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Veering Off the High Road
But when you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell you is brother you have to wait.
-- From "Revolution" by John Lennon
I spent three plus years writing, recording, and performing songs aimed at tearing down the actions, policies, and supporters of George W. Bush.
I was a musical disappearing act, having moved to the east coast in 1993, but my musical career was rejuvenated by my outrage over the looming 'liberation' of Iraq,. From 2003 through 2006, I found myself writing and recording music at -- what was, for me -- a prolific rate (the material being almost endless), getting national airplay, receiving steady local media attention, eventually heading up a powerhouse acoustic swing quartet (The Swing States Road Show), and over the course of those three plus years raising thousands of dollars for what I thought were worthy Democratic causes.
On election night of 2006, in Baltimore, The Road Show swung through its final set of Bush-bashing parodies and originals. Then I went home and took a shower.
As early as 2005, I had begun to question how lyrics based on mockery and belittlement of perceived evildoers could possibly have any positive effect in the world. My (nondenominational) spiritual practice, which includes breath work, meditation, chanting, and reading, had led me to begin noticing how, in my body, complaint and fault-finding fed a feeling of toxicity. This wasn't a new revelation, but it was powerfully revisited during that time. It became clear to me, finally, that the acid, partisan environment in which I'd immersed myself was eating my soul. So I stopped feeding the beast and reverted back to writing, in my typical one-song-a-year fashion, songs in a style I'd long since labeled 'self help folk music'.
It's not easy writing 'feelgood' music without sounding slightly dorky. Ask anybody who's tried. Conflict lies at the heart of fiction and art. Conflict sells. Conflict is interesting. Conflict is what makes the mainstream media run. Conflict is what allows many politicians to generate interest in otherwise flaccid campaigns. But I've pulled out of the conflict business, at least as a writer.
As a human being, I'm having a harder time. Where I had done a good job for most of this summer, spending time gardening and working on my house, more recently I found myself standing in the living room, mouth-breathing in front of the TV, flipping between Fox and MSNBC to see how the conflict du jour between Barack Obama and John McCain was being spun by the pundits. Over the past month, I've read article after article, blog after blog, but learned next to nothing. And I note the toxicity rising up in me once again.
So.... moving into this fall, I have a decision to make: Do I avert my eyes from the intentional train wreck that is our daily news cycle? Do I spend the next two months tied up in knots over the impending election? Or do I heed my own lyrics, drop the gloves and walk into the light? I know, when all is said and done, that any good work I do in the coming months is going to be rooted in love and not in that toxic place.
Lately, I've heard the chattering classes, as they're called by some, urging Obama to abandon the 'high road' and attack McCain. I hope he doesn't do it, because I need a role model.
Lea Jones is a middle school special education teacher and is currently looking for a Type O kidney donor, being in Stage 4 kidney failure as of August, 2008. The inspirational/dorky song he's shopping around these days is called "I Can Do Better."
By Lea Jones |
August 12, 2008; 6:26 AM ET
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Posted by: janis | August 13, 2008 10:32 AM
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Politics is nasty business. Senator Obama's grass roots campaign collects from every single individual even the smallest amounts possible to have as much money as possible to run a campaign to ask for votes. Nothing saintly about that. It is politics 101.
Senator McCain probably does the same. It is politics 101.
Posted by: Anonymous | August 13, 2008 5:02 AM
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I heard John McCain criticising Russia for invading Georgia...
What part of the body was he speaking from, where was he when we invaded a soveirgn nation Iraq
Mike Ghouse
Posted by: Mike Ghouse | August 12, 2008 8:45 PM
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I think this article has some points, but on the other hand if no one takes the "low road" and attacks anyone, how are we going to know the positives and negatives or either candidate to make a decision in November?
Each party doesn't have a candidate with millions of $$$ cause they are 100% honest and nice. More money is usally tied to underhandedness which actually Obama has slightly more of right now. Neither party deserves immunity from attack...or actually the truth about their downfalls. On the other hand, I need positives too.
Posted by: Nick | August 12, 2008 3:18 PM
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TODAY is ECLATi calandate: Universal Year Circa[UYC]3.98Billion/08.12.08Millenium/11:11aAtomic.
COME now, Let Us sing a 'New-Song' together forever w/SOURCE-ONE {O.U.R. eponymous ECLAT+i}.
