Spirit in Action
Tom Neilson - Rebel With A Cause
(upbeat music) ♪ Let us sing this song for the healing of the world ♪ ♪ That we may hear the last one ♪ ♪ With every voice of every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world along ♪ ♪ And our lives will feel the echo of our healing ♪ - Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark helps me. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. ♪ Let us sing this song for the dreaming of the world ♪ ♪ That we may dream as one ♪ ♪ With every voice of every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world along ♪ - My guest for today's Spirit in Action program is Tom Nielsen. I like to think of Tom as a rebel with a cause, a minstrel who travels and sings in service to the many causes and concerns that are his passion. This past summer, he was doing a musical road tour from his home in Massachusetts over to the Midwest with his westernmost destination being River Falls, Wisconsin where he joined me and an audience from the Friends General Conference Quaker Gathering to share a musical rendition of the work and causes which he's put into song. We all met at the River Falls Methodist Church for an afternoon of good music and witness the first week in July. - Welcome, Tom, to Spirit in Action. - Thank you, Mark. - You came a long way. You've been doing a little tour all the way out to the Midwest from the East where you live. Tell me about your tour where it's taking you, what you're doing. - I left Massachusetts 14th of June, I think it was. To Buffalo, I was going across Canada to get to my Detroit show but did not get into Canada so went south through Ohio, picked up a show there then went up to Detroit from the south and down to Fort Wayne, then to Chicago down to Carbondale, St. Louis Madison here. - Are you worn out yet? - I like the traveling. Plus, I get taken very good care of wherever I land. - You kind of saw sold, I think you're not going through Canada, you tried to get through. - Does this have something to do with this t-shirt that you're wearing that they wouldn't let you through on the border? - Well, they were a little concerned about my bumper stickers and then my cargo and we're going to send my truck to the warehouse, wherever that was. - No, wait, no, when you say cargo, you better spell out what about your cargo, this isn't your yard. - You can find it on the table in the back, my CDs and my t-shirts. - A little bit too questionable. - And I also think they brought me up on the computer because they had already done their cursory exam and then looked at the bumper stickers and they went back to the computer and then he came back and his attitude had changed a bit on me and said, "You're going to have to go "to the warehouse." At which time they already had my passport, it had been about two hours at that time trying to get across and I say, "No, I think I'll just go back to the States." And he said, "You can't do that, we have your identification," which they had because they had taken my passport and tube it over to customs. So going over to customs and then it was a little bit more song and dance and he said that they were going to go through my truck and I didn't need that harassment and that they were going to itemize every CD and what the t-shirt said and how many of each size and what kind of... - It wasn't because they wanted to get into the marketing aspect, did they? - Well, I'm not sure they may have already had orders for them, that could be. - It could have been. Do you actually have a criminal record? - I'm not a felon, you know, like what you might find in the administration that's running this country at the moment. But I do have a record, yes. - Do you want to mention anything spectacular you've been arrested for? - No, there's nothing spectacular. I mean, lots of times I've been arrested just not even trying to be arrested in Mexico once during Operation Intercept. Was it the wrong place at the wrong time? Arrested hitchhiking and then there's the civil disobedience. - Have you done civil disobedience multiple times? - Yeah, but I have not been arrested multiple times. - Oh, really hadn't? - Yeah. - Your music, how long have you been doing it? - Well, I've been performing since I was three. I started writing in college at 17. - What's the first song you wrote? Do you care to say it? - Oh, no, it was a love song. In college I used to be asked by the freshmen, guys and sophomore guys in the dorm to go serenade their Swedish under their dorm window. So I would write these songs for them and then go serenade under the second and third floors, you know, and that was my start with guitar playing in the folk business. - And the first song is called Janet for a woman obviously named Janet. - But that's not what we're gonna have you start off with. Let's have you do a song from home. Where'd you come from? Where'd you grow up? - Well, I grew up milking cows in upstate New York, got to Siegel County back when