This is a tough one, and a question I was faced with recently. I played a half hour set at New Hampshire's Bridges for Peace Rally on the steps of the state capitol in Concord yesterday. When I was asked to play I realized that the world was not yet ready for "I Ain't A-marching Any More." I was not ready to make any new songs, either. Most of us feel profoundly torn by everything that is happening. Yet I am a committed pacifist.

I finally decided that we need songs that build community - especially given the racist attacks in our own country. (A local Afghani owned gas station, for example, has received bomb threats.) I sang Pat Humphries's "Common Thread," and Cathy Fink's "Hands." ("A circle of hands to take a stand and put an end to war....") Then I sang "When the Rain Comes Down," which doesn't directly deal with war, but does talk about how we are all conncted. Cindy Kallet's "If I Sing" worked very well, as did Magpie's setting of Ella Baker's words - "Give light and the people will find the way." I finished off with "Survivor Leave," a very powerful song by Ken Stevens that's on the Boarding Party album Fair Winds and a Following Sea. "What's the use of disagreeing when you're fighting and not seeing?/ And the whole world can't be on survivor leave." Of all the songs I sing, that one right now strike sme as the most poignant.

If it hadn't been a windy day or I'd had an indoor crowd I might have tried Tom Paxton's "Peace Will Come," which involves lots of counterpoint. Undoubtedly there will be new songs written, and as this thing becomes more drawn out, with more killing of innocents, we will probably come to a more strident place. I still think, though, that there will always be a valued place for songs that bring folks together.

Peace, Dan