At least a couple of times a week, U.S. Army Capt. Alfonso Johnson opens his laptop at his base in Afghanistan and plays a rap video _ a clip with his young son singing of his fears his father will die in combat.  “I’m 11 years old, already grown up, ’cause my dad’s been gone so much,” Xavier chants into a microphone, his head bobbing to a hip hop beat. Then the boy gets more blunt: “I’m feeling real sad now, I can’t lie, ’cause there’s a chance that my dad might die.”

Rather than depressing him, Johnson says the song, called “Keep ‘em Safe,” makes him feel closer to his son. That is partly because of the memory of working with Xavier to make the song and video in the U.S. But the lyrics also have a harsh honesty that lets 37-year-old Johnson feel the torrent of emotions his son, now 13, is experiencing back in Fort Drum, N.Y.  

Monday marks Memorial Day, when military families confront the reality of soldier deaths directly. Johnson hopes their song can also help other children deal with their fears.

“Kids watch the news all the time, and they know that soldiers are dying in combat,” Johnson said. He has been stationed since January in a valley in Wardak, a mountainous province a short drive from Kabul where U.S. and Afghan forces have been fighting Taliban militants.

Johnson serves as a public affairs officer. Rather than stress that he does not go into combat each day or play down the risks, he told Xavier before his deployment that the Afghan mountains were dangerous and he would have to carry a gun wherever he goes. He is scheduled to serve a one-year tour.

“Keep ‘em Safe” originated from a poem that Xavier wrote just before Johnson was scheduled to leave on a tour of Iraq about two years ago. A medical condition prevented him from making the Iraq deployment and he was reassigned to a group headed to Afghanistan.

Johnson, who keeps a synthesizer plugged into his computer and spends his free time composing hip hop tracks, picked out a beat and some music and helped his son turn it into the song.

During 19 years living on and off army bases, Johnson said he has seen how children Xavier’s age can have a rough time when they bottle up their worries about parents serving in war zones.

“Sometimes they might get in trouble in school just because their dad is gone and they miss him and the family is not quite running right,” he said, hoping that a song can help channel those feelings.

“It can help other kids express themselves, say things that they wouldn’t say normally,” Johnson said.

Psychologists say the separation brought on by military service is often hardest on teens, who have a much better sense of the risk their parents are facing than younger children.

“Adolescents can anticipate future events, so of course they have much more anxiety that the parent may die,” said Kathleen Roche, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and co-author of a study on how military deployment affects families.

Reached by phone in Fort Drum, Xavier said he felt the need to tell everyone what he and his friends who also have parents serving in Iraq and Afghanistan were feeling.

“I just wanted to express myself,” Xavier said, adding that he was nervous about the song at first, but began playing it to more and more people after close friends said they liked it.

The chorus is a plea. He sings, “Keep ‘em safe, keep ‘em safe, keep ‘em super-safe, keep ‘em safe till they get back home.”

Johnson’s wife Natashi said the song was her first inkling that her son was ready to deal with the emotional reality of the danger his father faces. Since then, she said she has been more open with Xavier and her 11-year-old daughter, Xzeria, about her own fears.

“It made me include them more, and I’m a lot more honest and upfront with them, not to the point of scaring them, but before I just felt there was no need to go into details about what their dad is doing or where he is,” she said. She still tries to keep them away from 24-hour cable news, but she talks to them more about the details of their father’s work in Afghanistan.

Johnson said he talks to his family on the phone twice a week, but mostly the conversations are about school or family news _ not emotions. That’s why Johnson says he listens to Xavier’s rap _ it contains all those feelings they don’t talk about on the phone.

After Xavier performed the song at a number of military talent shows, he and his father made a video for it and posted it on YouTube. It has only had a few hundred hits, most of them likely from family and friends, but father and son are just happy to share it with whoever is going through the same struggles.

“Hopefully it just touches some military families,” Johnson said as he played the video, his eyes turning a little red, his head moving to the beat.

Source:
Washington Post

While the achievements of his lifelong fight for racial equality in the United States are well documented, Dr. King’s fight for world peace and tolerance on an international level often takes a second seat in the history books.