everybody had cows. There were more cows and people. - Still are in Wisconsin. - It's nice having come through a high on, it was really nice to see all the farms, although dairies are, the money is not in milk anymore. But there's a lot of farmland under cultivation and where I grew up, the barns are falling down. The land is gone to leet and telephone poles and highways and pavement. So I did write a song about that actually. - And it's called? - For Lane Highways and Mobile Homes. - Would you mind doing it for the audience here? You all want them to do it? (applause) I think we're ready. - We didn't have much bottom land as I drive through the Midwest. If we had a fraction of what is out here that is cultivable, a lot of us would have made it because our half our milk check went to the petrochemical companies every month to get grain, to supplement our food supply because we just couldn't grow it. We didn't have the land. We bailed on hills with angles, you know, like this. So most of our land was woodlot and pasture that was too rocky or too hilly to cultivate. And that's where the cows would be. And around four o'clock in the afternoon, all these border collies, all up and down the valley, would start heading out and barking for their cows and the farmers would be yelling their own kabos. Each farmer would have his or her kabos that the cows would respond to. So that was part of the inspiration for the song, but when I wrote it was when the farmer to the north had a stroke. And what everyone had to do was to leave the farm, they still kept farming, but they had to get jobs out of the farm to make it pay. An eight-hour job, plus the driving to and from, sometimes farmers were going for a shift. Second shift, third shift, did their farming when they were home, they slept when they could, and they all died much sooner than they would otherwise have had to. But this is called Forlain Highways in Mobile Homes. (upbeat music) ♪ ♪ 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the border collies call ♪ ♪ Martins on his John Deere, my knees yell at his kabos ♪ ♪ Funders open up for all steams, each one knows her place ♪ ♪ Catch your tail with dried manor whisk across your face ♪ ♪ Catch your tail with dried manor whisk across your face ♪ ♪ Music on the radio plays a country too ♪ ♪ Rhythm with the milking machines and sweeping with a broom ♪ ♪ Day to midnight so we could beat the rain ♪ ♪ This farmer's family don't know no other name ♪ ♪ This farmer's family don't know no other name ♪ ♪ Then the government told us get big or get out ♪ ♪ The cuts and nicks and got no clue what farming's all about ♪ ♪ Wall street brokers raise the interest rates to make some dough ♪ ♪ Banker with our mortgages, countin' what we owe ♪ ♪ Banker with our mortgages, countin' what we owe ♪ ♪ I watch our fields go to four lane highways and mobile homes ♪ ♪ The kids don't see no future and they're gone before they're grown ♪ ♪ Can't imagine what the cost, how to measure what we've lost ♪ ♪ When our fields go to four lane highways and mobile homes ♪ ♪ Go to four lane highways and mobile homes ♪ ♪ We've brought the boat tank and the corporation truck ♪ ♪ One by one the creamer is in all the towns dried up ♪ ♪ GLF, SO station and the general store ♪ ♪ And the D&H, all in three don't stop here anymore ♪ ♪ The D&H, all in three don't stop here anymore ♪ ♪ I watch our fields go to four lane highways and mobile homes ♪ ♪ The kids don't see no future and they're gone before they're grown ♪ ♪ Can't imagine what the cost, how to measure what we've lost ♪ ♪ When our fields go to four lane highways and mobile homes ♪ ♪ Go to four lane highways and mobile homes ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Swimming whole at lover's lane where we used to go ♪ ♪ To take a dip we're hanging out or watch your campfires glow ♪ ♪ 'Cause posted signs in our face don't these people know ♪ ♪ How to live in a place and not shut off the floor ♪ ♪ Don't let our fields go to four lane highways and mobile homes ♪ ♪ Parking lots and fast food spots and another bank there's alone ♪ ♪ Can't imagine what the cost, how to measure what we've lost ♪ ♪ When our fields go to four lane highways and mobile homes ♪ ♪ Go to four lane highways and mobile homes ♪ ♪ Make shift at the factory and run a farmer down ♪ ♪ There's milk and cows and growing crops is full of time all around ♪ ♪ Working hard to build a home is what these farm and folk have known ♪ ♪ Do you find them in the sanitary ground ♪ ♪ Do you find them in the sanitary ground ♪ ♪ Don't let our fields go to four lane highways and mobile homes ♪ ♪ Shopping lots can we stop the wall from taking what we own ♪ ♪ Can't imagine what the cost, how to measure what we've lost ♪ ♪ When our fields go to four lane highways and mobile homes ♪ ♪ Go to four lane highways and mobile homes ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (applause) (applause) How many CD's tapes so that you have out there in the world? I have ten as a