It's darkest before the dawn- "Quite Early Morning" by Holly Near

A cover of a great, hope-filled Pete Seeger classic

Quite Early Morning
Pete Seeger

Don't you know it's darkest before the dawn
And it's this thought keeps me moving on
If we could heed these early warnings
The time is now quite early morning
If we could heed these early warnings
The time is now quite early morning

Some say that humankind won't long endure
But what makes them so doggone sure?
I know that you who hear my singing
Could make those freedom bells go ringing
I know that you who hear my singing
Could make those freedom bells go ringing

And so keep on while we live
Until we have no, no more to give
And when these fingers can strum no longer
Hand the old banjo to young ones stronger
And when these fingers can strum no longer
Hand the old banjo to young ones stronger

So though it's darkest before the dawn
These thoughts keep us moving on
Through all this world of joy and sorrow
We still can have singing tomorrows
Through all this world of joy and sorrow
We still can have singing tomorrows

Peace Now! "New Kicks," by Le Tigre

We Say No To War! Peace Now! This is What Democracy Looks Like!

 Kathleen Hanna, activist, musician, and member of Le Tigre and Bikini Kill, produces this modern protest anthem.

Marching in Ferguson, August 14, 2014

On August 14, hundreds of people gathered in Ferguson to peacefully uphold the rights of citizens to protest on the streets of Ferguson after police had unleashed teargas and pointed sniper rifles at those who were engaged in peaceful protest. I was proud to be among these people.

Some of our sisters at the meeting point had brought signs.

Episcopal Bishop Smith marched on the outside as clergy were asked to do in order to support the other protesters.

At the site of the killing of Mike Brown, on Canfield Drive in the Canfield Green Apartments.

A Deaconess Anne House intern at the starting point.

Friends of mine in the crowd.

Deaconess Anne House intern Eric and my friend Emily.

Some of the great people who marched behind me kept up a great variety of chants.

There I am at Canfield Green.

There were some amazing speeches and signs carried to Canfield.

On the way back down West Florissant Road.

St. John's Tower Grove's contingent.

Raise up your children in the way they should go....

Bishop Smith on Canfield Drive.

Crossing the Delmar Divide: the BBC investigates housing segregation in St. Louis

The video is available on KPLR's website: Crossing the Delmar Divide

Here is the link from YouTube:

Marching Against Monsanto- "Hummingbird"- The Both

I got a message from the Hummingbird....

Hummingbird
Ted Leo and Aimee Mann

In the woods we lit a fire
And we watched a wary deer walk by
The trees were restless,
moving underbrush
And clouds were banking in the sky

But I got a message from the hummingbird
He gave me a warning in disguise
He told me they're marching on Monsanto
But the same monolithic structures rise

In the garden we sat writing
To the rush of highway noise beside
Lonesome bees ignored the sirens
While remembering their dancing guide

But I got a message from the hummingbird
He gave me a warning in disguise
He told me they're marching on the Capitol
With wings at their back
and fear in their eyes

There's sage and glove and distant waters
But there's no map home
for Memory's daughters
Do the darting thoughts of gods have
dreams like ours?

On the tarmac rows of pirouetting
Jets wait gravely in their lanes
While from our windows, getting higher
We see hybrids wandering the plains

And I got a message from the hummingbird
He gave me a warning in disguise
He told me they're barking at their shadows
While the same monolithic structures rise

I got a message from the hummingbird

I believe in prophecy- "God is God"- Steve Earle

Yeah, I believe in God, and God ain't me....

God is God
Steve Earle

I believe in prophecy.
Some folks see things not everybody can see.
And,once in a while,they pass the secret along to you and me.

And I believe in miracles.
Something sacred burning in every bush and tree.
We can all learn to sing the songs the angels sing.

Yeah, I believe in God, and God ain't me.

I've traveled around the world,
Stood on mighty mountains and gazed across the wilderness.
Never seen a line in the sand or a diamond in the dust.

And as our fate unfurls,
Every day that passes I'm sure about a little bit less.
Even my money keeps telling me it's God I need to trust.

And I believe in God, but God ain't us.

God,in my little understanding, don't care what name I call.
Whether or not I believe doesn't matter at all.

I receive the blessings.
That every day on Earth's another chance to get it right.
Let this little light of mine shine and rage against the night.

Just another lesson
Maybe someone's watching and wondering what I got.
Maybe this is why I'm here on Earth, and maybe not.

