Moon Bird: News

So much negative is in this world because there is not enough positive to stand up against it. That positive must come from each one of us to begin to make a difference. We cannot sit back and think we can do nothing. We are all a part of the mix. It's like lighting a candle in a dark room - with even one candle you begin to see what is in the room and dispel the darkness. Each candle added further illuminates the world until there is total light. Add your lighted candle to the world. It is waiting.

In 1917, Eugene Debs, speaking to a judge after sentencing for violating the Espionage Act said: Your honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better that the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Be the change you want to see in the world. -Gandhi-

We live our lives and they can seem disconnected from the rest of the world. What does it matter what we do and how we act? What we do affects the psychic atmosphere of the rest of the world. If we are peaceful, that makes a difference. If we are honest and kind and care about the planet, that also makes a huge difference. We are not isolated and disconnected from the rest of the world. The more people who live in peace and live by the standard of human decency the better everyone's life on earth will be. It is where we all must start - with our own lives - to truly change the world for the better. In that way everyone's life is meaningful. Each and every life has a purpose.

So many children are starving, being abused and dying every day. Hundreds of millions of people live in desperation in extreme poverty. All this goes on while multinational corporations drain the natural resources that could sustain them and provide a positive change for these people. Instead the look to satisfy their own greed. The songs "Only One" and "Into the Rapture" deal with these issues and can be heard in their entirety on this website.

Some compelling thoughts from Arundhati Roy that I read recently:
"The battle to reclaim democracy is going to be a difficult one. It is a battle that must range across continents and countries. It must not acknowledge national boundaries, but if it is to succeed it has to begin in America.The only thing more powerful than the U.S. government is American civil society. Hundreds of thousands of you have survived the relentless propaganda you have been subjected to, and are actively fighting your own government. In the ultra-patriotic climate that prevails in the U.S., that''s as brave as any Iraqi or Afghan or Palestinian fighting for his or her homeland. I hate to disagree with your president: yours is by no means a great nation. But you could be a great people."

How do we effect change for ourselves and the world? I believe that we must first believe that it is possible and that begins the process. We then think of what we want to happen and start acting in any way that we can on that. But it is always important to know where we want to go. Sometimes it can get discouraging when things don't seem to be changing at all, but things do change and in ways we can never imagine. I have found that I have always made it through tough times and it has, in the end, worked out for the best. Live your dreams--live your passion.

More and more I see that it is becoming increasingly important to educate ourselves about what is going on in the world. With a billion people living in desperate poverty and violence going on in much of the world, much of it due to US policies of imperialism, we need to do everything we can to change things for the sake of the people in the world and for the environment that supports us. The song 'Only One' is about such issues. It is also important to know that one is not alone is this quest and to make contact with others who are like-minded.
There are ways to turn all of this around for the better, but we must all begin to get involved.

The Real Needs of Humanity is now out and available for purchase. Check it out!

Moon Bird will have a new CD entitled "The Real Needs of Humanity" coming out at the end of February. A great collection of new songs. More news and streaming of new songs soon.

My thoughts for quite a while now are concerned with what's happenning in our country and in the world; the growing disparity between the privileged elite and the lower classes and the havoc wreaked upon the environment in the name of profits for the very few. This is the world I am raising my daughter in. A world where our basic liberties are being chipped away at. A world that half of our tax money goes toward a military that aims at global domination to serve the interests of the multinational corporations and killing many innocent people in the process. Nobody is talking about the differences between the classes, but the prosperous few are reaping the rewards of the sweat and labor of the many.

This, of course, is not the end of the story. There is the strength of the human spirit and of nature itself. We have dreams and imagination that shape our world. Just as we have created the world we experience today, we can create a better world for tomorrow. This is not just from wishful thinking or what people may perceive as passivity because it is peaceful, but through the real power that comes from love and realizing and acting upon our altruistic impulses.

How does my music fit into this? I try to incorporate my feelings about all of this and my own personal life and also the joys that I feel from the beauty that is in life.