Thank you, ol’ Uncle Rog (knightly being without the title) for staying in the Vanguard, ..even though you NEVER had to. With a Fender, a mind for melody & the genius of the crescendo, & the words, ever the words, too old for contemporary radio, never too old for rock-n-roll. I had a dream once (a vivid movie of a dream) wherein you, RW, ..& David Baerwald, & Neil Young, three kingdoms represented by noble statesmen, played 3 sets of fully accompanied, thought provoking, heart swelling, dignity expanding, tear jerking, Oi! resounding, mass aggravation station elation, chainsaw cuts the air & leaves a tear in the time space continuum, awareness, like too many gut punches, ..or too few friendly pillow fights anymore. Every time you step up to retake the mic: The truth overcome the lies, the bleeding heart overtake ancient vile predation, if only for one moment & the moment carries. The pebble in the pond….

….Breath…..

Justice without fear of hierarchy iz a human reality oppressed by those who would profit from the straw that broke the camel’s back ..over and over and over again, in my opinion.

I’ve seen footage of Israeli mothers with their children and I saw beautiful people there; I’ve seen footage of Palestinian mothers with their children and I saw beautiful people there. They are not the despicable source of wrongness across the globe, you know it’s true, but they share the blood (like we all share bloodlines of history’s tormenters). Yes, they are of the species that fuels the ire and perpetuates annihilation, enslavement, hate, torture, inhumanity, for sake of greed and dread. But they are just people, just ..humans ..being. Confused and decent and trying to make ends meet. & I don’t believe we can EVER overcome this dire state until we stop lumping people into groups, oversimplifying individuality, over-manipulating connectivity until the deeper meaning is obscured by doubts & fears.

I sense the fury, Geno, when you turn a phrase for Israel . . and I sense the rage, Mick, when you limerick on behalf of the Palestinians, and it is all whoops and jeers beside the football field. Not that it isn’t earnest. Not that it isn’t right. But it isn’t the people (the real people), the students, the mothers and their children, the grandparents passing traditions & wisdoms (& so sadly certain hints of bigotry that has to be taken with a grain of salt and evolved) down from generations. Generations that have to relearn nobleness, the hard way, I believe, because it is so rare to see in the acts of our most affluent anymore.

The apartheid of Gaza (for one means of oppression in a list of too many) is the pathway to grave wrongness, wrongness that imprisons free will notions of earth humanity, globally, while perpetuating warfare! Wrongness that propagates the most toxic environments: poisoning our blood ..and souls

…and for what?