At great risk to the success of the cultural movement he was leading at the time, Dr. King decided that he no longer could stay quiet about the horrible war that was destroying and dividing our country. On April 4th of 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Dr. King stepped in front of a packed New York City Riverside Church and delivered one of the most powerful speeches of his life. The 6800 word speech, entitled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” is as relevant today as it was the day that he spoke the words.

Iraq and Vietnam
As we continue down this destructive path in Iraq and the casualty count on all sides continues to rise with no real political progress, we all wonder where this war is going. Similar to the Vietnam War, our society has become divided over the crisis; however, the major difference is that we do not have a draft today. That single aspect was what confirmed for many people in the sixties that it had become a time to break silence. Although we lack the catalyst of a draft in our current disaster, it remains just as vital that we all stand up in protest for peace; because once again, it has become a time to break silence.

And on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I wonder what one of the most powerful leaders in our nation’s history would be saying today if the would be 79-year-old had not been so tragically taken from us some 40 years ago. While I would never assume to speak for Dr. King, I believe his own words from this 1967 speech draw many parallels to the crisis we are dealing with today, and there still remains a great deal to be learned from the message of peace and understanding of which Dr. King so eloquently spoke.

World Peace and Social Justice
In his speech, Dr. King explained the correlation between the fight for world peace abroad and the fight for social justice here at home. He was greatly troubled by the sacrifices our government was making, both blood and treasure, in a time when the government’s resources and attention could have been used to support the movement for social change at home.

While we have come a long way, it is clear that the estimated $2 trillion that we will spend on the Iraq War could have been better used to help our low and middle income families in areas of education, employment, healthcare, housing, crime, etc. Whatever progress has been made, this country has been diverted from the cause since the vacuum of lives and resources called the Iraq War began. In Dr. King’s words:

“A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor – both black and white – through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. And so we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. And so we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.”

Non-Violence at Home and Abroad
Dr. King also spoke about the contradictions between his preaching a message of peaceful social change in America and the use of violence as a tool for change by our government. Facing questions about the double standard of a militaristic government and peaceful social change, Dr. King knew that he could no longer preach peace for all in America if our military continued to promote peace by the barrel of a gun. This again was an example of the relationship between world peace and social justice.

Today, our hypocritical government is waging a war on the premise of building a peaceful democracy, but doing so with the use of bullets and bombs once again. While reducing violence is often the proposed strategy from our leaders nowadays, the contradiction of an original approach to wage a violent war is troubling. Violence does not stop violence, and what Iraq needs more than anything right now is strong and open-minded leaders willing to compromise both politically and socially in honor of their proud nation – not more American soldiers. Dr. King spoke of a similar dichotomy in his speech:

“…it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years – especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they ask – and rightly so – what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”

A Plea on Behalf of All Involved
Speaking directly to the leaders of our nation, Dr. King broke his silence by pleading for an end to the Vietnam disaster from a perspective of our own repercussions, as well as the tragedies that had befallen the innocent victims on the “enemy’s” side.

This universal compassion is in great need nowadays, as the citizens of Iraq have suffered unimaginable and unspeakable losses. With rampant reports of corruption that have continued to drain Iraq’s resources and infrastructure, the future of their citizens is in great jeopardy; and it has all come at the cost of the lives of nearly 4000 young American men and women. Dr. King’s blind empathy for all of those suffering was clearly evident in this excerpt of his plea:

“Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.”

Listening to the Enemy
And with that, Dr. King spoke powerfully and in great depth about the importance of tolerance and understanding among all people, including our enemies. During the Vietnam War, Dr. King was troubled by the fact that our nation’s leaders were perpetuating our problems by remaining extremely closed-minded about the regional situation and had little concern about how the world community viewed the United States.

And today in the Middle East, our current administration continues to lack the ability to grasp how much damage is being done to our country’s international relations. Our leaders still refuse to meet with many of the leaders they consider enemies, leaving one to wonder what non-violent options are available to bring about peace if there is not even the ability to have an open dialogue. Dr. King expressed his thoughts:

“Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and non-violence, when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.”