folky and my youth was a tenor soloist and I've done some classical solos on a couple of classical, two or three. How many did you have when you were back in the choir at church? No, not your experience, huh? No, I thought maybe you were a choir boy, I don't know. Oh, no, I was in the choir when I was... I never recorded it. I don't think we had any recording mechanism at all. You're dating yourself. I mean, we didn't have indoor plumbing. We had an outhouse behind the church and heated with wood year round. What kind of church was it? Little Methodist Church. So we're back to roots right here in the River Falls United Methodist Church. That's right. When I think of your music, I think of all of the causes that you've helped support and educate people on. I think you've been a force to help uplift the people who are working for the really important things that often get ignored in our country. I want to go right away to one of those songs, WMD. You also have a little bit of humor in you, I understand. Some people don't think so, but... (laughter) Tell me about WMD. There is a wonderful paradise who lives in Santa Cruz, named Mark Levy. And there's actually three songs that we've collaborated on. He wrote the first verse, and I wrote the next three on this one. I do a lot of parody. I find parody is a great way to be playful and still get an important message out. And WMD, Do Re Me, that was an easy one. Let's mention where the music comes from, right? Well, from Woody Guthrie for those of you. And that's important to say, because I'm finding that the hook to parody is that people know the original song. And I do a lot of show tunes, and I would think Do Re Me is a classic that everyone would know. But a lot of people are younger than us. And musical comedy is leaving the culture. I mean, when I was a kid, you know, I'll be 16 next year. We grew up with musical comedy. I was performing musical comedy. Anyway, the hook to a song is as soon as people hear the tune. And it's great for sing along, then I love it when audiences sing. Okay, well, it must be time to do that, right? WMD. WMD. Lots of folks back east they say, send your kid to Iraq today. Beat that hot dusty way to back that borderline. Cross the deserts and they'll roll shooting up that old espoke. Think they're heading to Super Bowl, but this is what they find. The bastards at the board of Asra say. Just 'cause you and they don't think we'll go away. Oh, they got the WMD, George. They ain't got no WMD. But maybe you can find one in Texas. Nevada, North Dakota, Tennessee. Now Iraq was guarding a vegan. A paradise for Adam and Eve. And believe it or not, you can search all you want. But they ain't got no WMD. If you want to go disarm, that can't do nobody harm. Take a vacation in the desert or the Gulf. Eat some of those fries in France, just take off those army pants. 'Cause this war ain't gonna stop itself. And the coffins with the flags upon 'em say. That's number two thousand killed today. Oh, they ain't got the WMD, George. They ain't got the WMD. But maybe you can find one in Texas. Nevada, North Dakota, Tennessee. Now Iraq was guarding a vegan. No place for our soldiers to be. And like it or not, you can lie all you want. But they ain't got the WMD. Now recruiters are not making quota. Saw one out in Minnesota. Promising a high school senior, he get twenty K. Good benefits, a great career. Never be in combat gear. Just sign his name on that line today. But no matter what recruiters say they'll do. They just want cannon fodder out of you. Oh, they ain't got the WMD, George. They ain't got the WMD. But maybe you can find one in Texas. Nevada, North Dakota, Tennessee. Now Iraq was guarding a vegan. No place for our soldiers to be. And like it or not, you can lie all you want. But they ain't got no WMD. Recruiters cruising in the hall of my school. They got some golf acting like they're a friend of mine. How they ever get my name that I got a soccer game. I told them that his line was asinine. Cause no matter what you hear recruiters say. They just want you to sign your life away. Oh, they ain't got no WMD, George. They ain't got the WMD. But maybe you can find one in Texas. Nevada, North Dakota, Tennessee. Now Iraq is guarding a vegan. No place for our soldiers to be. And like it or not, you can lie all you want. But they ain't got no WMD. And like it or not, you can lie all you want. But they ain't got the WMD. [applause] Thanks, Tom. Thank you. You got a son. How old your son now? He'll be 16 the day after Harry Potter. Which is Harry Potter's birthday is? Oh my goodness. This is culturally ill letter. Nobody knows? Nope, nobody. See, there's prize. Harry Potter's birthday. No, Harry's birthday is July 31st. And Jacob's is August 1st, so he'll be 16. Jacob has been inspiration for a number of your songs. And right now I'm thinking of Root Beer. We just had lunch a little bit ago and they're feeding us pretty well here at the University of Wisconsin River