Then . . . dry your eyes and sing. Bellow. Roar, Thunder, Growl, Rasp. Howl. Screech Every anti-war anthem you know at the top of your voice From Give Peace a Chance to Down by the Riverside to Blowin' in the Wind to A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall to I Ain't Marching Anymore. And so on. Sing first to yourself for courage. Then find one of your neoliberal friends --- Democrap or MAGA zombie, it doesn't matter -- and sing it to them loudly. Instead of insulting their naivete, try the route of music soothing the savage beast that must necessarily be present inside them for them to support such horrors, tacitly or actively. At least make them initiate a dialog, ask why you're suddenly serenading them with old songs.
Brava. I would gladly hobble out and join you with gusto were you located anywhere nearby. Right now, I'm a solo act, which gets weird looks -- but inquisitive comments, like "why are you singing THAT" -- which is the point.
Wow, The Brothers Four. Forgot this one. Thanks. The Antiwar sentiment runs deep in American folk music. Unfortunately, not exactly paralleled in the society at large.
I witnessed the 'Flower Generation'... For a brief time, love, or its embracing aura, was truly in the air... The 2 finger salute reigned, and peace was almost on horizons. When the reality of some human conditions returned however, the flowers wilted, never to blossom ever since, with hippies the newest banking CEOs.
Fuck the flowers and the bankers. Fortunately, a few of us never fucking sold out. Maybe only 5 or 10 percent, sadly; but one must get one's inspiration where it survives; otherwise the hopelessness reigns complete. But to both of you: beware group generalizations. They are always inaccurate.
When the flower people and hippies had children, and a mortgage, many saw no alternative but to cave in. Independence works for awhile, but not for long when the temperatures outside are freezing and the children need food.
One day I called the ministry of Lands and Forests in Canada where we lived and talked with an agent from that office. Although I knew what the answer would be, I asked nevertheless, "Was there a piece of free land available where one could build a home in British Columbia". The answer was quick... " You don't think we're going to give you free land do you"?
The point is that the agent was not among the one percent, but from the ranks of the 99%. It wasn't the answer that was revealing as much as the authority WE figure behind it.
Yeah Gypsy, a good one -uptempo with good rock energy. It's why I like Riverside - can be done folksy as originally or banged out with gusto like I did today on my keyboard to drain out my poison vitriol against all those lying warmongering murderers at the DNC. I sang too but ultimately just got into the energy of my fingers on the keys hammering out the insistence that this warmongering bullshit cease. So sick of it/them.
This is so powerful. I hope you don't mind, I'll be trying to fit this into an audio experiment this weekend. I have a concept and we'll see where it goes. Thank you for this, we weep, but we are together on our sanity against this insanity.
Dear Caitlin, Thank you. When the truth about the tragedy of Gaza is written one day, your poem will have its rightful place. In the meantime we weep with you for the countless children killed, grown old and wise before their time, witnessing unspeakable horrors, starving, sick and bewildered, orphaned, their bodies blown to shreds, mothers and fathers picking up the pieces, grandmothers crying out to an uncaring world. Forced to flee from one makeshift shelter in the rubble wasteland to another, only to be met again and again and again with bombs made in America. And the world watches on.
Yes, except that the greatest pathos in this may be the deep impotence we who feel all feel. Like the heart-felt but ineffectual impotence of the anti-Gaza genocide Jewish American guy on the DNC panel I heard yesterday saying, in effect, “Well, yes, we know they’re going to go on killing, but let’s celebrate that we can now openly give it cathartic lip service.” In a way, the cynical mock posturing of a Kamala Harris, posing as “One of us,” is even worse than the tone-deaf and disgusting but, at least, unfeigned indifference of a Joe Biden or an Anthony Blinken. Now, isn’t it disgusting, they can have a brown-skinned, multiracial daughter of immigrants stand at the podium and fake-decry the carnage while, at the same time, doing absolutely nothing to stop it—and, instead, in fact, actually enabling it and only giving it more moral cover. As if to say, “Yes, we’re genociding Gaza but, hey, we have a fellow sister in the fight calling it out…. So, we good, right?” It is beyond cynical, beyond gross, beyond immoral, simply immoral and revolting.
The other day at work I started crying. I happen to be listening to a podcast discussing the congress seals clapping for ben. I think it was due to that and all the other variables constanty going on in my head. Life is too precarious these days. I noticed I've been crying more these past years. That used to never happen.
"The other day at work I started crying at work"... There are tears that can't be seen, but are flowing in our soul.... I think many today are doing just that...
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than a thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.