But I believe in God, and God is God.

California Drought, 2014-2015

California, a state built on stolen water, as detailed in the book Cadillac Desert, has about one year of water left. Here is what Lake McClure, which is a reservoir in California, looks like right now.

Magdalene House and Thistle Farms: Getting women off the streets

The Rev. Becca Stevens founded Magdalene House and Thistle Farms as part of her work with the women on the streets of Nashville, started in 2001. Love heals!

Here's a larger overview of the program:

Thistle Farms: A Love Story

One round heart, One round home- "Apocalypse Lullaby" by the Wailin' Jennys

Hurricanes will come...

Apocalypse Lullaby
Annabelle Chvostek

Hurricanes will come
Earthquakes break the walls
Oceans rise
Empires fall

Enter world, light unshown
Follow heart, follow home
Here we are, light unshown
One round heart, one round home

Spin the speed of light
Tetrahedron blue
One last paradise
You can make for you

Enter world, light unshown
Follow heart, follow home
Here we are, light unshown
One round heart, one round home

Faster than a ship
Further than bomb
See the glowing grid
Send love throughout the throng

Enter world, light unshown
Follow heart, follow home
Here we are, light unshown
One round heart, one round home

Heading to El Norte- "Crystal Frontier" by Calexico

Crystal Frontier
Joey Burns

Marco's shadow falls on the door to the seven lost cities of gold
Finds a raven's head and rattlers tail
Dead in his tracks, this godforsaken soul's
Unwanted here and his ghost lingers for years

Amalia's face hides behind the mask sweating on the TV factory line
That smile on her face is starting to crack
While welding back the pieces of a shattered heart
That's scattered out here, with the ghosts of her peers

Searches for her lost child along the river of tears, the river of tears

At the end of the working week
When drunken worlds meet
Both sides keeping a close eye
For a break in the line here on the crystal frontier, crystal frontier

Ramon tightens up his leather belt and slips through a hole in the fence
He can get you anything you want
Might cost you a life, might cost you
The whole price of freedom here on the crystal frontier

Searches for her lost love along the river of tears, the river of tears

Blood spills out on the streets
And bodies are missing for weeks
Both sides keeping a close eye
Watching the bullets fly here on the crystal frontier, crystal frontier

Indiana passes law legalizing discrimination in the name of "religious liberty"

On Thursday, March 26, 2015, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signs a law sweeping in its protection for discriminatory behavior, particularly against LGBTQ persons:

Here is an analysis from The Atlantic explaining why this law goes further than any of the other so-called "religious liberty" laws on the books:
What Makes Indiana's Religious Liberty Law Different?

Human sex trafficking in Oklahoma

In our country, the young girls and women forced onto the streets are criminalized and repeatedly arrested, while their customers and pimps, sometimes members of their own families, face no consequences. An overview of Sex Trafficking in Oklahoma City.

Toll of the Drug War: Self-Defense Groups in Michoacan

After years of chaos and being at the mercy of the Knights Templar cartel, armed groups of civilians have taken over policing Michoacan, Mexico.

There's an excellent summary of this situation at Upside Down World.

Selling the Girl Next Door: Child Sex Trafficking

A CNN special report. St. Louis is a major area for sex trafficking, given the number of major interstates that converge in our area.

Life as an undocumented migrant- "Better and Better" by Calexico

Is it better than staying back home?

Better and Better
John Convertino, Joey Burns

There's a letter she keeps inside, a list of everyone she knows
Behind her closed eyes that turn her in when its time to go

Shes heading north into the haze, raise the wire and they raise the rent
Shes walking the sun back home and in the night the moon is gone

Is it better? Is it better and better?
Is it better than staying home with nowhere to go?

I've seen your face out on the plains drifting all alone
Draw my finger in the dirt and down another blue road

She's in Kansas and Alabam, Idaho and the Carolines
Know I've seen her before cant you recognize those hands
Is it better? Is it better and better?

Is it better than staying back home?
Is it better? Is it better and better?
Is it better with nowhere else to go?