Falls where the Friends General Conference gathering is being held. Do you like Root Beer? I do like Root Beer. I have passed that on to him too. Are you saying this is nurture or nature that passes it on? Oh, geez. Or do you believe in evolution? Well, look at us. So, tell us about this song. Did you want to do Root Beer? Oh, sure. Since you've brought it up, but we need some. Can anybody here burp? Oh. Valley. Valley. Oh, there's a couple of burpers here. Let's hear it. Oh. Well, Aaron, Aaron, I think. Listen, this is participatory. We were camping and I have a children's CD, one of the ten that are back there. Camping in southern Vermont and Kayla, who's three younger and Jacob, took a swig of Root Beer and burped and said, Root Beer makes me burp. And that's how songs get written. After which my son began to burp and burp and burp and burp. I mean, he just kept bringing them up and bringing them up. And I had been with this kid for ten years and never knew that he was naturally gaseous, so. I can't do that. I do it when I don't want to burp, like in the middle of a song. That's when the mind come up. But anyway, Jacob burps on the CD. I had some absolutely wonderful children to work with and recording that in a wonderful engineer, too. Are you an only parent? He is with me, half time. And how do you manage that with your three careers or so that you're doing it? Well, I have four jobs. I teach in two schools. I teach music. I teach Spanish. I coach basketball and do rec programs. And I work with people with HIV. But the teaching jobs are all a fee for service. And I told them, "I travel. I have long weekends." And I traveled during school vacations and then half the summer. Sometimes Jacob goes with me. He wrote, he's like last summer. He wrote for me in England and Ireland and Scotland. And the summer before that, we went down the east coast and across to Texas. And the summer, he's got a couple of jobs, drivers, and a girlfriend. So that's a couple of full-time jobs, right? And if he does it right. So he's there and he'll be with me when I get back until school starts. Well, I'd like to hear Rupier makes me burp. Alright. So. [MUSIC] Last summer, my family went camping. In August, the weather was hot. We sat by the fire and went to the tire. Rupier on ice hit the spot. I get quite a mincey from my own chain. I know that milk's good for my bones. And there's other options, like two big concoctions. But I can't leave Rupier alone. Rupier makes me burp. Rupier makes me burp. You may think I'm jerky for this new beer. Rupier makes me burp. I eat all my corn peas and carrots. I'll down all the tofu you got. Waters for washing and Rupier's for sloshing. I like my Rupier a lot. Rupier makes me burp. Rupier makes me burp. You may think I'm jerky for this Rupier. Rupier makes me burp. Well, too, I know tons of wences. A downing a gaseous drink. And in spite of the social offenses, it's better than farting, I think. 'Cause farting is belly and noisy, too. A burp is a new cooking impromptu. I see how it's easy to miss. Rupier makes me burp. Rupier makes me burp. Rupier makes me burp. You may think I'm jerky for this Rupier. Rupier makes me burp. Fly the treasure to belt and to bear the shame. I just quench the belt and to bear the pain. Rupier tastes good and eats good for the brave. And Rupier makes me burp. Rupier makes me burp. Rupier makes me burp. You may think I'm jerky for this Rupier. Rupier makes me burp. Rupier makes me burp. Rupier makes me burp. I think Jacob must be really proud of having that song in his honor. Did you dig up the words for the song we were talking about earlier? The spoken word piece? Yes, spoken word piece. Give some background to what happened with Jacob in school, if you would, when he refused to do the pledge. It was the same year as the burping. It was before the burping, actually. He was in school after 9/11, and the teacher decided to teach the kids the National Anthem history and so forth. Then told them all to stand up and sing it. She put a flag up and they could put their hands over their hearts, and Jacob, he was in 5th grade, he wouldn't stand up. He just didn't want to, and the teacher told him he had to stand up, and he said, "Well, I don't want to." We could go on and on with the whole longer version, but the short version is that she humiliated him and told him he had to. That was respectful and the honorable, and he didn't give an attitude. He just sat there and said, "I don't want to," because he knew he had a right to stay in his seat. But then she employed the effort with him of fascism, because she told his classmates that if he didn't stand up, everyone would lose their recess. That's part and parcel of how fascism works when you get the community or the public to enforce for authority or illegitimate authority. So he came home and he had tears, and he said, "Daddy, go tell the principal what that law is." It says, "I don't have to stand up." And I said, "Well, honey, I think