Animal rights protestors in the street outside Macy’s.
This past Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I was one of over 100 activists from around the world who were in the Bay Area for an animal rights conference held by Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) and to protest against the abuse and killing of animals for food and clothing.
On Saturday May 23 we held three protests, the last of which was on Geary Street outside Macy’s.
Check out this excellent news coverage by Indymedia:
Mother’s Day protest: We will not forget. Photo and videos by Michael Goldberg
This past Sunday the Berkeley Organization for Animal Advocacy (BOAA) stood up for mother cows during protests that took place inside two Berkeley markets – Andronico’s and Safeway.
It was Mother’s Day, a day when the animal rights groups Berkeley Organization for Animal Advocacy (BOAA) and Direct Action Everywhere (DXE) try to remind the public of the millions and millions of forgotten mothers – the dairy cows who are forced to stand in one spot indoors and be milked and milked and milked for fucking months on end until their udders are bleeding, swollen to the point of dragging on the floor and infected with mastitis. Mothers who frantically search in vain for their newborns who are stolen by humans shortly after birth. Mothers who cry and moan for days and days for their lost babies….
Great clip of Chrissie Hynde talking about why she doesn’t eat animals.
This was shown on Swedish and Norwegian television the 28-29th of October 2014.
She brings up the fact that you can’t be an environmentalist if you’re a meat eater.
If you doubt that, here’s a report from the respected Worldwatch Institute, written by environmental specialists Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang of the World Bank Group, a United Nations agency, in which they estimate that at least 51% of green house gas is caused by animal agriculture.
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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
On August 28, 1963 Bob Dylan was at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. for the “March On Washington,” performing “When The Ship Comes In” with Joan Baez and “Only A Pawn In Their Game” solo before Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his remarkable “I have a dream” speech.
The video below not only shows Dylan performing the first song with Baez and the second alone, but lets us get a sense of what the event was like.
This was “one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history,” according to Wikipedia.
Peter, Paul & Mary sing “Blowin’ In The Wind” at the March On Washington”:
Peter, Paul & Mary sing “If I Had a Hammer”:
This video includes some of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous speech:
If you just want to hear Dylan’s songs, here they are:
“When The Ship Comes In,” August 28, 1963 (performed with Joan Baez at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.):
“Only A Pawn In Their Game,” August 28, 1963 (performed at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.):
Today I was thinking about the huge gap that now exists in the U.S. between the very very rich, the .01 percent, and everyone else, when I came across the beautiful rendition of “The Times They Are A-Changing” that Bruce Springsteen performed on December 7, 1997 when Bob Dylan was honored by President Bill Clinton at the Kennedy Center.
The last election in the U.S. was between a .01-percenter, Mitt Romney, and a man of the people, President Barack Obama.
The majority of Americans who voted, voted for President Obama despite attempts by Republicans to limit voting, in particular, to make it more difficult for people of color to vote. We’ve all seen the video of the long, long lines at the polls. Old people waiting for many hours to exercise their right.
And yet nothing really has changed since President Obama was reelected. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has stopped pretty much any meaningful legislation from getting passed.
The gap between the super rich and everyone else has only widened.
It is with the heavy weight of that knowledge upon us, that I listened to this song of hope and change today.
Sometimes it seems that the “darkness at the edge of town” that Springsteen sings about is covering everything.
Music is such a powerful force. We all know how one song can completely change our mood, turn a bad day to good. The corporate world we now live in wants to co-opt everything. They take music that meant something and turn it into a soundtrack for selling yogurt, or cars. It’s like they want to drain the meaning from the songs.
Yet songs remain powerful.
“The Times They Are A-Changing” is a song that gives us hope. Perhaps it’s a fool’s hope, but I’ll take it where I can get it.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
“I lost a great friend and a great hero last night,” Bruce Springsteen said yesterday night, onstage at the Bellville Velodrome in South Africa. “Pete back home was a very courageous freedom fighter. This is a song he adopted and helped popularize… Once you heard this song, you were prepared to march into hell’s fire.”
Then he sang “We Shall Overcome.”
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Sixteen years after it’s last human rights concert, Amnesty International has organized a new concert and Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina will be there.
On February 5, 2014 The Flaming Lips, Imagine Dragons, Ms. Lauryn Hill, The Fray, Tegan and Sara, Cold War Kids, Collbie Caillat, Cake and others will perform for the human rights organization at Barclays Center in Brooklyn .
According to a press release about the concert, Tolokonnikova and Alekhina “will address attendees at the concert to raise awareness about prisoners of conscience.”
In a statement the two Pussy Riot members said:
We are happy to support Amnesty International’s work on behalf of human rights and political prisoners. We, more than anyone, understand how important Amnesty’s work is in connecting activists to prisoners… A month ago we were freed from Russian prison camps. We will never forget what it’s like to be in prison after a political conviction. We have vowed to continue helping those who remain behind bars and we hope to see you all at the Amnesty International concert on February 5th in Brooklyn!
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