Domestic violence-- "Voices Carry" by 'Til Tuesday

I'm in the dark, I'd like to read his mind
But I'm frightened of the things I might find
Oh, there must be something he's thinking of
To tear him away
When I tell him that I'm falling in love
Why does he say

Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry

I try so hard not to get upset
Because I know all the trouble I'll get
Oh, he tells me tears are something to hide
And something to fear-eh-eh
And I try so hard to keep it inside
So no one can hear

Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry

He wants me, but only part of the time
He wants me, if he can keep me in line

Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, shut up now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, darling, she might overhear
Hush, hush - voices carry
He said shut up - he said shut up
Oh God can't you keep it down
Voices carry
Hush hush, voices carry

Ellen DeGeneres on the suicide of Tyler Clemente

Ellen speaks out after the tragic suicide of Tyler Clemente after he was outed by his college roommate.

It Gets Better Campaign- Combating Bullying

 A few of the "It Gets Better Campaign" from 2010, which was started by Dan Savage after a spate of suicides and bullying incidents.
From Pixar:

 Dan and Terry:

St. Louis's own Andy Cohen:

This is My Home- "Finlandia," by the Indigo Girls

A Song of Peace....

Finlandia
Lloyd Stone

This is my song, O God of all the nations
A song of peace, for lands afar & mine
This is my home, the country where my heart is
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations
A song of peace for their land and for mine

Global Warming Effects Map

 From the National Geographic:

And here is a NASA video:

If All of Earth's Ice Melted:

Here is a link to an interactive map about global warming: Global Warming Map

Bullying- "Tony" by Patty Griffin

A song about a kid who is pushed to the edge by bullying in school.

Tony
by Patty Griffin

Does anyone remember Tony
A quiet boy, little over weight
He had breasts like a girl
When I wasn't too busy feeling lonely
I'd stare over his shoulder
At a map of the world
He always finished all his homework
Raised his hand in homerooom
He called the morning attendance
With the pledge alligence to the gloom

Hey Tony, what's so good about dying
He said I think I might do a little dying today
He looked in the mirror and saw
A little faggot starin' back at him
Pulled out a gun and blew himself away

I hated every day of high school
It's funny, I guess you did too
Its funny how I never knew
There I was sitting right behind you
They wrote it in the local rag
Death comes to the local fag
I guess you finally stopped believing
That any hope would ever find you
Well I know that story,
I was sitting right behind you

Hey Tony, what's so good about dying
He said I think I might do a little dying today
He looked in the mirror and saw
A little faggot starin' back at him
Pulled out a gun and blew himself away

Hey Tony whats so good about dying, dying
Hey Tony whats so good about dying, dying
Hey Tony, what's so good about dying
He said I think I might do a little dying today
He looked in the mirror and saw
A little faggot starin' back at him
Pulled out a gun and blew himself away
Pulled out a gun and blew himself away
Pulled out a gun and blew himself away

Life Before the Spill- "The Gulf of Mexico" by Steve Earle

Stepping out on the drilling floor to earn a roughneck's pay....

The Gulf Of Mexico
Steve Earle

Come and gather 'round me people
And a tale to you I'll tell
Of my father and his father
In the days before the spill
With an endless sky above 'em
And a restless sea below
And every blessin' flowing from the Gulf of Mexico

From my Granddad with the shrimp boats
From the time that he was grown
And he scrimped and saved and bought himself
A trawler of his own
He was rough and he was ready
And he drank when he was home
And he made his family's living on the Gulf of Mexico

We were rolling
We were rolling
Past the deep blue water
He was rolling

Well my Daddy drove a crew boat
Hauling workers to the rigs
He was sick of mending nets
And couldn't stand the smell of fish
He drew a steady paycheck
20 years at Texico
When he died they spread his ashes
On the Gulf of Mexico

We were rolling
We were rolling
Past the deep green water
He was rolling

As for me, I think of nothing
Any grander than the day
That I stepped out on the drillin' floor
To earn a roughneck's pay

Then one night I swear I saw the devil
Crawlin' from the hole
And he spilled the guts of hell out in the Gulf of Mexico

We were rolling
We were rolling
'Cross the blood red water
We were rolling

Timelapse: Deforestation

Using NASA satellite images of the Amazon Rainforest

Tamir Rice is shot for holding a BB gun

Within two seconds of arrival, 12 year old Tamir Rice is shot and killed for playing with a BB gun in a park in Cleveland on November 23, 2014.

Police later blame the victim for his own death.

We Should All Be Feminists

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian novelist, gives a TedX Talk: We Should All Be Feminists.

Does the word "feminist" mean "a woman who is unhappy because she can't find a husband?"

Is this merely a Western concept?

