Greg Madden
It was March 19, 2003, my oldest son’s 26th birthday. But I wasn’t thinking about his birthday. Instead I was watching newscasts of the beginning of Iraqi Freedom and thinking how glad I was he and his brother weren’t in the military. I felt the war was wrong and had thought for months that the decision had already been made by the Bush Administration to invade. This particular day I had gone to lunch with several coworkers. The men were fascinated with the ‘precision’ bombing. The women didn’t say much, though later on one of them sent an email about how she hated the Dixie Chicks for not being supportive of the United States. My crime was this – I sat silently, not wishing to being labeled ‘liberal’, ‘radical’ or ‘unpatriotic’. I feared a heated argument if I spoke out against our military action. Ironic for the ONLY person in our lunch group that ever served in the military (granted it was during peacetime in the post-Vietnam era). Despite 3 years of fair and balanced reporting from FOX News, the majority of the American public has come to the conclusion that the Iraq war was a mistake. Unfortunately for our country, most people didn’t figure out until after November 2004 that George W. is one of our worst Presidents of all time (some would say THE worse but I don’t want to be unfair to other ex-presidents like Warren Harding).
I’m afraid I wouldn’t be a very good spokesperson for the left or right. I can’t spew out of context facts; I don’t like to yell; And I believe there is middle ground in most issues. I don’t understand why more young people aren’t enraged with the current administration. I’m stumped why so many young bands have sat on the sidelines and not written about the Iraq War, wiretapping, torture, etc. When I was 14 years old, mainstream radio was playing songs like ‘For What It’s Worth’, ‘Give Peace A Chance’ and ‘What’s Going On’. Now we have American Idol. I don’t call this progress.
40 years later ‘There But For Fortune’ by Phil Ochs is still relevant.
I wish it wasn’t true. I wish none of the others songs on this CD were true but all of them are.
Is it 2008 yet?