[Vision2020] FW: NYTimes.com Article: Chords for Change

[Carl Westberg]

Granted, Bruce Springsteen is no Tom Petty, but nonetheless, commentary from 
The Boss in today's New York Times:                                          
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
          Carl Westberg Jr.




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>Chords for Change
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>August 5, 2004
>  By BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
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>A nation's artists and musicians have a particular place in
>its social and political life. Over the years I've tried to
>think long and hard about what it means to be American:
>about the distinctive identity and position we have in the
>world, and how that position is best carried. I've tried to
>write songs that speak to our pride and criticize our
>failures.
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>These questions are at the heart of this election: who we
>are, what we stand for, why we fight. Personally, for the
>last 25 years I have always stayed one step away from
>partisan politics. Instead, I have been partisan about a
>set of ideals: economic justice, civil rights, a humane
>foreign policy, freedom and a decent life for all of our
>citizens. This year, however, for many of us the stakes
>have risen too high to sit this election out.
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>Through my work, I've always tried to ask hard questions.
>Why is it that the wealthiest nation in the world finds it
>so hard to keep its promise and faith with its weakest
>citizens? Why do we continue to find it so difficult to see
>beyond the veil of race? How do we conduct ourselves during
>difficult times without killing the things we hold dear?
>Why does the fulfillment of our promise as a people always
>seem to be just within grasp yet forever out of reach?
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>I don't think John Kerry and John Edwards have all the
>answers. I do believe they are sincerely interested in
>asking the right questions and working their way toward
>honest solutions. They understand that we need an
>administration that places a priority on fairness,
>curiosity, openness, humility, concern for all America's
>citizens, courage and faith.
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>People have different notions of these values, and they
>live them out in different ways. I've tried to sing about
>some of them in my songs. But I have my own ideas about
>what they mean, too. That is why I plan to join with many
>fellow artists, including the Dave Matthews Band, Pearl
>Jam, R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, Jurassic 5, James Taylor and
>Jackson Browne, in touring the country this October. We
>will be performing under the umbrella of a new group called
>Vote for Change. Our goal is to change the direction of the
>government and change the current administration come
>November.
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>Like many others, in the aftermath of 9/11, I felt the
>country's unity. I don't remember anything quite like it. I
>supported the decision to enter Afghanistan and I hoped
>that the seriousness of the times would bring forth
>strength, humility and wisdom in our leaders. Instead, we
>dived headlong into an unnecessary war in Iraq, offering up
>the lives of our young men and women under circumstances
>that are now discredited. We ran record deficits, while
>simultaneously cutting and squeezing services like
>afterschool programs. We granted tax cuts to the richest 1
>percent (corporate bigwigs, well-to-do guitar players),
>increasing the division of wealth that threatens to destroy
>our social contract with one another and render mute the
>promise of "one nation indivisible."
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>It is through the truthful exercising of the best of human
>qualities - respect for others, honesty about ourselves,
>faith in our ideals - that we come to life in God's eyes.
>It is how our soul, as a nation and as individuals, is
>revealed. Our American government has strayed too far from
>American values. It is time to move forward. The country we
>carry in our hearts is waiting.
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>Bruce Springsteen is a writer and performer.
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>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/05/opinion/05bruce.html?ex=1092723984&ei=1&en=92c1f19b6811d3a9
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