"26 Names" remembered in song

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Sunday December 16, 2012 · 9:44 AM PST

2012/12/16 · 09:44

As fast, as horrifically fast as horror can strike, violence can explode, and loss can sear, so too sometimes art can have a similar swiftness and force. I remember the astonishing, heart-rending-but-redeeming act of the young (Juilliard?) cellist who simply sat down on 9/11 to play for the first responders and rescuers in NYC at the armory. It is what he could do, and maybe it was not much. But how the juxtaposition of beauty and savagery, of infinite, incalculable loss and glorious hope and beauty, can serve the moment, as I believe it did then.

It is an age-old response, mirrored by musicians and poets, authors and painters, architects and cartoonists, sculptors and dancers, for perhaps as long as we have known how to create. It has fueled funeral masses, elegies, Guernica, long black walls, reflecting pools, orations, sketches, cave paintings, light shows, and so much more.

In the face of yet another in a ceaseless chain of pain forged in violence, hate, unhappiness, torment, and grief, composer and songwriter Jason Robert Brown seems to have opened his heart as well as - as he sings - his arms, and so opened all of ours.

Here, I hope, is the link to the soundcloud recording
and here! I hope, is the link to Brown's website with the piece.

Simply setting each of these names, now inscribed for all time in an ever-growing roll of terribly dubious honor among the named and nameless, the faceless and the dearly missed, he sings and plays what so many must feel.

Shared in the belief that art, music, song, creation can somehow have the power to heal the hurt, bind us more closely together, reverse the forces of darkness, and express what mere words never can.

Did the Bill of Rights suddenly get revoked and nobody told us?

elsibiades

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Friday November 06, 2009 · 1:34 AM PST

2009/11/06 · 01:34

In another diary just now [ Torture the Accomplices ], Whisperwolf reflected on some aspects of the awful shootings at Fort Hood, and included this passage from some Rightist response postings (advocating torture for the alleged accomplices):

A terrible event - but I don’t want anyone to call it an "act of violence" or "a terrible tragedy". It was an attack - one or more men decided with malice to attack a US military base. We need to get right down to the bottom of this - and, liberals, if the stories of accomplices in custody are true, this is where harsh interrogation might be needed: whoever was involved in this most emphatically does not have a right to remain silent.

I was deeply, horribly struck by that last, bolded (my highlight) sentence and posted a comment. But I've continued to mull it and want to throw it out here as it's own diary entry and invite response, commentary, rejoinders, or other reflection on this stark and terrible threshold. Jump on down if you're game.

elsibiades

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Thursday August 20, 2009 · 2:41 PM PDT

2009/08/20 · 14:41

Many have obviously read, and many others have commented on, the perspicacious piece penned by Mr. Lakoff and living on the rec list. If you haven't, check it out. Truly a voice crying in the wilderness, who puts his analytical finger on the problem. Let's hope he's more John the Baptist preceding a real Change than a Cassandra telling the truth to deaf ears....Watching today's forum with the Lakoff model in mind, it struck me as glaringly obvious how essential his points were--both in critiquing current practice and in outlining necessary adjustments. Having heard him speak before, on this and related topics about the Right's success in winning "hearts and minds" (hello, "pro-life" as terminology), it seems to me he's scored again.

At any rate, in conjunction with his insightful diary/article, and the comments it has elicited, I'd like to share on behalf of a friend and colleague the following open letter he wrote to the President after another recent Town Hall appearance. I think it frames in similar ways but slightly different language a passionate and eloquent call for new tactics and a new strategy.

In some ways, you could say this letter pulls a Lakoff on Lakoff, translating his cogent and reasoned point-by-point analysis into emotional terms. Read on if you will.

elsibiades

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Wednesday July 01, 2009 · 5:10 PM PDT

2009/07/01 · 17:10

I was thrilled, and strangely moved, today to see that the President signed S. 614 this afternoon: a bill awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the WASP (or Women's Airforce Service Pilots) of WWII. Truly a well-deserved recognition for a deserving group, long overdue in its commemoration. And I was moved to write to several legislative sponsors, as well as the President himself.

But another piece of this puzzle troubled me, in light of so much recent discussion here, elsewhere online, and in (some) of the more progressive media--thank you, KO and Rachel....

I have no particular dog in this hunt, save what I believe to be right and just for all, but follow over the jump and see what you make of what I had to say. Maybe you'll be moved to write in with comments of your own, or make phone calls--or maybe you think I missed the boat. Chime in. I just don't think silence is an option.

elsibiades

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Monday October 20, 2008 · 4:22 PM PDT

2008/10/20 · 16:22

John Edwards eloquently and movingly reminded us that our country has become ever-more divided by class and income, and that a host of ancillary ills accompany that division.

And of course, for however long now, we've had the simplistic, fairly obvious but still instructive division into Red States and Blue States--another binary category into which to parcel us all out. A way to split us up and split us apart.

Now we seem to be seeing the country further sub-divided into ever smaller portions, a balkanization into "real" America or not, "pro-"American or not, and goodness knows what other inward-looking, homogeneous pockets. [more on the jump if you'll take the leap]

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"26 Names" remembered in song

Did the Bill of Rights suddenly get revoked and nobody told us?

Pulling a Lakoff on Lakoff

Recognition looks behind; but what about what lies ahead?

HOW many Americas?