To "PRAY" is to 'Speaketh' to O.U.R. Hol{i}-No-Men, and to "MEDiTATE" is to 'Listen' too YE EKLAHT{i}! Therefore there is Eternal HOPE! HOPE comes from The ECLAT{i}ON, 4-Sequentiates Awareness , which are: 1)ViBrationals,then 2)FLASH, then 3) BiGBANG, then 4th, Holy Cosmic S.pace-S.hip EARTH. aka S.S. GAiA, aka S.S. GEOiD, aka S.S. TELLUSng something! Soo,
inCAMERA (Secret):
Dear LEA, Cyber-Friend, 1 might-n-thinketh that what "i"m about to DO for 'YE' (you & World, this) or ask of YE in order that "I" FIX Ye BioFinite original kindneys, by Doing This:
Note: There is a good Chance that Ye will not need a Donor. You will see in 72 + 72 + 72 Hours later [for 9 dimentions, where 'TiME' means yours & our 'TEMPERATURE', not clock or space 'time thinking. this awareness is KEY especially when APOCALYPTiCALLY praying & Meditaing for HOPE incarnate]! Or ye Money Back. Ha Ha.
So, Please Cyber freun, go'th to a silent place, if any, And Place Ye own Two Hands, if any, on each of ye Hips overeach Kidneys. Think your Temperature, since ye are a living-LiGHT-BULB, aka Sperm incarnate again, from Past... And Now,
Please Sayth, "E-C-L-A-T" together prounounced "EeKlah". And
then Sayth, slowly , "Hoe...Lee...NO...Men", aka "IT" being "iTSELF" in and of Us All & be aware that "IT" is never a He/Him nor a She/Her in side Ye.
[while simultaneously listening to Ye own hol{i}-Cosmic Heart's own Harmonic-sound, that is iSYNC with the Creators Cosmic Heart Beat, sound] AND
Then , Stand, Sit , Lay Down or anywhere, DO THiS:
On "E" , say "E" & Breath iN "E", Steady, yet Slowly (mouth, not Nose) until ye FEEL Max Palindrome; Then
EXHALE, steady, yet faster that in, on "CLA..T, and when reaching Minimum Palindrome at "T", quickly INHALE between slow pace in & between fast exhale pase & thus sing "Hi" , or "i" until year can count last 2-Heart Beats!
iMPORTANT: Keep to Ye Self what Ye art doing, for 3-days & do This 3-Times Daily. 1st at Dawn, then true-Mid-Day, then at Dusk!
Note: Fear Not Friend: "i" will teleport Blessings, so to spaketh, to ye holy cosmic gifted "PHOTON FiNiTE ESSENCE!"
Then Ye Doctor(s) will be AMAZED, in O.U.R. Graceness!
Remember: We was Never Created, nor canth we ever be'th Destroyed!
WHEREFORE: O.U.R. 'Bio-Finite-Death' is never YE 'TRANS{FiNiTE}-DEATH!'. Believe in PHOTON/LiFE!
Happy PLANET-HOPPiNG, No more 'god' hunting [Praise Ye ELATi] & Happy Everyday again Instead!
Therefore: Sing HALLALUYA! Praise the HOL{i}No-Men.
WE are STUDENTs Together Forever With SOURCE-ONE & APOCALYPTARiAN(s) Never Graduate! From Past Lives, this live & other Space-Forth or Future-Bound , eternal, experiences. So,
PEACE, Paz, Sholam, Salaam, Ahimsa, Zhengyu, Mir...
---
By: http:////.......({..J..}).......({..O..}).......({..Z..}).......({...E.}).......({..V..}).......({..Z..})........dot....... {US}
From: JOKTAN-ian NATiONALS, U.S.A. & Beyond! Note: Each HUE{MATE}, not HUMANs anymore, are 'Automatic Citizen/Denizens of Holy Cosmic NEBULA Built MA/PA EARTH(s), not Bible(s)!
Posted by: "i" will look for a Kidney today & this whole week friend. | August 12, 2008 11:38 AM
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I'm sorry to report that politics is nasty business and neither candidate is a saint.
Regarding news coverage, perhaps you should try the BBC?
Posted by: BeowulfthePolitican | August 12, 2008 11:07 AM
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Lea-
Watch both conventions: then take a month-long vacation from ALL politics in October- the dirt both sides have been holding onto will be thrown.