you can do it, because I never told you to sit down in the first place. I mean, you have come to this yourself. I mean, certainly I don't stand up," and he knows that. But he thought about it, and he told me after the fact he said he really didn't know what he was going to do until he walked. Whatever he was going to say until he walked into the principal's office, we went in early the next morning. He just walked in and said, "I can't stand up as long as we have a war in Afghanistan. We're starving kids in Iraq. We have a boycott against Cuba. We're killing people all around the world, and the flag stands for war." And the principal didn't know quite what to do with that. And all Jacob wanted. I mean, an elder, John Foster, if anybody here knows John, came from the meeting house, and there on the meeting wrote a letter, and a couple other people in the community wrote letters. All he wanted was an apology that he had done nothing wrong. An apology in front of the kids is classmates so that they knew he had done nothing wrong. But the principal wouldn't let it happen because she was afraid if other kids knew they had a First Amendment right to stay in their seats that other kids might not stand up. And that's pretty much verbatim, what she said. And there was a lot of other stuff back and forth. Now, Kayla, who was seven, didn't stand up either. She was in second grade, but her teacher didn't say anything to her. About three weeks later, I asked her if they were still pledging allegiance, and she said, "Yeah, but half the class is sitting down." So it shows you what one kid can do, or what one anyone can do, because people are always watching us. And I think, quite often, we do more work just by following our convictions than what we believe, because people got their eye on us. I mean, we know some people always have their eye on us, which is where this comes from, if I can segue into this. I mean, we want to get back, but last summer I was in the UK, and I was invited to perform on July 4th when Britain has independence from America Day. At the Men with Hill Spy Station, Spy Base, which is the largest US spy base in the world, and you can't see from where you're sitting. Maybe you can. These things are called radomes. They're maybe, geez, I don't know, 80 feet high. They're like huge golf balls. There's 33 of them. It looks like something out of Star Wars, and they intercept. They have little antennas going out all around the golf ball. They intercept all the telecommunications, electronic communication going on in the world, and two of them are designated for Star Wars. They call it the Men with Ball, and people dress up in gowns, and tiars, and tuxes, some of them, and some of them people don't wear sleeves on their t-shirts. And what's the song that we're leading up to here? Well, there is none. Okay. But there is a spoken word. There's the spoken word piece. Well, there's the Nike, and there's the truth piece. I think we were talking about the truth. You want Nike or truth, which is, I'm asking the audience. Truth? All right. Truth or night? Okay. Okay. My son Jacob asked me when he was five. He said, "Daddy, why do you say the radio lies?" I said, "A nation at war needs lies, you see, to feed the desire to kill enemy, to light patriot fires of unquestioning rage and incapacitate reason on the front page. Glorify every CIA sleuth, 'cause you cannot have war until the truth. You cannot have war until the truth." Pearl Harbor wasn't a sneak attack. We know that from the FOI Act. We had long ago broken the Japanese code, but we needed the horror of bombs to explode. With thousands of sailors in a watery and gray panic runs high, easy to persuade, easy for Congress to set the stage, and the road to war lies will pave. Take Japanese homes and farms away so white businesses can seize the day. You cannot have war until the truth. You cannot have war until the truth. And the twin towers were not a sneak attack, but for Turkmenistan, gas, and oil and Iraq, we need a Pearl Harbor to get us off track. Why did the Air Force stand down in DC, then send those pilots way out to sea, and why don't they mention that Euro money? And at the Pentagon, why was there no airplane debris? You cannot have war until the truth. You cannot have war until the truth. We knew in July 1945 that Japan had no military supply. They wanted peace to negotiate, but we wanted to bomb them before it's too late, and send a message with a flash of light that nuclear weapons will use to fight immoral, barbaric, not very couth, but you cannot have war until the truth. Now depleted uranium is nuclear war, just like Hiroshima and Nagasaki before. Destroy the village to save it once more. The reason to bomb Iraq, Afghanistan, is to get every petrol dollar, the plan, and radiate every child, woman, and man. Recruiters are lying to de you our youth. But you cannot have war until the truth. You cannot have war until the truth. Now we were in the truck, and listened