Thanks

Where do I pickup my diploma?

Music Lives

no matter what, music will always be around. the birds will never stop singing, the wind blowing through the slot canyons in southern utah will never stop howling, coyotes will always cry to the moon hoping they will be heard by another. everyone has the power to create music, whether it's tapping their fingertips on their desk in class or singing in the shower. you don't need to have the voice of arethra franklin for singing to make you happy, if only the birds with the prettiest songs sang, the forest would be silent. people have been making music since they first were put on earth, there is tons of music references in the bible.

1 Samuel 10:5

5 After that you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is. And it will happen, when you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, and a harp before them; and they will be prophesying.

music is and always will be part of our lives, for escape, emotional outlet, and just for good old fun. if we didn't have music, our world would be sad and depressing, there would be no humming or whistling when we walk home alone. campfires would be accompanied by the crackle of the wood being burnt and the silence of the owls not hooting. protest chants would be more like protest statements because rhyme and meter have too much in common with music and people would begin to put melody to their chants. grandparents will teach their sons and daughters songs who will pass them along to their kids. there will always be songs that glorify a generation or a group, persuade people to change their thinking, and teach us valuable information. this is why bruce utah phillips was such a huge influence, he left a legacy of songs that will always be around and always be remembered.

Anarchy and Pacifism

This course has made me ponder my ideology. Many of the people we have studied and met people who call themselves anarchist pacifists. I thought I would explore these ideas further. This essay in particular did a good job of breaking down and merging the two ideologies.


http://cust.idl.com.au/fold/teach/Quakers/Anarchy%20and%20Pacifism.html

It has inspired me to ponder a world where conflicts, especially between nations are not fought through violence. This country would be so much wiser if it were to adapt non violence policies. Instead of spending trillions on weapons, we could enrich so many lives through subsidized education, wilderness preservation and health care. I recently changed my facebook info ideology to anarchist pacifist. I'm not sure this constitutes a lifestyle change, but it does call for a new way of thinking.

Music Through Familys Leads to Music Through History

If there's one thing that seems to stick with me this semester, it's that musical talents seem to start in the home. Their passed down through the generation, from family member to family member. I think that's part of what keeps old songs alive, learning them from our elders. I think this passing down of knowledge is what keeps "The Long Memory" alive.

I wanted to show an example of this kind of passing down of knowledge and talent. I grew up next door to Mary and Chappy which would be Muzzie Braun's parents and the grandparents of the band members of Reckless Kelly (who now have several hit country songs.) In fact, I remember the boys of Reckless Kelly stealing my clothes and toys and hanging them from an apple tree when I was about 5. If you ever listen to Sirius Radio, on one of the country stations every day around 4 Mary calls in to request to hear Reckless Kelly in support of her grandsons. Every year the Braun Brothers hold a reunion in Challis Idaho to bring together friends and family and play music for several days. This weekend long event is now arguably the only thing that keeps the Challis economy alive during these hard times. It attracts tourists from all over. I think this yearly reunion show, and family's passing of music through generations is a great example of how individuals can keep their long memory growing. Below is several clips of both generations playing music.







This one is definitely a protest song:

Remember

Thanks everyone - my teaching partner Bob, our guests and especially students - for such a rich and rewarding learning experience. Historians are all about memory, usually in the form of written documents that we assemble and interpret to tell stories. Here in this class, we explored all kinds of other ways to remember - songs, live and recorded, with and without accompaniment; verbal reminiscences in person, on DVD, on CD; photographs, drawings, cartoons. We used things from a single human voice to twelve people with microphones, amps and guitars to Skype and Youtube and everything in between. I feel especially good whenever I listen to Utah Phillips talk about "the long memory" and how "they don't teach this stuff in school" - well, sometimes they do. Maybe my form of activism is to help perpetuate and pass on memories that might otherwise get forgotten - a small part of Utah's oversized legacy.

Viva la Historia! Hasta la victoria siempre! Solidarity Forever! Take it easy, but take it!

