It Is Always Our War’
I. There Is Poison In Our Hearts
II. There Is An Antidote
III. We Are Calling
IV. When You Were Young
Album Notes- Winter and Spring of 2024
Click the above YouTube symbol to watch videos for each song
Click the below Spotify symbol to listen to audio
I. and II.
It Is Always Our War
There Is Poison In Our Hearts/There Is An Antidote
This is protest music. It’s more than that though. These two pieces were modeled on the Buddhist teaching of the three poisons and the three antidotes. Aggression, Greed and Indifference have been on full display and we in the US have been no small part of it. It is only a poisoned heart that can so devalue human life. The act of devaluing and dehumanizing only further poisons our world. I believe that we know this, but we need to remind each other.
There are antidotes to these poisons, and many wise and compassionate people have known them before us. Loving-kindness, Generosity and Wisdom are still possible. The path is here, whether we choose it or not.
It is always ‘our’ war. Our well-being is bound up with each other’s, and so I believe it’s not only our responsibility but ultimately in our own self-interest to do better.
I don’t think anyone has all the answers for how to move forward, but there are a few obvious places we can start.
According to the BBC, there are roughly two million people who have been displaced in Gaza, most of whom are facing starvation, disease, and lack of access to clean water and other basic healthcare needs. It would seem obvious that these people need help the most
It would also seem clear that if we value human life, we need to call for an end to the violence our government is supporting. No more money from our tax dollars to kill and destroy.
Please consider contacting your
representatives and asking them to call for a ceasefire
Please attend to the tough inner work that comes with all this.
It does matter.
#Gaza #protest
Credits:
Video by Tu Nguyen
Stock footage downloaded from www.videvo.net
Viola: HyoJoo Uh
Cello: Schuyler Slack
Composition: Paul Willson
III. We Are Calling
This song is a call to our shared humanity. It’s still here somewhere.
There’s nothing that has inspired me more than people singing as they stand up for their fellow humans, so here’s my attempt to return the favor and keep the love flowing. I’m looking at you @mennoniteaction 
The call is to everyone- it’s an obvious call to end the insanity of the current violence in Gaza and the West Bank and to respond immediately to the dire hunger and living conditions in Gaza.
It’s also a call to all of us working for change on so many different fronts.
There have always been people who have faced the crises and injustices of the time at hand without giving up on love and nonviolent resistance.
It’s our time to be those people
As Bell Hooks said “because of the awareness that love and domination cannot coexist, there is a collective call for everyone to place learning how to love on their emotional and/or spiritual agenda. We have witnessed the way in which movements for justice that denounce dominator culture, yet have an underlying commitment to corrupt uses of power, do not really create fundamental changes in our societal structure. When radical activists have not made a core break with dominator thinking (imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy), there is no union of theory and practice, and real change is not sustained. That’s why cultivating the mind of love is so crucial. When love is the ground of our being, a love ethic shapes our participation in politics.”
One day i may arrange this for choir, but for now just voice and guitar
Mixed and mastered by Curtis Fye
Full video and others on YouTube in my bio
‘We are calling
we are calling you
we are calling you to come back
We are calling you to come back to us
We will sing
We will sing until you come back
We are calling
We are calling out
We are calling out for love
We are calling out for love to return
We will sing
We will sing until love returns
We are calling
We are calling out
We are calling out your name
We are calling out your name in love
We will sing
We will sing and we won’t give up’
VI. When You Were Young
It makes my heart sick to see these protestors villified, to see them reduced to antisemitic extremists in much of the national talk.
It’s deeply ironic but no longer surprising that many of the folks bashing them are members of generations that revered Neil Young, Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix and older leaders like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Have you all forgotten what they stood for?
Do you not see yourselves at all in these young protestors?
Have you forgotten that at the time of the Civil rights protests and Vietnam protests people said many of the same things?
We’ve largely looked back at those movements with admiration and respect for the courage it took and the impact they made. Hell, Columbia even commemorates them on its own website. It’s also widely recognized now how horrific and unproductive the Vietnam war was, let alone racial segregation.
I believe history will look back at these protests in a similar manner. If we do our part, they will be less violent.
#protests #gaza
Full video on YouTube link in bio
I’ve included a musical quote of Neil Young’s ‘Ohio’ and the Almanac Singers’ union song ‘Whose Side Are You On?’
‘Maybe the benefit of time
Will change your mind
But it’ll be too late then
The blood won’t flow back in
When you were young you liked rock and roll
It made you feel like you had a living soul
Tell me where’s It been
Since then
I heard back then you burned your draft card
You fought real hard to end the war
I grew up thinking you’d change the world
Now you’re asking for more
You had a poster of Neil Young on your wall
Now I’m wondering, if you understood him at all
Sometimes the benefit of time makes you less blind
And sometimes not
Things you knew and forgot
When you were young you liked folk songs
They made you feel like we could all sing along
Your faith has gone to rot
Your singing stopped
I heard you believed in the working man
And cared for the plight of the poor
I grew up thinking you’d change the world
You’re not trying any more
You had a poster of Guthrie on your wall
Now I’m wondering if you understood him at all’
Mixed and mastered by Curtis Fye