The older I get, the less I believe that anything can be solved by political action. Many intelligent people are uninterested in politics because it seems like no matter what happens, corporate interests always win out.

I play music because I believe that music is a spiritual force. I don't believe that music should be used as a vehicle to spread political or religious ideology, because the music always suffers. This may be blasphemy to say here, but though Woody was good with words, his musical skills were less than admirable overall, and to be honest, I think probably Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" had more of an impact politically than most of what Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger ever did. That's not to put down either Pete or Woody, but I don't think people are in a mood these days to be preached at or lectured to, and a lot of what Pete and Woody did comes off these days as excessively preachy, talky and terribly dull to listen to.

I personally am aware of the evil things that are happening as outlined above in previous posts, but to be honest I feel quite helpless to do anything about these issues. What actually can we do to to help the people starving in Iraq, for example? Give Saddam Hussein money? I think not...Even if we tried something, gigantic corporate interests would subvert our efforts with their vast financial resources.

It's all very well to shout about how we should mount the barricades and off the capitalist pigs, but there's no clear way to do it. And what would happen if we did? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. A boss is a boss, whether he's a capitalist, a Maoist, a Buddhist, a born-again Christian or a hippie, a punk or a yuppie; all bosses are bosses.

I am not terribly hopeful about anything _but_ music. For me to infect music with the disease of politics would be wrong for me. I don't claim to have courage, nor do I claim to be a coward; I am who I am.