Laying Down the Weapons of Privilege

Tuesday's discussion on how to live in a society with these inequities helped me realize what Ammon Hennacy might have meant when he told Bruce that nonviolence meant laying down the weapons of privilege, not just abstaining from directly harming other people.

See, I feel that I live my lifestyle on the exploitation of others, present and future (past, too, but there's not much I can do for them). It's so obvious--I don't labor but I enjoy the product of other people's labor; my purchases wreck the environment in ways that affect poorer community's health and the viability of the future for everyone--but the poor disproportionately.

I can say it's not my fault, that it's the system, and that's true on a level. But I feel compelled to dedicate myself to righting those wrongs. I'm not there yet--don't know what I want to work toward and still developing the self-discipline--but I think meeting some of the people in this class has helped me realize it really is possible to try.

I grew up thinking that everyone felt the same way as I do but had good practical reasons for not taking action, so I shouldn't set out on such a path either, but since then I've realized that a lot of people do take action and that a lot of other people don't necessarily care very much. Oh, and that there are serious practical obstacles, but that's true for pretty much everything in life.

My father is virulently opposed to me prioritizing anything above my own economic success, and my mother is distressed by my lack of political apathy. It's good to know I'm not as absolutely insane as they think I am, or at least that I have company. It still seems bordering on absurd to imagine that I can or would really achieve something as momentous as "laying down the weapons of privilege," but it sounds like a fine ideal.

Current AFL & CIO Battle with Wisconsin Bill

Looking through the Website that was suggested on the syllabus http://wisaflcio.typepad.com/ ----I found an article that was talking about an illegal bill that was passed by the governor Scott Walker and Senate Republicans in Wisconsin. This bill would essentially leave thousands of workers without rights and the union which protects them without power to aid their workers. As the article says, the bill is a "union stripping bill".

The interesting part of this bill is that the judge, MaryAnn Sumi , of the case says that there is "clear and convincing" evidence that the makers of the bill broke a law in order to get it passed. The law that was allegedly broken is called the "open meetings law". According to the article this entails that, "To pass a bill in a Joint Committee of Conference, 24 hours notice must be given to both Representatives and the public". The open meetings law is in place in order to make the public workers and populous in general aware of the government and its affairs. Apparently this law was not adhered to in the case of this bill. On June 6, the case will be handled by the Supreme Court. Hopefully the Supreme court hears the cries of workers, and protects their rights. But this looks like a fight to the finish that will require support from all factions of society, whether worker or owner.

According to the article,"This bill would not only have negative affects on public employees but on all of Wisconsin workers and the middle class".

What surprises me about this bill is that at our present age in society we still have such unjust bills being passed that are very detrimental to the rights of workers. This shows us the importance of voting for our politicians. We must take time to research the politicians for which we vote. WE decide the future with our vote. We indirectly vote for bigger measures with our vote for a politician.

The Wall

Walls have a history in the long memory. The Wall of China, The Berlin Wall, Hadrian's Wall... and now the U.S. Mexican Boarder Wall.  The book we received in class today entitled The American Wall, had a powerful essay written by Charles Bowden (who recently visited Westminster College a few months ago) and depicts both the hypocrisy and the ignorance that have made the wall its brain child. I was reminded of the dark era that was the Bush administration, and the first time I caught wind of the wall was when I got my news from comedy central.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/183084/june-21-2007/difference-makers---tim-donnelly

I recalled an interview with Bowden I had seen a couple of months ago, and I realized this greed and fear isn't just America vs. Mexico, it is a common 1st world vs. 3rd world. It frustrates me that there is still so much money being spent on militias rather than making an attempt to help our fellow human beings. Why is this world run on fear and hatred?

Pancho Villa

Here is a song I found about Pancho Villa, it said the artist of the song was Billy Walker. I was not able a live version of it though by Billy Walker.