-Washington Irving
I watched and listened to as much of the DNC as I could without overtaxing my gag reflex. The vacuity on display was beyond anything I have witnessed. The hyperventilating hyperbolists exhibited a degree of emptiness not found in nature.
"The vacuity on display was beyond anything I have witnessed."... It's said that if you say something often enough, you soon begin to believe it... The vacuum that you mention is definitely operating within the DNC... But it's not alone.. it seems that DNCs and their ilk all over the world are performing the exact same acts. Otherwise Gaza's genocide would never have been possible.
Yes, it is a worldwide phenomenon. Almost everyone is so brainwashed that there is no need to be plugged in or blue pilled--ironic--to spend all there days in the matrix. It is an absurdism beyond anything Camus conceived...
The L I H O P ("Let It Happen On Purpose") of October 7th completes the circle for the Zionists and those that put their faith and trust in them.
The Zionists tricked hundreds of thousands onto the trains to Auschwitz.
Israel protected those perpetrators with the full force of their justice system.
Zionists benefited from, and almost took ownership, of the Holocaust via their limited hangout version of the Holocaust. They attracted immigrants through the promise of safety and security and extorted political support in other countries using the shame of the Holocaust.
On October 7th the circle was completed when those that had put their faith and trust in
Zionist Israel were betrayed through a treacherous LIHOP.
And now their very souls are in the bargain as they commit Genocide themselves.
“Even the Nakba, which was an unimaginable catastrophe, does not compare to what we are seeing now – and what we are going to see in the next few months. We are, in my mind, in the first three months of a period of two years that will witness the worst kind of horrors that Israel can inflict on the Palestinians...
We are witnessing the end of the Zionist project, there’s no doubt about it.This historical project has come to an end and it is a violent end. Such projects usually collapse violently. And thus it is a very dangerous moment for the victims of this project – and the victims are always the Palestinians along with Jews, because Jews are also victims of the Zionism. Thus, the process of collapse is not just a moment of hope, it is also the dawn that will break after the darkness...”.
I try to “like,” but am unable, blocked, like we dissenting #CREATORS (Conspiracy Realist Educator Activist Truther Organizer Reader Socializers) beseeching Humanness from Moloch & his millions of minions.
So poignantly said, so real, and so quiet. Where are the hoards condemning the genocide, where are the humans telling each other the slaughter of thousands of children is an unbearable blight on the human soul.... In fact, where is the collective soul of Homo Sapiens. ?
Although Gaza is the most urgent issue, and we cannot turn our eyes from them, there is increasing settler violence and land confiscation in the West Bank, aka illegally Occupied Territory. Here’s a group we can support, made up of committed Israelis and Palestinians working together to protect the Palestinians there.
Work on the Ground: Transforming Lives in Israel-Palestine — American Friends of Combatants for Peace
Is this music from the same Ukrainian Orthodox Church the Ukrainian government just banned?
Anyway, if you are a fan of liturgical music, I'd recommend the best Orthodox Church music I have ever heard, which is Rachmaninoff's Vespers, with Alexander Sveshnikov conducting The USSR Academic Russian Choir, which seems to have had a rename to Russian Academic Choir. Apparently even the name of the former Soviet Union is being expunged online.
When I first heard this was when we were driving and it came on the radio. We had to pull over and listen to the whole thing. Got the name and I bought it the next day. I have heard others perform this, and there is literally no comparison to the Sveshnikov version. Looking on YouTube, I had a very hard time trying to find the original, nor a complete version by the renamed choir. I found it mostly scattered in separate segments. I am glad I have the original album, and recopied to my computer.
Here is a link to one of them. None of the others I have ever heard, even Russsian ones, have the Russian basses this choir had.
Then . . . dry your eyes and sing. Bellow. Roar, Thunder, Growl, Rasp. Howl. Screech Every anti-war anthem you know at the top of your voice From Give Peace a Chance to Down by the Riverside to Blowin' in the Wind to A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall to I Ain't Marching Anymore. And so on. Sing first to yourself for courage. Then find one of your neoliberal friends --- Democrap or MAGA zombie, it doesn't matter -- and sing it to them loudly. Instead of insulting their naivete, try the route of music soothing the savage beast that must necessarily be present inside them for them to support such horrors, tacitly or actively. At least make them initiate a dialog, ask why you're suddenly serenading them with old songs.
Song is powerful. That’s why I’m organizing some people to sing out in public!
Brava. I would gladly hobble out and join you with gusto were you located anywhere nearby. Right now, I'm a solo act, which gets weird looks -- but inquisitive comments, like "why are you singing THAT" -- which is the point.