to the radio the day that W said, "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists." Jacob was six, I think, at the time. No, he was ten, of course, because this is after the incident with a flag, and he goes, "Daddy, does that mean I'm a terrorist?" And I said, "Well, I think so, honey." I thought a moment, and he said, "Daddy, you must be a terrorist, too, then." And I said, "Yeah, I probably am." They turned his head back, and he thought a moment, and he goes, "Daddy, the whole Quaker meetings terrorist, aren't they?" And I said, "I believe they all are every last one of them, honey." I enjoy his humor, in the midst of something. Not only was it devastating for him, but it became a very defining moment in his life, because he really stood up straighter. The music teacher couldn't look him in the iron school. That song is from your Fool Snowmore CD, and the last one on that CD is called Ministry of Oil. That's right. I think we want to listen to that one, right? Is that the one you do on the keyboard? Yeah. That is, why Ministry of Oil? The images that come up for me, it's a song that just hits me in the gut when I heard it, and when I think of speaking truth to powering it with music, I think this song really, really does that. And it is amazing what news we have and what news we don't have, how selective reporting of the news influences our judgments so extremely, because, I guess, most of us heard about the looting, you all heard about the looting of all their artifacts, how that was completely unprotected. At one point, I saw a map of what was protected and what wasn't protected, and it was very, very telling, but that's not one that you see otherwise. But if you see the whole picture instead of just the little pieces of the picture, the lights go on. The censorship comes in many, many different ways, but I left the states in 1970 during Vietnam, and I thought I was well informed about the world, but I realized I knew hardly anything. I went to South America, and I began reading international news, and then always getting US news about places where I was living in, and how distorted, and how false, and beginning to learn about global economy, and what the US was doing to food production around the world, how the US controls it, and that. In Somalia, the classic examples, I was with the United Nations in Somalia back over 20 years ago, and there was a piece in a US newspaper that came across my desk that talked about the drought conditions in Somalia, and it was so wet that year that there was hardly a dry season between the two rainy seasons. But it was all part of, I don't want to take up a lot of time, this is my dissertation, actually, is about all this. A time when the US is trying to dump our wheat surplus on other countries, it's a whole process of import substitution, taste acquisition, so we can control people's food supply so that they are dependent on us sending food to them, and they grow food for export to us in Europe and elsewhere. It's not a new policy that's been going on for a long, long, long, long time. But let's play Ministry of Oil for the audience here, shall we? Once again, we hear the word precision. From people who think bombs can be precise. We hear the price of fighting terrorism. From people who don't have to pay that price. We see a cloud where there should be a college. We see a reservoir reduced to soil. And though they now admit that the marketplace was hit, they didn't hit the Ministry of Oil. But they call a military target. Is sacred to all soldiers, brave and loyal? You can bomb a shrine, you can bomb a power line, but you never bomb the Ministry of Oil. Once again, the mayhem they call warfare is followed by the melee they call peace. Tearing through the stores and the museums, while the U.S. Army plays police. How much do you suppose that art works old for? As their last remaining food began to spoil. The situation's bad, but no place in Baghdad is safer than the Ministry of Oil. The medicine has all been confiscated. And soon, there won't be water left to boil. And one might wonder who'd think up names like oil for food, when what they mean is ministry of oil. If there's any logic in the universe, if the future isn't just absurd, if justice is precise instead of infinite, if freedom is enjoyed and not endured. I'll take my class out someday on a field trip, past the shells of shell and uneroil. And as they roam around, the musty white house grounds, I'll say kids, this was the Ministry of Oil. I'll say kids, it was a peaceful revolution. There weren't any battles to embroil. And I'm very glad to tell that not one person fell. It's an aspect of our history that every child knows well. How we failed to avoid one building being destroyed. But at least it was the Ministry of Oil. One of the things that was raised for me in the Bible half hour, this past week here at the French General Conference Gathering, the leader asked us, "Who is the person you do not want to accept