waving their rainbow flags in support of love, tolerance and freedom.

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So what's the big deal about GAY marriage?  ... Maybe I just don't get it.

I grew up in what might be called a "diverse household", in Boise the capital city of Idaho, a fairly conservative town of about 220,000. My mother and Father divorced when I was three and my mother began dating women... No, this wasn't weird. It didn't startle me or freak me out. In fact, I can't remember a time when my mom wasn't open about being GAY, or,  a time when it was “normal” for my father to come home after a long day of work and embrace my mother who had just set dinner on the table…

Like anybody else my mother sought out partners that shared her values, lifestyle and love. My experience with these women was filled with care, understanding and joy.... for the most part ... and of course when things weren't going my way I used the same line that children have been using against step mother’s for thousands of years...

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This is Carl D. Brown with MTV’s Street Team 08’ checking in.

Wow, we are about five and a half months into this awesome experiment called Street Team 08’. I have been thrilled to watch our content spread from Think.MTV.com to MTV.com, MTV Tr3s, MTV, MTV U and The AP Video Network. As we all can see, hear and feel the digital revolution is changing the way we live and learn. I will argue that this change is for the better (disregard sleepless nights stuck in front of the computer editing stories for MTV.)

The ability of ordinary citizens to make and distribute media has had a profound effect on social justice and human equality both in the US and around the World. For the last five months I have been producing stories about ordinary Californians working hard to make their community, their block and their planet a nicer place to live.

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