Try 'Little Play soldiers'.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgesIum6rBw Once in awhile I've been advised to "grow up".... But.. but.... but why would anyone want to?
Wow, The Brothers Four. Forgot this one. Thanks. The Antiwar sentiment runs deep in American folk music. Unfortunately, not exactly paralleled in the society at large.
It and the hippie generation grew up at around the same time as Vietnam
Just my guess
I witnessed the 'Flower Generation'... For a brief time, love, or its embracing aura, was truly in the air... The 2 finger salute reigned, and peace was almost on horizons. When the reality of some human conditions returned however, the flowers wilted, never to blossom ever since, with hippies the newest banking CEOs.
Fuck the flowers and the bankers. Fortunately, a few of us never fucking sold out. Maybe only 5 or 10 percent, sadly; but one must get one's inspiration where it survives; otherwise the hopelessness reigns complete. But to both of you: beware group generalizations. They are always inaccurate.
When the flower people and hippies had children, and a mortgage, many saw no alternative but to cave in. Independence works for awhile, but not for long when the temperatures outside are freezing and the children need food.
One day I called the ministry of Lands and Forests in Canada where we lived and talked with an agent from that office. Although I knew what the answer would be, I asked nevertheless, "Was there a piece of free land available where one could build a home in British Columbia". The answer was quick... " You don't think we're going to give you free land do you"?
The point is that the agent was not among the one percent, but from the ranks of the 99%. It wasn't the answer that was revealing as much as the authority WE figure behind it.
Hi Vin
What about “Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty?
I’ve always sort of considered it my theme song (along with Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation”) 😉
Yeah Gypsy, a good one -uptempo with good rock energy. It's why I like Riverside - can be done folksy as originally or banged out with gusto like I did today on my keyboard to drain out my poison vitriol against all those lying warmongering murderers at the DNC. I sang too but ultimately just got into the energy of my fingers on the keys hammering out the insistence that this warmongering bullshit cease. So sick of it/them.
YES VIN! Thank you.
Excellent suggestion Vin LoPresti! Thank you!
This is so powerful. I hope you don't mind, I'll be trying to fit this into an audio experiment this weekend. I have a concept and we'll see where it goes. Thank you for this, we weep, but we are together on our sanity against this insanity.
I oftentimes worry that the world we inhabit is almost all wept/wiped out.
That the tears we have shed will give way to tearing down rather than building up.
That the anguish and heartbreak will be replaced with whuppin’ and whippin’.
At some point the sadness will give way to insane rage, as a way to jettison the genocide-aires from Gaza/Palestine, everywhere, and for all time.
In the meantime my heart breaks for the survivors, and their dearly departed loved ones.
I know that Aaron Bushnell captured heart(s) and mind(s).
But, it’s been a long time.
There’s gotta be a better, faster way, or we’re gonna run out of people in Palestine.
Dear Caitlin, Thank you. When the truth about the tragedy of Gaza is written one day, your poem will have its rightful place. In the meantime we weep with you for the countless children killed, grown old and wise before their time, witnessing unspeakable horrors, starving, sick and bewildered, orphaned, their bodies blown to shreds, mothers and fathers picking up the pieces, grandmothers crying out to an uncaring world. Forced to flee from one makeshift shelter in the rubble wasteland to another, only to be met again and again and again with bombs made in America. And the world watches on.
😢😢😢
Beautifully expressed Indu - very poignant...
Yes, except that the greatest pathos in this may be the deep impotence we who feel all feel. Like the heart-felt but ineffectual impotence of the anti-Gaza genocide Jewish American guy on the DNC panel I heard yesterday saying, in effect, “Well, yes, we know they’re going to go on killing, but let’s celebrate that we can now openly give it cathartic lip service.” In a way, the cynical mock posturing of a Kamala Harris, posing as “One of us,” is even worse than the tone-deaf and disgusting but, at least, unfeigned indifference of a Joe Biden or an Anthony Blinken. Now, isn’t it disgusting, they can have a brown-skinned, multiracial daughter of immigrants stand at the podium and fake-decry the carnage while, at the same time, doing absolutely nothing to stop it—and, instead, in fact, actually enabling it and only giving it more moral cover. As if to say, “Yes, we’re genociding Gaza but, hey, we have a fellow sister in the fight calling it out…. So, we good, right?” It is beyond cynical, beyond gross, beyond immoral, simply immoral and revolting.
I weep, but I wish I could do more to just make it stop.
The other day at work I started crying. I happen to be listening to a podcast discussing the congress seals clapping for ben. I think it was due to that and all the other variables constanty going on in my head. Life is too precarious these days. I noticed I've been crying more these past years. That used to never happen.
