Vitamin B

Image by way of wikipedia.

I just finished watching the new Bob Marley documentary and it made me realize how much his music has meant to me over the years. The first time I heard Redemption Song it pretty much stopped me in my tracks.

Once I "discovered" Bob, years after most people had, I devoured all his music I could find. West Virginia and Jamaica are obviously different places, but both have been colonized in their own way by Babylon.

Marley's music has a powerful combination of radicalism and spirituality that has given many people the world over the courage to get up/stand up. It's been too long since I gave Bob a serious listen but that's about to change. I highly recommend it as there's nothing better to lively up yourself.

HOW DID I MISS THIS New York Times column about zombies, apocalypses and such?

NOT AN APOCALYPSE, NECESSARILY, BUT BAD ENOUGH. I'm referring to climate change. That's the bad news. The good news is it looks like more people are starting to take it seriously.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

A blast from the past

In between discs of an unabridged recording of Shelby Foote's Civil War trilogy, this weekend I caught this NPR story on an old musical favorite, Peter Tosh, once a member of Bob Marley's Wailers. It's worth a listen.

As an economic justice person working for an organization that is best known for advocating peace, I have to admit that I have a particular fondness for the chorus of his song "Equal Rights"

Everyone is crying out for peace yes
None is crying out for justice
I don't want no peace
I need equal rights and justice

I must admit to have mellowed a bit with age; I still want justice, but I'll take peace too if it's on the table.

CAN'T OR WON'T act to fix the economy? Mostly won't.

RETHINKING THE DRUG WAR. It hasn't worked too well.

PROTECTING THE POOR. A wide variety of WV groups have called on their congressional delegation to spare programs that are lifelines to low income people in budget deliberations.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED