“Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is the Peace Song of the Day for May 4th. Today is the 42nd anniversary of the shootings of nonviolent anti-war protesters at Kent State. During the late ’60s, the music of CSNY (Chicago/We Can Change the World, Long Time Gone, Cost of Freedom) reported on the events of the day better than the TV news. We could use someone like them to write “Fallujah” and “Oakland” today.
“My Guitar Gently Weeps” by George Harrison is Peace Song of the Day for May Day, May 1st. The song was first recorded by The Beatles. Today, a phalanx of guitars, marching in the Occupy Guitarmy, of part of May Day celebrations. (Information at the Occupy Guitarmy website: here.) Also the track is in honor of the Duchess’ Tearwater Tea Party for May Day. Harrison credits the inspiration for the song to the I Ching.
The thirteenth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace contains Erich Fromm‘s 1960 essay The Case for Unilateral Disarmament. Fromm was a psychoanalyst and a member of the Frankfurt School. He co-founded the anti-nuclear organization SANE, which as named after his 1955 book, The Sane Society. SANE is now part of Peace Action.
Like Muste and Wallace, Fromm argues that the safest path to security is unilateral disarmament. Not surprisingly, Fromm approaches the discussion from a psychological perspective. To start with he pushes aside the question of whether disarmament is unilateral or mutual. Instead, he reaches for the question of what the reaction of the opposing side will be to disarmament. He rather dryly states that
it is unfortunately true that political leaders can rarely be trusted
Fromm’s purpose is not to demonize political leaders; he argues that the human nature causes them to bifurcate their personal moral beliefs from their morality as institutional leaders. He finds Hitler to be personally immoral, but the Russian [sic] leaders to be moral in their personal beliefs. Continue reading
“One Guitar” by singer/songwriter Willie Nile is the Peace Song of the Day for April 30th. Tomorrow, a thousand guitars, marching in the Occupy Guitarmy, will perform song as part of their set list. (There is still time to join. Info, schedule, and set lists at the Occupy Guitarmy website: here.)
“If You Want To Sing Out” by Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) is the Peace Song of the Day for April 29, 2012. A video of this song was posted at OccupyWallSt.org in relation to the upcoming Occupy May Day/General Strike activities. So, we wonder if folks may be singing this one in the streets on Tuesday.
“All My Loving“ by the Beatles is the Peace Song of the Day for April 28th. The Duke and Duchess dedicate this to the newest member of our family.
As royalty (in the most whimsical of senses), the Duke and Duchess of Peace envision themselves as proclaiming the Peace Song of the Day. If you look around the news today, you see that the people of Norway have made the choice: The Peace Song of the Day is “Children of the Rainbow” by Pete Seeger.
In a compassionate, defiant, community response to the actions and words of the right wing, mass murderer, who killed 77 people last year, 40,000 people gathered in Oslo to sing Pete Seeger’s song about love and tolerance, “Children of the Rainbow” (“My Rainbow Race”, English title.)
You can see video from the scene in Norway below. And underneath, is a story from Common Dreams, and the song lyrics. The song, in English, appears in Rise Up Singing: The Group Singing Songbook, the songbook which was part of the inspiration for our Peace Song of the Day project. We knew that the answer to world peace was somewhere between the covers of that amazing, inspiring, abundant collection of sing-a-long tunes.
Thanks to David Mitchell, for sending along the Common Dreams story, with the link to the authentic video, this morning.