Joshua....
"The other day at work I started crying at work"... There are tears that can't be seen, but are flowing in our soul.... I think many today are doing just that...
So many breaking down quietly.
I used “work” twice in same sentence. I need an editor.
you can edit... but the message you wrote about is what counts....
Verk is the new 4-letter verd.
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than a thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.
-Washington Irving
I watched and listened to as much of the DNC as I could without overtaxing my gag reflex. The vacuity on display was beyond anything I have witnessed. The hyperventilating hyperbolists exhibited a degree of emptiness not found in nature.
Jai Ma
David,
"The vacuity on display was beyond anything I have witnessed."... It's said that if you say something often enough, you soon begin to believe it... The vacuum that you mention is definitely operating within the DNC... But it's not alone.. it seems that DNCs and their ilk all over the world are performing the exact same acts. Otherwise Gaza's genocide would never have been possible.
Yes, it is a worldwide phenomenon. Almost everyone is so brainwashed that there is no need to be plugged in or blue pilled--ironic--to spend all there days in the matrix. It is an absurdism beyond anything Camus conceived...
Well said. Thanks and thanks for the Irving quote..
Wow. Just wow.
The L I H O P ("Let It Happen On Purpose") of October 7th completes the circle for the Zionists and those that put their faith and trust in them.
The Zionists tricked hundreds of thousands onto the trains to Auschwitz.
Israel protected those perpetrators with the full force of their justice system.
Zionists benefited from, and almost took ownership, of the Holocaust via their limited hangout version of the Holocaust. They attracted immigrants through the promise of safety and security and extorted political support in other countries using the shame of the Holocaust.
On October 7th the circle was completed when those that had put their faith and trust in
Zionist Israel were betrayed through a treacherous LIHOP.
And now their very souls are in the bargain as they commit Genocide themselves.
Yes…I do weep 😢
Beautiful
To counter despair I turn to Ilan Pappe:
“Even the Nakba, which was an unimaginable catastrophe, does not compare to what we are seeing now – and what we are going to see in the next few months. We are, in my mind, in the first three months of a period of two years that will witness the worst kind of horrors that Israel can inflict on the Palestinians...
We are witnessing the end of the Zionist project, there’s no doubt about it.This historical project has come to an end and it is a violent end. Such projects usually collapse violently. And thus it is a very dangerous moment for the victims of this project – and the victims are always the Palestinians along with Jews, because Jews are also victims of the Zionism. Thus, the process of collapse is not just a moment of hope, it is also the dawn that will break after the darkness...”.
It may be safe to say that without the Nakba, an Israeli state might not have arisen.
I do not know
I try to “like,” but am unable, blocked, like we dissenting #CREATORS (Conspiracy Realist Educator Activist Truther Organizer Reader Socializers) beseeching Humanness from Moloch & his millions of minions.
So poignantly said, so real, and so quiet. Where are the hoards condemning the genocide, where are the humans telling each other the slaughter of thousands of children is an unbearable blight on the human soul.... In fact, where is the collective soul of Homo Sapiens. ?
Collective Soul.
You, my brother,
Shine
in The World I Know.
Although Gaza is the most urgent issue, and we cannot turn our eyes from them, there is increasing settler violence and land confiscation in the West Bank, aka illegally Occupied Territory. Here’s a group we can support, made up of committed Israelis and Palestinians working together to protect the Palestinians there.
Work on the Ground: Transforming Lives in Israel-Palestine — American Friends of Combatants for Peace
https://www.afcfp.org
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8vQjI3FqbQ0
Is this music from the same Ukrainian Orthodox Church the Ukrainian government just banned?
Anyway, if you are a fan of liturgical music, I'd recommend the best Orthodox Church music I have ever heard, which is Rachmaninoff's Vespers, with Alexander Sveshnikov conducting The USSR Academic Russian Choir, which seems to have had a rename to Russian Academic Choir. Apparently even the name of the former Soviet Union is being expunged online.
When I first heard this was when we were driving and it came on the radio. We had to pull over and listen to the whole thing. Got the name and I bought it the next day. I have heard others perform this, and there is literally no comparison to the Sveshnikov version. Looking on YouTube, I had a very hard time trying to find the original, nor a complete version by the renamed choir. I found it mostly scattered in separate segments. I am glad I have the original album, and recopied to my computer.
Here is a link to one of them. None of the others I have ever heard, even Russsian ones, have the Russian basses this choir had.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2phATaIp0pQ&list=OLAK5uy_kwgbiTKmrT5ye-bzMOOIUdx1Aj57pQeu4&index=1
Sorry for going off message.
🫶🏽😭