as your neighbor?" The person you don't want to take into that place in your heart. Certainly some political names came up as well as people who drive SUVs and all this kind of thing came up amongst the people there. So I'm hesitant sometimes because I think what I need to do is love W and everybody else. That doesn't mean I have to support the sins they do, just love the sinner, but not the sin. And you do a lot of political stuff. Are you able to keep your, you didn't notice you did any political stuff? Are you able to keep a balance of that? I mean not actually hating the person and making them worry about that. People aren't many different levels. There are right-wingers I would leave my child with and know that my child would be very safe. People who may not agree with anything, but I know that my child would be safe with them. And there are our lefties who I wouldn't. I climbed a mountain on the Chinese border with a guy from Rhodesia who rode with Ian Smith's border police and they were like the Texas Rangers, they were brutal. And one day he realized that was wrong and he went AWOL, he went to South Africa, went to medical school and was working and what at that time were called colored hospitals and Port Elizabeth, I think it was. I want to keep the dialogue open with everyone. I'm not going to force myself on anyone, but again it gets back to people watch who we are and what we do. And they watch how we live our lives. And that I think more than anything opens up opportunities for communication. And hypocrisy is one of those telltale signs isn't it? Absolutely, absolutely. Well, how about Spirit of Justice? Is that a song that would speak of that subject? Well, now, I try to give recognition to as many people who merit recognition in our society. And certainly John Ashcroft is anyone who loses an election to a dead person deserves to become Attorney General at least. But anyway, yes, the John Ashcroft song is one of my favorites. It begins in Philadelphia in the year 2000 at the Republican National Convention when then Governor Tom Ridge ordered the Pennsylvania State Police to go and arrest whom? The puppeteers come and get your prize. You got a prize for that? Common get your prize. That's right, the puppeteers. Why don't you get a prize? I want to know, I want to know. She got the inner public place cassette. Because it has all those P's in public place? That's right, public place puppeteer. And then the police went back and confiscated all the puppetry material, all the mache, all the chicken wire, everything, and destroyed it. Then we move up six months to the coronation when executive order. No puppets were allowed in the streets of Washington, D.C. One week later, John is doing his first press conference in the Hall of Justice in front of something where attorneys, generals have been doing press conferences since the '30s. You're doing a press conference? A P word, that's right. And when he saw his P for picture from the associated P press, he was greatly chagrined. And what was in that picture? What was that something now? Whose breast? The spirit of justice is breast, and it's right, right here. This is the title song from this one, that's the AP shot right there. So you will see her breast is over John's shoulder, you don't mind. I know you said it first, but the covered one is over. He said the exposed one is over his shoulder. Now the man could have moved the podium over here. But what did he do? He covered her up, and how much did he spend for that? $8,645. For anyone who pays taxes, that's where the money went. So... That's as good introduction as it needs, go for it. So this is called the spirit of justice for our guy, John. The spirit of justice is bust is exposed, and Johnny was in distress. That bodacious loser is not how he choose a man here. She was standing after us. The ladies are tramp, and a lumen on them. A lumen on the civius luck to cover her shape. He spent 8k's to tramp and disappear. All of her smut to cover her shape. He spent 8k's to tramp and disappear. All of her smut. While he's out by in the yard, it's the nuclear garbage. The warfare is piling up. Free speech, he reduces surveillance, abuses to fill up. This oversized cup. We were right to bear arms, but we can't bear oppressed. Especially over his shoulder. The biggest brawl in the world for this spirited girl. This 18 foot center folder. The biggest brawl in the world for this spirited girl. This 18 foot center folder. This hall of justice hooter. You can't dispute her. Simple of nurture and strength. Of a women's survival, their freedoms revival perhaps. It's a matter of length. In his secret prayer meetings, Johnny is treating justice with mockery. Oh, he's in a snip 'cause she bared her tit. Her mental memory. Oh, he's in a snip 'cause she bared her tit. Her mental memory. Fear is his ministry. Not civil, liberty, illegal. Detention's are in. For him to feel masculine. He'll teach our heroine feminine. Discipline. His