The Downfall of the American Image
Dr. King spoke in detail throughout his speech about his concerns regarding America’s image as a result of our poor decisions in Vietnam. During his speech, he took a moment to deliver a message directly from Vietnam’s Buddhist leaders. They described our own leaders as being only military minded and that they lacked the ability to foresee the societal and political problems that clearly needed to be dealt with. As a result, they felt that the world would no longer be able to see us as a beaming light of freedom and Dr. King believed we desperately needed to end the war to repent for the “sins” that we had committed.

The situation is no different in Iraq today, as our mistakes have given the support our enemy’s need in their arguments that America is a nation of militarism and violence. Our friends and allies have turned their backs on us, and the current administration is incapable of taking responsibility for its mistakes. Only a humble atonement and responsible stop to the Iraq War will provide the first footsteps toward once again regaining a positive image in the world’s eye. The following is Dr. King’s reading of the Buddhist leaders’ message:

“This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words, and I quote:

‘Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.’

If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war.”

The Repercussions of American Greed
Although the world has changed, many aspects have remained the same when it comes to America’s foreign policy. In the world he lived in, Dr. King spoke of our nation’s interest in international resources and our blind protection of these investments to ensure the luxuries that we enjoyed. This steadfast defense of such resources often came at the cost of human rights and human life.

Today in our oil-based economy, our nation has again attempted to protect our oil interests overseas, all while we have turned our heads from many innocent people in desperate need of help. In a time when the world has numerous human tragedies, from oppressive dictators to outright genocide, America’s leaders appear to only protect the resources necessary to support the American lifestyle and have no interest in doing what is good for all of mankind. This is a dangerous set of values that still has not changed over the last 40 years since Dr. King made these remarks in his speech:

“It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, ‘Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.’ Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin…we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

American Priorities: War or Peace?
America’s strategy to use bombs in order to create peace during Dr. King’s era was as troubling then as it is now. Dr. King shared his concerns on this topic, as he discussed America’s misguided and contradictory priorities. Stating that it was a time for our nation to prioritize peace over war, Dr. King clearly saw the potential for a revival of the American spirit, where we could once again become a nation that uses its resources and compassion to bring people together.

In our modern conflict, there remains just as strong of need for such a change in American priorities. While death and destruction occurs daily in Iraq with little to no political progress, the road to peace continues to be extremely challenging. It is a time when our nation needs peace as priority number one and the only “surge” we should be making should be to unite people, not to divide and conquer. In Dr. King’s own words:

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.”

Communism and Terrorism
Dr. King lived during a period in which the greatest perceived threat to America was communism. He spoke of communism as being a result of America’s inability to confront the factors that created the breeding grounds for such a movement, as well as our failures to support the democratic revolutions that we helped to bring about.

In today’s world of terrorism, we again see America’s resources being diverted from confronting the source of radical movements and our failed attempts of “creating democracies” in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East have become a foundation of support and recruitment for our true enemies. Dr. King spoke of such a challenge in his speech:

“We must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, and injustice, which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.

These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions.

It is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores, and thereby speed the day when ‘every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.’”

Love Conquers All
Dr. King spoke eloquently about the power of love for all mankind. As it is today, the sixties were a troubling time for the international community as the world was changing. World peace was being threatened by various factions and Dr. King believed the only true way to conquer such threats was through love. He scoffed at those who felt such a message was spineless in a world of such violence and Dr. King firmly spoke about how the spirit of love among all people was vital to the ultimate survival of mankind.

It seems that this is simply another message that we have forgotten in today’s troubled and dangerous world. In order to overcome the world’s current challenges, we must find love among all people based on our similarities and regardless of nationality, race and religion. The international community’s current focus on all of our differences prohibits Dr. King’s message of love from rising above our problems. As Dr. King stated in his speech:

“This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: ‘Let us love one another, for love is God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.’ Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.”

It Is Not Too Late
Dr. King was well aware of the choice that America was faced with at that moment in history – either a peaceful coming together or a violent destruction. Most importantly, Dr. King knew time was running out on making such a decision in favor of peace and harmony. He stressed the risks our nation faced, warning that we could become one of the many world powers throughout history which have failed mankind if we continued to reprehensively use our “might without morality.”