Pancho villa pancho villa the robinhood of mexico
Pancho villa pancho villa the robinhood of old mexico

He rode into town one evening the streets began too clear
The word was passed in whisper the bandit pancho villa's here
With his band of mighty outlaws many stories had been told
Did he fight for the rights of us or was it lust for gold
His rifles numbered forty his men gave a mighty shout
And the soldiers that we hated were all dead or criminal
And when the battle ended our town was in his hands
We realized that with men free bout pancho villa's outlaw band
Pancho villa pancho villa..

Then I looked out my window and I began to pray
As he smiled at my rosana across the street as she came my way
I knew my hand was trembling as I prepared to draw
And in my eyes could not believe the miracle I saw
He put down gold and silver and food for us to eat
Said I didn't come to harm you and our hearts fell at his feet
He told us to build a mission so grand and so strong so gay
So the people that he love would know pancho villa passed this way
Pancho villa pancho villa..

Waging Nonviolence

I looked up "nonviolence" after today's class and found the blog wagingnonviolence.org, which reports on... nonviolence all around the world, including specific protests, history, and reflections on trends, like "Facebook's Role in Yemen's Uprising".

The latest post is on a planned June 17 protest in Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive or take public transportation. On this day, participating women will follow traffic rules--and drive around on daily errands. Some participants in a similar 1990 protest (who, it's implied, also broke laws against assembly) "lost their jobs, were forbidden to travel abroad, or were maligned in mosque sermons." Manal al Sharif, one of the organizers of the protest, is currently in jail.




For news closer to home, the blog's archives also have 580 posts tagged "United States".

Ocean View - One Day As A Lion

One Day As A Lion is the blending music styles of major activist Zach de la Rocha and Mars Volta Drummer Jon Theodore. The band was named after a picture by Chicano photographer George Rodriguez. In the picture was taken of an art piece that was found on a wall in Boyle Heights in the 1970s. it reads "it's better to live one day as a lion then a thousand years as a lamb." We spoke about this in class and it's something to take a moment to think about. Is passive resistance better than violent resistance? below are the lyrics to one of their songs Ocean View.

Blood done been running down streets flood with beats

Pepper spray over cracked concrete

So vicious make a rich mans neck split

Underworld bout to wreck shit bet this

Banks closed stomachs churning

Lines and rows cops blastin out church windows

They heard word of two on a terror list

Hid in the pews just two city terrace kids

One held a piece just for peace of mind

The other was spittin poems blowin minds

On the picket line

Barricades lay cross made with bumpers and burning tires

And you could smell the exhaust

And you could hear the kids screaming don't

Play us, too close

You can have the mic or the heater but you can't hold both

And they were both...

And they were both...

Ocean of tears rise, rise a flame to tear them down

Ocean of past crimes now fill our hearts to tear them down

The water main's cut off panic hit the manor of the

Mayor who's soft

Word hit the streets that the cops got off

They shook to rhythm of heaters that burned

Like claps of thunder

You turn to look at vengeance returned that shatter control

After the whole shock of the news that a bomb hit the

Bridge at broadway

Gridlock full stop every exit way from Chavez to main

Downtown was the same

Every corner a flame with lines of people stripped of they clothes

Freeze hold up your ID's their houses burned as they watched

The colonel looked at his clock

And they were all...

And they were all...

Oceans of tears rise, rise a flame to tear them down

Ocean of past crimes now fill our hearts to tear them down

EZLN - Our Word is our Weapon

Sub Comandante Marcos has written numerous amounts of articles and books about what the EZLN have been doing down in Mexico specifically where they are based in the southern region of Chiapas. Since 1994, they have declared war on Mexico and they continuously make their point heard to fight capitalistic governments. Above is a more or less a slideshow of pictures with Subcomandante reading a speech he had written to the citizens of Mexico know that he is there continuously trying to hold the liberation army together, add more support from the citizens, as well as stay strong in their fight to end Capatist governments and bring the power and money back to the workers of the country...

