Format:   Artist - Track Title
               Album - Label / Contacts

Theme:   Jay Ansill - The Two Horizons
                Origami - Flying Fish

This week, in Liberty, we lost a dedicated and well loved teacher.  Also this week in Liberty, the theatre has been showing "Bowling For Columbine." These two facts are the basis of my setlist choices today.  This is a longer than usual setlist, so either read straight through or jump to the themes: Teachers, Fear, Guns, Consumerism, American's Gun History, today's News, Why?

Teachers - (Top of Page)

I will start with some quotes form Michael Moore's book "Stupid White Men" whose comments honor teachers such as  Ms. Barbara Sims and others who are as dedicated to making a difference in the lives of youth. (pg. 101)
 

"Teachers, thank you so much for devoting your life to my child. Is there anything I can do to help you. Is there anything you need? I am here for you. Why? Because you are helping my baby learn and grow. Not only will you be largely responsible for her ability to make a living, but you will greatly affect how she views the world, what she knows about other people in this world, and how she will feel about herself. I want her to believe she can attempt anything- that no doors are closed and that no dreams are too distant. I am entrusting the most valuable person in my life to you for seven hours each day.  You, are thus, one of the most important people in my life! Thank You."

 1. David Roth - Thank You Mr. Ryan
     Digging Through My Closet - Folk Era

At the funeral for Barbara Sims students spoke up. Those for whom she was a soccer coach, those that went to her for after school math help, those who were in her boy scout group or in her church.  Words like those Mr. Moore suggested.

Unfortunately this is not the approach of our state.

This week Pataki announced huge cuts in health and education.  What does this mean locally. Probably 5 Barbara Sims, role models, leaders for our youth, will be cut, as will the Pre-Kindergarten program. Our district was told:

This cut includes the elimination of Pre-Kindergarten funding and Class Size Reduction money.  The Community Schools grant has also been eliminated....   Obviously, the District cannot assume the cost of continuing these programs... Other budget considerations, however, may result in additional reductions in staff.

Yet what is on the cover of today's Times-Herald Record: "Death threats to 12 year-olds" with the blown up letter found in a locker at a local school, promising that preppies will die"

We keep the focus on the symptoms - not the causes.

Fear - (Top of Page)

 2.  Artisan - Fear
      Our Back Yard - Boing Records

From The Culture of Fear - (book by Barry Glasser)
http://www.bowlingforcolumbine.com/library/fear/index.php

Introduction: Why Americans Fear the Wrong Things: Killer Kids

And the news media made a point of reporting every incident in which a child was caught at school with a gun or making a death threat. In May, when a fifteen-year-old in Springfield, Oregon, did open fire in a cafeteria filled with students, killing  two and wounding twenty-three others, the event felt like a continuation of a “disturbing trend” (New York Times). The day after the shooting, on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” the criminologist Vincent Schiraldi tried to explain that the recent string of incidents did not constitute a trend, that youth homicide rates had declined by 30 percent in recent years, and more than three times as many people were killed by lightning than by violence at schools.

Now with all this fear, our 2nd amendment gives us the right to bear arms.
So the cycle continues, and many strive to protect themselves from the symptoms

 3.  Cheryl Wheeler – Don't Forget the Guns
      Driving Home – Philo

In Bowling, Moore explores how many homicides every year are committed in other countries: Germany - 381, France - 255, Canada - 165, UK - 68, Australia - 65, Japan - 39
And the Unites States of America - 11,127!

At the Bank (clip) - Michael Moore gets a gun with his deposit  (1:45 total)

 4.  Deborah Holland – Kids with Guns
      The Book Of Survival – Gadfly

5.  Pete Seeger – Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child (under voice)

Gordon Lightfoot:  The hands of the have nots keep falling out of reach
Holy Near asserts that there is no peace when there is poverty
Martin Luther King said that Violence is the Language of the Unheard

When Little 6 year old Kayla was shot in Flint Michigan by another 6 year old student, press arrived that had never been to Flint. I saw Jeff Rossen worrying about his hair out of place right before the cameras rolled for him to cover the "youngest school shooting in America".

The press rolled in, covered the symptoms and left.

Michael Moore suggests the real story was blocks away, in the poor neighborhoods around the closed car plants, in the stories of those financially forced to leave caring for their youngsters to head for work.

But we only cover the symptoms.

Miss Owens, the mother of the 6 year old perpetrator had been evicted the week before from her home. She was in the welfare to work program in her area. She was bussed daily 80 miles round-trip to work for wealthy whites . She worked two jobs. Not enough. When evicted by her landlord she had her son move to her brothers where the 6 year old found the pistol. Ms. Owens was up early to catch her bus to work the day of the shooting, fulfilling her duty to earn her welfare checks. Even the sheriff of the town said that the welfare to work program was gaining nothing. "we have a dead child" here. We drove one parent away. This is a program that should be stopped."  - Angela's words

 7.  Tim Harrison (Ochs)  – There But For Fortune
      Wheatfield with Crows – Festival

Consumerism to dissipate our Fear - (Top of Page)

Right after the shooting the NRA showed up in Flint.  Just as they did days after the Columbine shootings. Manson cuts short his tour following the shootings at Columbine. Following is the interview Moore has with Manson in "Bowling For Columbine"

Marilyn Manson (clip) - (3:30 total)

"Keep everyone afraid and they will consume"

MOORE: Do you know that the day that Columbine happened, the United States dropped more bombs on Kosovo than any other time during that war?