searching and seizure, invading our leisure. Spying with wired taps. Pathologically lying and erasure profiling. Keeping justice under wraps. Pathologically lying and erasure profiling. Keeping justice under wraps. Oh, and puppets are outlawed. Only outlaws have puppets here in the US survey. If there's a bulb in the White House, then why not in justice? It's the American way. If there's a bulb in the White House, then why not in justice? It's the American way. [applause] So, let's go on to one more song, and then we'll get you out of here. You're not leaving yet, though, you've got more stuff to do. We've got a serious basketball game. I also have to pick up my calculator at the Linda Hand Place. You left your calculator? I left my calculator in St. Louis, and Don Rupert brought it up and sent me an email that it was up here at Linda Hand. Okay. So, I have to find wherever that is. We were talking earlier about the media and what it does and doesn't cover. And to some degree, I think you're a traveling media source, right? Oh, I just sing songs. You do get the news out. You get the message out and people don't forget a number of things that mainstream press doesn't necessarily even mention. Let's go with it. I mean, you'll figure this song out. It's self-explanatory. That was The Big Surprise. It was originally written by Dan Hart. I put new lyrics to it. ♪ ♪ There was a famine that happened somewhere ♪ ♪ One million people without a prayer but it never made the TV news ♪ ♪ 'Cause that was the week Mike Jackson got sued ♪ ♪ And to land to breed to lay down their guns ♪ ♪ Pending a war that could never be won ♪ ♪ But we never gave it one minute of thought ♪ ♪ 'Cause that was the week ♪ ♪ Pee we got caught all that was the week ♪ ♪ Another two thousand tiny Rocky children from our genocide ♪ ♪ All that was the week they could have been saved ♪ ♪ But there wasn't room for 'em on the front page ♪ ♪ That was the week ♪ ♪ That was the week ♪ ♪ ♪ Pinnies to more of people going extinct ♪ ♪ Salvation plans drowned in red ink ♪ ♪ But that was the week the games were starting ♪ ♪ That was the week of Tonya Harding ♪ ♪ Governor running guns and drugs out of manor ♪ ♪ CIA planes are filled with the cocaine ♪ ♪ The nation is born away and life dies ♪ ♪ Buried beneath in you and know and lies ♪ ♪ But we didn't care 'cause we didn't know ♪ ♪ We only saw what they chose to show ♪ ♪ We got our fix, we're not complaining ♪ ♪ It's only news if it's entertaining ♪ ♪ Oh that was the week ♪ ♪ That was the week ♪ ♪ ♪ Montanteux is changing the food that we eat ♪ ♪ Genetically altering seeds with the seeds ♪ ♪ Round up dioxin' the earth it is blighting ♪ ♪ But that was the week ♪ ♪ Marvellbert was biting Chiapas ♪ ♪ Is looking like El Salvador ♪ ♪ And after and the army are killing the poor ♪ ♪ But that was the week of a Kennedy member ♪ ♪ Relating to the opposite gender ♪ ♪ Plutonium is soaring throughout our space ♪ ♪ One pound can kill the whole human race ♪ ♪ But that was the week of Dodie and I ♪ ♪ And all through the driver DWR ♪ ♪ That was the week of the paparazzi chase ♪ ♪ Oh the paparazzi chase, thousands underline ♪ ♪ 4 million earth base ♪ ♪ Oh that was the week for a piece of the pie ♪ ♪ One shot a cleavage or royals ♪ ♪ Oh that was the week ♪ ♪ That was the week ♪ ♪ Shell kills the old gony ♪ ♪ There's blood in its oil ♪ ♪ Texicles burnin' up forest to spoil ♪ ♪ Bobine grows hormone is milk in the public ♪ ♪ But that was the week ♪ ♪ Hugh Grant was a lopsicle ♪ ♪ That was the week of corporate crime ♪ ♪ White was your justice ♪ ♪ Time after time ♪ ♪ Oh we put it off with a turn of a doubt ♪ ♪ 'Cause that was the year of the OJ trial ♪ Oh, Jay, trial, oh, that was the week, that was the year those were the stories we didn't hear, that was the week, that was the week, that was the week, that was the week. You've been listening to a spirit in action interview with singer activist Tom Nielsen, before an audience from the Friends General Conference Gathering, held in River Falls, Wisconsin the first week in July. The performance and interview were hosted courtesy of the River Falls Methodist Church, just a few blocks away from the UW River Falls campus, where the Gathering of about 1500 Quakers was held. Tom, however, had to hop in his chariot and head back south for another performance, so we were very fortunate to have him share his music and inspirational activism with us for spirit in action. The theme music for this program is Turning of the World, performed by Sarah Thompson. This spirit in action program is an effort of Northern Spirit Radio. You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website, northernspiritradio.org. Thank you for listening. I am your host, Mark Helpsmeet, and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit in Action. With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along. With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along, and our lives will feel the echo of our healing.