Today we are faced with the same decision. Our leaders have once again taken our nation in a direction that abuses our global influence and lacks any sort of moral consideration. It is not “too late” to act, but we as Americans must stand up now in the name of peace. It is our country and thus, it is our reputation to defend. The great resources of our nation and the collective compassion of Americans should be used to promote peace around the world, not hijacked to perpetuate hatred and violence. During his speech, Dr. King captured this idea of making the choice for peace before the option is no longer available:

“We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood – it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, ‘Too late.’ There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: ‘The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.’

We still have a choice today: non-violent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message – of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.”

A Time to Break Silence
So, on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we should all take some time to think about the many visionary ideals that Dr. King dedicated his life to. It is our responsibility to carry on the lessons of Dr. King – from his messages of equality and social justice here at home, to his beliefs of peace, compassion and tolerance on a global scale.

With that, it has become a time for all us to break silence. We all must stand up for world peace and show our compassion for others. We all share this world we live in and history tells us that violence only results in destruction. It is time we all make the choice of peace. It would only be fitting to close with the prophetic words of Dr. King himself, just as he finished this historic speech:

“And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace.

If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

To listen to the streaming audio or to read the transcript of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s entire speech, entitled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”, click here.

- Rapáil Eamon

———-

Some additional excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech that are clearly relevant to the crises that we are confronted with today:

On Standing Up in Protest…

“The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war.”

“Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America’s soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.”

“Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.”

“…we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country, if necessary. Meanwhile… meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must continue to raise our voices and our lives if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative method of protest possible.”

“These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.”

On Compassion for All – Including the Enemy…

“This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation’s self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls ‘enemy,’ for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.”

“And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the ideologies of the Liberation Front, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.

They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1954 – in 1945 rather – after a combined French and Japanese occupation and before the communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its re-conquest of her former colony. Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not ready for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long.”

“Now there is little left to build on, save bitterness. Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call “fortified hamlets.” The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these. Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. These, too, are our brothers.”

“Surely we must understand their feelings, even if we do not condone their actions. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence.”

“We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate.”

“At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless in Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called ‘enemy,’ I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.”

On Communism (Terrorism)…

“This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and, through their misguided passions, urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not engage in a negative anticommunism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice.

A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.”

On America’s International Image…

“In the North, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now.”

“After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent elections which could have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered.”

On American Imperialism…

“They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again, and then shore it up upon the power of new violence?”

“The only change came from America, as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received the regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs.

So they go, primarily women and children and the aged. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them, mostly children.”

“Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the North. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. Perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor, weak nation more than eight hundred, or rather, eight thousand miles away from its shores.”

“A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, ‘This is not just.’ It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, ‘This is not just.’ The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.”

Hip-hop artists from the U.S., U.K., Japan and Europe have collaborated on a one-off music video to protest the continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq. The video was released today online, with additional broadcasts planned for other cross-channel digital media platforms.

“Sorrow of the Soldier” by U.S. rapper Mark Prysler tells the story of Lucas, a working-class man who runs out of options in his own life and sees the Army as an attractive means of escape. Upon deployment he finds the reality of the Iraq war is far removed from the fantasy sold to him by the Bush administration. The video by U.K. animator James Harvey uses a blend of cutting-edge digital and traditional hand-drawn animation produced on a laptop computer to illustrate the story.

The video has been simultaneously released in several different versions, each with a separate audio track by a different global collaborator. Each remix artist was asked to choose a “flavor” to represent himself on the website. The standout “mint” version features production from Holland’s DJ Donor, who has remixed artists such as Pharrell Williams, while the “cheese” flavor was remixed by Takashi Otagiri, the president of Tokyo Fun Party, a Japan-based dance music collective. More remixes are to be added to the website over the coming month from hip-hop artists from France, Germany, and both coasts of the U.S.

“With so many different artists coming together from so many different backgrounds we’re able to get our message out to as many people as possible, and show the world how far-reaching and widely-held this sentiment is,” says animator Harvey.

The video is available as a hi-res download from www.maudevintage.com/soldier and can also be found on YouTube.

Source:
AWN Headline News

There are only seven more days to prepare for the Unity Performing Arts Academy gala show. Hip-hop, one of America’s newer cultural exports, is about to make a debut in northern Iraq.