I think it's a really cool short speech that is just out to bring the people back to the cause. enjoy

About the IWW and Direct Action

So I was looking for something for my last blog post, and I think I found the perfect video that could possibly sum up our entire lesson focus for the week in 5 minutes and 10 seconds, and who could anyone else be the better narrator than Utah Phillips himself? This video really helps wrap up everything we have been learning, (or at least as much as 5 minutes can do) with great pictures (a lot of familiar ones too) and captions. Hope y'all enjoy!

"Direct Action" by Utah Phillips

MGMT & ______

When I was reading the IWW newspaper that Tony Roehrig & Mike Garcia--May 2011 issue of the IWW's newspaper Industrial Worker--gave to the class I found an article entitled Their Interests And Ours by Scott Nappalos that brought up an interesting point. Why do we need manangement in our businesses, colleges, and other forms of labor organization? Could we, as human beings, be rational enough to govern ourselves without the need of an outside overseer? This is the main question: Do we trust our fellow workers around us enough to not have any form of employee government? And if we do trust our fellow employee in their capability of self-government, then on what grounds--i.e. how can you verify that every employee has this benevolent capability?
In the article by Nappalos, he talks about how even health care professionals--nurses, doctors, etc.--are governed by a management body. He says the following about mangerical ideology: "Managerial organization is directed at solving the problem posed by workers unwilling and unable to conform to their engineered designs. At best, they offer us apologies for the health care system, but emphasize discipline, subservience and utilize heavy threats" ("Their Interests And Ours"). In the author's mind, Scott Nappalos, he is saying that the managerical system is set in place to keep workers in line with an organized form of doing things that the manager has created through rules, regulations, and other sorts of employee fences that they are not supposed to climb, but only respect. As Nappalos says, managers offer condolences, but at the same time they enforce strict discipline and expect the worker to follow their lead at all times.
What are we to think of the position of managers and managerical organizations? To define myself clearly here, when I speak of managerical organizations, I mean organizations that have a top down leadership format to their businesses--heirarchical organization. I'll ask once again is there a need for managers and managerical organizations, if their main duty is to make sure that we are following the rules of a corporation, etc.?
To ask this last question we must first ask ourselves if we don't need a managerical labor framework, then are we ourselves capable of governing ourselves? If we were left to roam free in the labor world, ungoverned, then could we have responsibility enough to avoid having the use for a managerical organization to oversee our actions toward other employees and the organization in general? On what grounds can we affirm this? It seems clear that the only way that we could show that all human beings are fit for self-government and responsibility, is to open their mind and see if we could check their, so to say, self-governability faculty. This is surely impossibly absurd to think possible.
We then have a ideological crossroad that we must face, and that is: Do we choose to have organizations without management bodies regulating them, or do we choose to have organizations built on the premise that the individual is rational enough to govern himself/herself? Which is more preferable to assume: 1) To assume that each individual is rational/responsible enough to govern their own employment conduct, or to assume that managerical bodies in organizations are necessary for a well ordered and profitable company? It appears that either route one chooses, there is an assumption to which one is bound. Maybe some people's belief that managerical bodies in our organizations are fundamentally necessary, shows an embedded distrust of 'the other' (person)--the same could be said about people who distrust organizations; maybe they don't trust organizations because they don't trust individuals running the organization. Surely not everyone dislikes their boss and the way he/she does business. Right? Maybe.
Either way it is apparent that depending one the system to which one adheres--to have managerical bodies or to have self-governing individuals, there is an assumption that one must be willing to make: individuals are capable of self-government or individuals are not capable of self-government and need managerical bodies to govern them.

Sands of Iwo Jima

This was a song that I considers using as my in class song. Great song and i would definitely consider it folk music. Drive-by Truckers

IWW Cartoons

I wanted to see if I could find some Pro-IWW Propaganda and I found alot, here are some of the good ones.

JOE HILL
As we come to the end of the course, we reach Joe Hill, a name often mentioned in class. For an overview, go (of course) to wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill. (Be sure to look at the section "influences and tributes" to get a sense of the impact his case continues to have.)