Boko Haram: Bring Back Our Girls

On May 5, 2014, militants affiliated with jihadist group Boko Haram:

Prayer of the Refugee: Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone

The effects of the civil war in Sierra Leone, set to the music of Rise Against's "Prayer of the Refugee."

The War in Sierra Leone and its Impact of Girls

Across the world, children are forced into slavery as soldiers in conflicts.

Girl Soldiers in Sierra Leone.

Because I am  girl in Sierra Leone: outlining the effects of the war in Sierra Leone on young girls:

August protests over the shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson

Protest in Oakland on August 14

Protest in Chicago on August 25

The Missouri History Museum on Ferguson: Where Do We Go From Here?

Ferguson: Where Do We Go From Here?-- August 30, 2014

From Brown to Ferguson: The Unfinished Business of Civil Rights-- September 24, 2014

Love Is But a Song We Sing-- "Get Together" by the Indigo Girls

Try and love one another right now....

Get Together

Chet Powers

Love is but the song we sing,
And fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Know the dove is on the wing
And you need not know why

C'mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Ev'rybody get together
Try and love one another right now

 

Some will come and some will go
We shall surely pass
When the one that left us here
Returns for us at last
We are but a moments sunlight
Fading in the grass

C'mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Ev'rybody get together
Try and love one another right now

If you hear the song I sing,
You must understand
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It's there at your command

C'mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Ev'rybody get together
Try and love one another right now
Right now
Right now!

Life in the City: "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters," Elton John

How do we maintain our humanity as our cities decay around us?

Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Bernie Taupin

And now I know
Spanish Harlem are not just pretty words to say
I thought I knew
But now I know that rose trees never grow in New York City

Until you've seen this trash can dream come true
You stand at the edge while people run you through
And I thank the Lord there's people out there like you
I thank the Lord there's people out there like you

While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night
For unless they see the sky
But they can't and that is why
They know not if it's dark outside or light

This Broadway's got
It's got a lot of songs to sing
If I knew the tunes I might join in
I'll go my way alone
Grow my own, my own seeds shall be sown in New York City

Subway's no way for a good man to go down
Rich man can ride and the hobo he can drown
And I thank the Lord for the people I have found
I thank the Lord for the people I have found

Worldwide reaction to the verdict by the Darren Wilson grand jury

 Before the decision, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency:

The reaction in Ferguson over the refusal to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the murder of Mike Brown, announced on November 25, 2014.

New York City erupts in protest on November 25, 2014.

The Rise of Fascism against Muslims in Germany

Groups of fascists and anti-fascists clash in Germany after attacks on Muslims.

Freedom of Worship Without Fear

Christians formed a ring around Muslims praying in Tahrir Square as part of a peaceful protest against the regime of long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011:

On September 22, 2013, a bomb tore through a Christian church in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 78.

This was the response by Muslims in Pakistan two weeks later:

Where does morning lie?-"Will There Really Be a Morning?" by Conspirare

Lyrics by Emily Dickinson, music by Craig Hella Johnson

Will There Really Be a Morning Lie
Emily Dickinson, Craig Hella Johnson

Will there really be a "Morning"?
Is there such a thing as "Day"?
Could I see it from the mountains
If I were as tall as they?
Morning, morning, where does morning lie?

Has it feet like water-lilies?
Has it feathers like a bird?
Is it brought from famous countries
Of which I have never heard?
Morning, morning, where does morning lie?

Oh, some scholar! Oh, some sailor!
Oh, some wise man from the skies!
Please to tell a little pilgrim
Where the place called "Morning" lies!
Morning, morning, where does morning lie?

Sandy Hook School Shootings

A Timeline of the events in Newtown, CT.

Number of gun control laws passed in Connecticut since Sandy Hook: 0.

A Love Supreme, Pt. 4: Psalm

In 1964, John Coltrane created his masterpiece, A Love Supreme. When he created the fourth movement, he placed on his music stand only these words-- a psalm he had written. The music flowed from the psalm.

The Death Penalty on the Streets

A TedX talk: The Death Penalty on the Streets.

Are we really comfortable allowing police to administer the death penalty without due process, without seeking alternatives, and without examining the quality and the prevalence of interactions between police officers and those they accuse of a crime?

Are we comfortable with the death penalty for resisting arrest?

Are we comfortable with the death penalty for petty theft?

Does this align with the Constitutional rights we are all afforded as citizens?