In a leap of the imagination supported by the State Department and the US Embassy in Baghdad, this summer my small not-for-profit organization, American Voices, created a 10-day conservatory of artistic expression and learning for Iraqi performing artists. During that time, participants proved that Iraqi unity is not necessarily a myth – and that cultural diplomacy can work wonders, even in conflict zones.

In a country that has seen little, if any, cultural exchange with the US for decades, the hunger for knowledge was palpable. With a faculty of 10 Americans teaching ballet, hip-hop, musical theater, jazz, chamber music, and orchestra, the students were treated to a smorgasbord of learning previously unavailable to them.

There was extraordinary energy in the air as Iraqis put in 12-hour days studying “cool new things,” as one of them put it, from Vivaldi’s Baroque style to a choreography of George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm.” With participating groups ranging from the youth theater of Irbil, Iraq, to the Iraq National Folk Dancers’ more experienced artists, there was a unique blend of ages, ethnic groups, languages, and art forms.

While the program began with some mutual wariness among the groups from various regions of Iraq, by the end, there was strong camaraderie. Perhaps most remarkable was the Unity Orchestra, composed of 130 players from all four of Iraq’s principal orchestras. It left an indelible impression of what united Iraqis could achieve in the realm of art.

Once back home, however, each orchestra faces unique challenges. Baghdad’s Iraq National Symphony Orchestra braves rehearsals and performances amid terrible violence. Irbil’s orchestra is still on informal strike after years of salaries not rising above $30 per month. Sulaymaniyah’s two orchestras are younger, active, and relatively well trained; this summer a group of its members won second prize at a youth orchestra competition in Vienna.

At the gala concert, all of the orchestras came together to give a buoyant performance of music by Duke Ellington and Iraqi composers. At the final reception we danced till dawn – despite the awareness that for most, tomorrow would bring a return to the uncertainties of Baghdad or the isolation of the Kurdish regions.

Two months later, the faculty still gets almost daily messages from participants. Some are requests for help with a double bass bridge or advice on how to teach from a method book we donated. Many simply say thanks for offering a glimpse of a way forward and breathing new life into Iraqi conservatories and arts organizations. Many Iraqi performing artists tell me they have toiled for so long and in such isolation that they assumed the world either did not care or had forgotten them.

Repairing America’s image and standing in the world will require a group effort. The US government cannot and should not do this alone. As someone deeply involved in the field of cultural diplomacy for close to 20 years, I would like to see cultural exchange written into the mission statements of America’s arts organizations and places of learning: more effective exchanges, more scholarships, more hip-hop. In the case of Iraq, such programs not only help heal Iraq’s deep-seated divisions but also give Iraqis much needed insight into the US and its culture, beyond foreign policy.

Fears that the US may be forcing cultural diplomacy programs upon an unwilling or indifferent public are, in my experience, unfounded. From Iraq to Vietnam to Venezuela, audiences are clamoring for more. Many Americans assume that our culture is as unwelcome abroad as our foreign policies often are, but we should not underestimate the sway our unique art forms hold over audiences deprived of cultural contact with the US.

In the post-9/11 world, nations must develop ways to not only understand but also embrace one another. Art, music, and dance can help facilitate such positive exchange. It is time for new visions of what is possible – even essential – in America’s cultural relationship with countries emerging from conflict or isolation.

Source:
Christian Science Monitor

To The Fallen Records “Vol. 1″ Album Review
Whenever you turn on the TV in this country, it’s very difficult not to see something about the war in Iraq. We got play-by-plays and body counts flashing up all the time on the news; politicians arguing about what the strategy should be or who should be calling the shots; people protesting and calling for an end to our involvement; and pro-America commercials urging us to support our troops and come together as a country. Yet I don’t think I’ve ever seen an interview with an active soldier, witnessed any troops talk about what it’s like to be in war, or heard the opinions of anyone who’s actually serving in Iraq. And that just doesn’t seem right to me man.