Even people who don't know anything about the IWW or labor histiory may know his name because of a poem that was turned into a song: I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night. There are many versions. Here is one by Joan Baez who sings it regularly at her concerts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f2J4ceCikI&feature=related. Read some of the comments on this site; some are strongly anti-union and may give you a different sense of their role in America. (There is also a much longer song about Joe Hill done by Phil Ochs and re-recorded by Bill Bragg which you can find on youtube. Ochs was a major figure in the folk revival in the 1960s and wrote some amazing songs.)

Finally Bob Dylan, in Chronicles Volume One, says that he was deeply moved by the story of Joe Hill -- he includes a 3 page summary of the case in the book which he wrote and which is fairly accurate -- but didn't think it was a good song. He thought it was "preachy and one-dimensional... [In protest songs] you have to show people a side of themselves that they don't know is there. The song 'Joe Hill' doesn't even come close, but if there ever was someone who could inspire a song, it was him. Joe had the light in his eyes." Dylan says he thought about writing a song about Joe Hill. One version would have been titled "Scatter My Ashes Anyplace but Utah" and that line would have been the refrain. He thought about another version using the approach of "Long Black Veil" (a great song) and even thought that "'Long Black Veil' seemed like it could have been a song written by Joe Hill himself, his last one." In the end, Dylan didn't write a Joe Hill song -- but he is only 70 and there is still time.....

IWW Protest Songs

I found a book called "Little Red Song Book" A good number of the songs are written by Joe Hill. The book contains many songs by tons of other artists. One of the songs by Joe Hill is "Joe Hill's Last Will"

Joe Hill's Last Will

 My will is easy to decide, For there is nothing to divide.
My kin don't need to fuss and moan–
"Moss does not cling to a rolling stone.
"My body? Ah, if I could choose,
 I would to ashes it reduce,
And let the merry breezes blow
 My dust to where some
flower's grow.
Perhaps some fading flower then
                        Would come to life and bloom again.
                        This is my last and final will.
                        Good luck to all of you,  Joe Hill


.A Complete list of songs that are included in the song book is at
http://www.sacredchao.net/iww/index.shtml

Christmas Time in Washington by Steve Earle

It's Christmastime in Washington
The Democrats rehearsed
Gettin' into gear for four more years
Things not gettin' worse
The Republicans drink whiskey neat
And thanked their lucky stars
They said, 'He cannot seek another term
They'll be no more FDRs'
I sat home in Tennessee
Staring at the screen
With an uneasy feeling in my chest
And I'm wonderin' what it means

Chorus:
So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now

I followed in your footsteps once
Back in my travelin' days
Somewhere I failed to find your trail
Now I'm stumblin' through the haze
But there's killers on the highway now
And a man can't get around
So I sold my soul for wheels that roll
Now I'm stuck here in this town

There's foxes in the hen house
Cows out in the corn
The unions have been busted
Their proud red banners torn
To listen to the radio
You'd think that all was well
But you and me and Cisco know
It's going straight to hell

So come back, Emma Goldman
Rise up, old Joe Hill
The barracades are goin' up
They cannot break our will
Come back to us, Malcolm X
And Martin Luther King
We're marching into Selma
As the bells of freedom ring

Reaction: I decided to take a look at this song after it was mentioned in class. I think that Earle has a poetic way of recalling history. He valued "the long memory" of those past leaders who stood up for social justice. I was glad to hear the names of Woody Guthrie, Emma Goldman, Joe Hill, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King mentioned directly.

If I had chosen another Protest Song

If I had chosen another protest song, I probably would have chose this song. I think protesting how society does religion nowadays is definitely worthy of protest. Then again, Miranda Lambert songs tend to protest a lot of society's rules and norms in my opinion. My favorite line is definitely

"Even though I hate to admit it
Sometimes I smoke cigarettes
Christian folks say I should quit it
I just smile and say “God bless”"

I think that line expresses how I often feel about the judgments "Christian" folks seem to cast upon people, and that smiling and just brushing it off and taking the higher road is probably closer to what God would want of us.