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With this year's presidential election already here, Americans are being reminded of the hotly contested results of the last election in 2000. And One Life to Live's Timothy D. Stickney doesn't want us to forget. "I had gone to sleep trusting that people were paying attention," he says of the fateful night that exposed the cracks in our election process. But the actor asserts that it could have been avoided if he, like millions of other eligible Americans, didn't decline the right to vote. Although he owns up to his mistake, Stickney does have an explanation for why he and others didn't go to the polls that November day. "We were taught in America that you were voting for a party platform," Stickney elucidates. "The platforms were something that were originally constructed for the time. A platform wasn't supposed to be what Democrats and Republicans will always believe. It was what [politicians] would bring to the country for the next four years. So, you didn't have to sign up for an ideology. They were to represent the people. Now, they're there to represent their party. That's why I, like the young people last time, thought it didn't matter. They're all in the same club. They're all taking care of each other more than me. Who cares which one of them I pick?" Now, after learning how each vote is important, Stickney is trying to make sure each voice is heard, independent of whom a person is voting for. A Wake-Up Call "You gotta wake up!" cries out Stickney. "The process will work if the masses take their voice back. That's why you have to vote." To those who think their voices are lost in the cacophonous din of political conflict, Stickney insists that's where your opinion counts the most. "I believe, if Americans make their vote count and start thinking about where they're going to place it, then they will ask the questions that won't allow them to let [political discord] continue." Stickney claims that if you ask those questions, you will be sure to vote for the candidate you truly feel can give you the America that you want. "Regardless of who you post your vote for, you will be voting for your conscience instead of voting for your wallet or social attitude." Unpatriotic Patriotism The freedom to choose and the freedom to create a future for your country based on the ideas of the public is an ideal that Stickney firmly stands behind and takes pride in. "That's why people want to come here!" he exclaims. "That's why people who don't want to come here hate us. It's because they can't conceive of a place where such disparate ideas can coexist. And not only do they coexist, but they feed on each other and make them stronger because your weaknesses are pointed out by the opposition. Ideas are honed to be functional and accepted by both sides." Yet Stickney fears that the country's open-mindedness may be coming to an end in the current age of defensiveness and paranoia. "Only very recently has it become un-American to debate or have an alternate idea," he muses. "The idea that we've had enough - enough people from other countries, enough ideas - it just befuddles me." FYI Birthday: January 31 Birthplace: Wichita Falls, TX Hometown: "I grew up in Wilmington, DE," Stickney reveals. "In a small state, we're extra proud of ourselves and what we've accomplished in our borders." Early Start: "I've been acting and doing performances since I was 8," says the OLTL-er, who went on to study his craft at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and tour with the National Shakespeare Company. Taxicab Connection: Stickney played a cab driver in both "Barbarians at the Gate" and "The Return of Superfly." Interestingly, "Superfly", shot in 1990, co-starred his OLTL brother, Nathan Purdee (ex-Hank.) ++ Return to Timothy D. Stickney's Domain |