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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 2007, page 66 Waging Peace “Stop the War: Words and Music”
JUST TWO DAYS before the mid-term elections—and perhaps for the first time since the Vietnam War—Iowa musicians and anti-war activists joined forces at a Nov. 4 event, at the Ritual Cafe in Des Moines, called “Stop the War: Words and Music” to bring protest music to the forefront of the anti-war movement in Iowa. “Brian Joens, a local musician here in Des Moines, had the idea for this concert,” said event organizer and activist Jamie Woodson. “We’re here to express our discontent with our government’s policies and the war in Iraq.” Des Moines-based guitarist and singer-songwriter Brad Roth led off the evening with a mix of songs including traditional anti-war ballads. Frank Cordaro, a leader in the Catholic Worker community, then spoke about the history and principles of Catholic Worker activism. Warning against the dangers of empire building, Cordaro castigated the architects of America’s war in Iraq. “If the truth meant anything at all,” he said, “we wouldn’t have got in the war in the first place.” Iowa native Matthew Grimm’s band, Matthew Grimm and the Red Smear, has a new CD titled “Dawn’s Early Apocalypse.” Grimm described the war in Iraq as “a war of privilege and fiat, rather than the schoolbook notions that we were taught about our republic, which is a government answerable to its people. It is a war of the privileged against the weak, and it is a war for the profits of the privileged.” Joens, who plays guitar and writes his own songs, says he sees a larger role for music in Iowa’s anti-war movement. Saying he sees the “Stop the War: Words and Music” event as a beginning, Joens explained modestly, “I just wanted to make a start.” Also appearing were hip-hop artist Aeon Grey and singer-songwriter Andy Fleming, front man for the popular Des Moines roots rock band Brother Trucker. —Michael Gillespie |
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