Now, with the help of hip-hop, soldiers have been given a voice and a platform to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences with the world. To The Fallen Records, a record label consisting of only military personnel, has released “To The Fallen Vol. 1,” a compilation of various hip-hop artists that use powerful lyrics and hard-hitting beats to tell the world about their lives in a way that most of us do not get to hear. The album is mind-boggling, and shares the lives of soldiers through soldier-supportive anthems, real war experiences with firsthand perspectives, and life lessons learned by those who make the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Soldier Anthems
One of the major themes of “To The Fallen Vol. 1″ was to show support for fallen and active soldiers, and veterans of war. Songs like FOX-1‘s For The Heroes, J. DiMarco‘s Rush ‘Em, Talisman‘s Soldier’s Prayer (my personal favorite track) and Logi¢‘s Real Soldiers demonstrate the unified sense of community that seems to be shared by all soldiers. In Real Soldiers, a song dedicated to all the true soldiers serving in militaries across the world, Logi¢ attacks the so-called “street soldier” rappers that run around acting tough on the mic. The following verse illustrates how real soldiers feel about these rappers:

I keep on seeing these other rappers perform in fatigues/ Show your support in other ways, we dying in these/ And I been fighting for my country for way too long/ For y’all to take the term soldier and use it all wrong/ Yeah it’s easy sit on your block and talk the talk/ But it takes courage and sacrifice to walk the walk/ How you describing a soldier makes me not one at all/ Even though I been in a war, made it back and standing tall/ And I was there in the beginning to answer freedom’s call/ We went to war with a nation – man where the hell was y’all?/

Stories of Combat
Perhaps the hardest-hitting topics were those that revolved around the various experiences these rappers shared through their music. Songs like MC Mafia‘s Ganar, Lexcano‘s Soy and Dirty Boi Vets‘ Combat Zone share terrifying war stories with the listener. In Combat Zone, Sug and Tangdajiano of Dirty Boi Vets each dedicate a verse to a real life experience they had in Iraq. The following verse gives a horrifying depiction of being under attack and witnessing fellow soldiers die:

We was driving down the street on this dark late night/ Everything seemed strange, not a person was in sight/ So I grabbed me a cigarette looking for my light/ When brrrrat-rat-tat-tat – what the hell is that?/ Leaned back in my seat and I started shooting back/ Bullets whizzing by my head and my tires went flat/ Hear a voice on the radio ‘Where the hell y’all at?/ They drop side in the head and we way in the back!’/ Hey aw man stop now we running down the street/ Sound like thunder that’s them boots on my feet/ Got to the Humvee laying in a ditch on his side/ Seen a dead marine I almost cried/

Making People at Home Understand
Another topic that seemed prevalent in “To The Fallen Vol. 1″ was attempting to make the people of the United States understand what it is like to be a soldier. Songs like Bank-Roll‘s My War Cry, The Lifers‘ Movin’ On and Soldier Hard‘s Walk With Me all speak directly to the people who might not understand the sacrifices made by our troops. In Walk With Me, Soldier Hard talks about a friend he lost in battle and how the memories of war will probably haunt him forever. The following verse uses the experience to reflect upon how bad it hurts to hear us at home protesting and complaining about the war:

Who’s gonna have your back like we do when your freedom is tested?/ Talking down on why we here and got the balls to protest it/ Everybody home complaining just please open your eyes/ Cause just two days ago y’all a good friend of mine died/ I hold the visions of him lying there dead on the scene/ Feeling sorry for his wife and his kids he ain’t seen yet/ Only 21 years old he ain’t lived life yet/ And he is someone that I know that I’ll never forget/ The nightmares, the cold sweats – I’m waking up screaming/ My heart’s bleeding please enjoy your freedom/

Lessons Learned
And still other tracks shared life lessons learned by the soldiers throughout their ongoing military experiences. Songs like Keise Twerkha‘s Shed A Tear, G.R.E.‘s Eye On Tomorrow and Syx Synce‘s Overseas express the importance of perseverance, parenthood and being goal-oriented. In Overseas, Syx Synce expresses the agony of waiting for his upcoming deployment to Iraq. The following verse shows the regrets of a father leaving his son behind, and urges all parents to take advantage of the time they have with their children:

I got a precious little boy that’s just a year old/ A lot happens within that time we don’t know what a year holds/ And it kills me that I have to leave my son behind/ But his mom along with mine are saying ‘Yo leave him, he’s fine’/ And I know it’s true but the problem is that/ I haven’t given him the world if I don’t make it back/ I haven’t said I love you as much as I like and that’s tough/ I tell him every day, but every day still ain’t enough/ For all you parents out there are you taking this right?/ He needs to know that I love him every day of his life/ So to my moms and my son if I don’t return/ Let my love into your body the day my ashes burn/