MANSON: I do know that. And I think that that's really ironic, you know, that nobody said, well, maybe the president had an influence on this violent behavior. No, because that's not the way the media wants to take it and spin it and turn it into fear.

But then you're watching television. You're watching the news. You're being pumped full of fear. There are floods, there's AIDS, there's murder. Cut to commercial. Buy the Acura, buy the Colgate. If you have bad breath, they're not going to talk to you. If you have pimples, the girl's not going to [Audio Deleted] you.

And it's just this -- it's a campaign of fear and consumption. And that's what I think it's all based on, is the whole idea that, keep everyone afraid and they'll consume.

 9.  David Wilcox – Advertising Man
       Home Again – A&M

10.  Jim Infantino – Thirty Five Foot Lady
      The World of Peculilars – Gadfly

11.  Artisan – Big Green Credit Machine
       Breathing Space – Festival Records

American's Gun History - (Top of Page)

Using a clip from Michael Moore's "Bowling For Columbine," I'd like to present his brief history of the U.S.

Brief History of America (clip) (3:18 total)

0:06 - Now its time for a brief history of the US of America
0:50 - I loves my guns
1:35 - Colt 45 - made the first multi-shot pistol
2:07 - KKK and NRA
2:38 - 1955 - Rosa Parks & Civil RIghts

12.  Pat Humphries – Bound For Freedom
       Hands - Appleseed Recordings

13.  Anne Feeney – Have You Been to Jail for Justice
 

14.  Rebel Voices – If You Can See Me
       A Piece of the wall  – http://www.eskimo.com/~rebelgal/Index.htm

Top of the Hour News from NPR at Noon - (Top of Page)  We sadly acknowledge the loss today of the 7 Space Shuttle Astronauts.

Watching news yesterday at the gym, CNN was on. They have "The Global Minute!"  Wow, I might have missed it, I was reading "Stupid White Men" and really could have missed it!

We all know what happened on September 11, 2001, but do you remember September 11, 1973?  U.S. stages coup in Chile. Democratically elected president Salvador Allende assassinated. Dictator Augusto Pinochet installed. 5,000 Chileans murdered. (from Moore's "Wonderful Life" history page)

15.  The Chennile Sisters - Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida
       At Home With - Red House Records

16.  Debra Holland - Pinochet and Margeret Thatcher
       The Book of Survival - Gadfly

17.  Holly Near and Ronnie Gilbert - No More Genocide
       Lifeline Extended - Appleseed

Moore says "We have a shared mental problem as a country: A fear that's based on racism, and we don't want to touch it." (Interview Toronto Star,  September 7, 2002)

Audio exert of Michael Moore reading from the chapter "Kill Whitey" from his book "Stupid White Men" recorded at LUVeR at First Congressional Church, Berkeley (the full 2 hour speech is at EaroPlay.com  - and is really worth the listen).

18.  Kim and Reggie Harris and Magpie - Those Three Are On My Mind
       Spoken In Love - Lone Tail

19.  Kristin Lems - I Wasn't Surprised
       Oh Mama - hometown.aol.com/klems2/

20.  Sweet Honey in the Rock - Trying Times
       In this Land - Earthbeat

Why are we violent?- (Top of Page)

21.  Cheryl Wheeler - If it Were Up To Me
       Sylvia Hotel - Philo

Shortly after the Columbine incident, the NRA came to the Denver area for a gun rally. Sure they had the right. But perhaps, insensitive. Moore interviews Matt Stone, creator of "South Park" and Columbine native, who speaks about the pressure to succeed as a possible explanation for Harris' and Kleibold's actions.

Matt Stone (clip) (2:34 total) - Columbine is so painfully normal (if you fail the Math Honors test...)

Link for the all the clips from "Bowling For Columbine" at Moore's site.

23.  Leon Rosselson - Child Killers
       Harry's Gone Fishing - Gadfly

24.  James Durst - Not Another Gun
       Elements of Surprise - World Wind

25.  Eileen McGann – Too Stupid for Democracy
       Journeys - DragonWing Music

Voter registration TODAY at the Liberty Theatre Cafe!  Follow Michael Moore's example and get involved!  It's up to us!

26.  Hugh Blumenfeld - America Redux
       Barehanded - PrimeCD

WJFF is Hydro-powered Public Radio at 90.5 Jeffersonville, NY. and 94.5 in Monticello.
We serve the Mid-Hudson Region, North East Pennsylvania, and the Upper Delaware Valley.
Folk Plus airs Saturdays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm following NPR's Car Talk

Back to the Top of Page