Politics as Usual
So as you can see, “To The Fallen Vol. 1″ was less about making a statement about the war, and more about showing the life perspectives of the people who have been in it. But that doesn’t mean these emcees don’t get a little political from time to time. In Soldier’s Prayer, Talisman questions the existence of the “American Dream,” and uses the following verse to encourage people to educate themselves:

It’s sad to see people die for a dream/ And die for a dream that even I haven’t seen/ Still waiting/ Dr. King and Malcolm X/ Told me to tell you to have some self-respect/ My ancestors said we ain’t helpless yet/ Ignorance is one hell of a threat/

In Reality Check, Malakai speaks directly to the President, questioning his domestic policy in relation to the war, his motives for continuing the surge, and the real reasons behind the war in Iraq:

There’s more brothers dying in the hood then there is in Iraq/ So Mr. President I wonder can you answer to that?/ Terror or the Taliban, one man or all can/ Man I seen it first hand in the land of sand/ Hypocritical figures will leave your mentally deck/ Pulling political triggers until we crippled and wreaked/ No disrespect on the scene we been holding the truth/ So what’s the use of being free if you making us choose?/ A lose-lose situation, put a face on the facts/ We got more problems at home but you ain’t worried ’bout that/ You got a grudge holding on, hold it strong ’til it’s gone/ And you see it’s all wrong to the world its all song/ Seeing soldiers dying in vein, you blame Hussein/ But still things stay the same since you caught that man/ You ain’t saying bin Laden number one on your list/ He the one that stole them planes and turned them towers to bricks/ See what happens to the ghetto when the tax at risk/ Rising the pricing of our oil leaves us hungry and sick/ While the rich stay rich and the poor stay broke/ I’m slanging dope up on these corners but you want us to vote/ Saying no because you lied and you cheated before/ And if we follow you, tomorrow we’ll be back on the slope/ Look in the scope and then I see the future perfectly clear/ And it appears from right here we’re forever in fear/

Overall, “To The Fallen Vol. 1″ is an educational and thought-provoking look into the lives, thoughts, perspectives and experiences of real soldiers. It gives firsthand accounts of what it’s like to live a soldier’s life, and another demonstration of how hip-hop can be used to give a voice to the voiceless. This is an album that everyone should listen to, if only to better understand the sacrifices made by the men and women of our armed forces. Please support them and check out this album. Peace.

Album Track Listing:

1. Real Soldiers
2. Combat Zone
3. Rush ‘em (Military Thugs)
4. Walk With Me
5. Ganar
6. My War Cry
7. Soldiers Prayer
8. Shed a Tear
9. Eye On Tomorrow
10. Movin’ On
11. Soy
12. Reality Check
13. Overseas
14. 14 For the Heroes

Mos Def “True Magic” Album Review
I used to be a WWF Wrestling fan. Go ahead, laugh it up. I don’t know why, but something about the beefing soap opera drama was funny to me. When they give their little speeches where they talk shit to whoever they’re beefing with at the time, they often put on great performances, and I always felt it was not that different from freestyle battle rapping. I used to like cats like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle and Booker T, mostly because they could control the mic well. But above all, the Rock was my motherfucking man dogg.  

Unfortunately for wrestling fans, the Rock was a real good-looking and charismatic cat, and he eventually left the WWF to pursue his acting career, which has taken off pretty well since then. However, every once in a while, I would turn on TNT and see the Rock doing guest spots for the WWF . and the fans loved him for it. This always amazed me. I mean, some people might think that the fans would hate on the Rock for leaving the show. But they didn’t. They seemed to be really supportive of his career and happy for the success he had seen.

Searching for Mos Def
I always think of this comparison when I think of Mos Def. Unlike wrestling fans, most hip-hop fans aren’t happy for Mos Def. Instead, they show him no love when he tries to come back. I guess they’re mad at him for being successful. Maybe they hate him for making money when they ain’t got any. Or perhaps they consider him a sellout for making blockbuster movies, doing commercials for huge companies, and experimenting with rock and soul sounds in his music. And nowhere are those notions better represented than in the reviews of his new album “True Magic.”

“True Magic” is obviously no “Black on Both Sides,” and it does seem that Mos may have just squeezed this album out perhaps in an attempt to prevent bootlegging or perhaps in an attempt to finish out his deal with Geffen. Yet mark my words, it is still a good hip-hop album, regardless of what the haters who probably didn’t even listen to it are saying. For those of us who don’t expect or want a “Black Star” or “Black on Both Sides” replication every time Mos Def drops, “True Magic” comes across as Mos’ laid back return to his hip-hop roots, with tracks that cover all angles of the hip-hop triangle.

The production is solid though simple, and shows hints of each of Mos’ past directions, including rock, blues and experimental sounds, while maintaining a comprehensive return to straight hip-hop. Mos’ flows stay innovative, and he manages to find several unique methods of slinging rhymes or singing hooks over the often head-nodding beats. And as always, Mos comes correct lyrically, discussing topics ranging from love and anger to politics and society, while the album seems based around Mos Def’s verses, something his last album did not. Overall, I think it’s a great album.

So before you pay any attention to all the negative reviews this album is getting, give it a good listen. Forget for a minute that it’s Mos Def; forget for a minute that he created “Black on Both Sides,” and give it a good listen . because even after several rotations, I can’t find anything but dope beats, conscious rhymes and, ultimately, good hip-hop. Now on to my real review …

Hip-Hop and Katrina
My favorite song on “True Magic” is “Dollar Day,” a song about New Orleans and the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Following the hurricane, I remember hearing several complaints about how local, state and national governments failed to prepare and manage the relief efforts.

First, the city of New Orleans decided to manage the disaster in a hotel ballroom instead of some kind of Emergency Operations Center, which turned out to be a mistake when the hotel’s phone service failed, severely limiting the city’s ability to communicate its needs. Second, the city failed to implement a timely emergency evacuation, leading to hundreds of deaths of people who couldn’t leave the city in time. Third, response teams and security were heavily outnumbered by stranded citizens, which caused many preventable deaths by thirst, exhaustion or violence in evacuation facilities. And fourth, the federal government seriously delayed it’s relief plan while denying help from such countries as Russia, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, who all offered rescuers, supplies, food or medicine.

As if this wasn’t enough, I realized another way our government had failed in properly handling the Katrina disaster in New Orleans after hearing a verse by Mos Def in “Dollar Day”:

It’s Dollar Day in New Orleans
It’s water-water everywhere and people dead in the streets
And Mr. President he ’bout that cash
He got a policy for handling the people and trash
And if you poor you black
I laugh a laugh they won’t give when you ask
You better off on crack
Dead or in jail, or with a gun in Iraq
And it’s as simple as that
No opinion, my man, it’s mathematical fact
A million poor since 2004
And they got illions and killions to waste on the war
And make you question what the taxes is for
Or the cost to reinforce the broke levee wall

According to a New York Daily News article published in early September 2005, some seven thousand soldiers from the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard were stationed in Iraq when Hurricane Katrina hit. This included more than three thousand members of the 256th Brigade Combat team stationed in New Orleans [1]. In short, this means that 7,000 people whose job it would’ve been to help people victimized by Katrina couldn’t help because they were fighting in Iraq. On top of that, the Hattiesburg American reported that Dick Cheney personally diverted two electrical crews away from restoring power in two local hospitals so they could get his pipelines up and moving again [2]. “No opinion, my man, it’s mathematical fact.”

Last I heard, the United States has spent more than $300 billion on the war. That’s a lot of money which might, as Mos Def would say, “make you question what the taxes is for.” I’m sure $300 billion and 7,000 workers would have been sufficient to reinforce the levee wall to a point where it may have saved the city from Katrina. And if not, I’m positive those resources would’ve saved many lives in the Katrina aftermath by allowing people to be rescued earlier and providing food and water to evacuees.

To me, the Katrina disaster is just another example of how our country uses it’s riches to destroy instead of to build. This is our tax money, and we should have a say in what it’s being used for. Why would we spend “illions and killions” on a war in Iraq, especially one we were tricked into supporting, when there are poor people all over this country? Think about it. Peace.