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This is an email that I was sent this morning, I thought I would share it with you all....
Dear All,
America has it`s first African-American president. The magnitude of the previous sentence is still sinking in. After 8 years of corruption, lies, heinous acts that range from torture, an illegal war, Katrina, the Patriot Act and much much more, this morning America stands at the threshold of a new era of hope and change. The dark menacing clouds that have engulfed a society and a people that I, as an Englishman, have come to not only love and cherish, but be proud to call myself an American, appear to have been replaced with sunshine. The stench of fear, that had started to permeate all sections of American society has been momentarily cleansed. Perhaps as an "outsider", it means more to me than many people understand.
I have been privileged to be able to visit America for many years as a dj and performer. What always struck me about the average American was a sense of decency, honesty and a community spirit that often put many European countries to shame. Their history of sacrificing their own for Europe`s causes, as happened in World War 2, the importance of which, many people of my age miss in our cyber realities, was the reason, despite being terrified of flying, I got on a plane shortly after 9/11 to show support for my friends across the water. I had grown up in Ireland during the "troubles", I remember watching the numerous related bombings in the UK as a kid during the 80s. I remember being afraid, I remember asking myself, even at that young age, why do people kill and maim other people for a "cause"? I remember asking my Dad that same question and to this day I remember the response "Because we allow politicians to push their agendas in our name". I eventually took the leap and moved to America in 2004. People still ask me why? Bush was in control, this demon in a man`s body was wreaking havoc on a country that had given me and many more artists memories to last a lifetime. Victor Frankl once said " What is to give light, must endure burning", for me America still represented hope, freedom and democracy, and even though she was in a dark period of her history, the flame that represented America and her people still flickered.
On March 19 2004, we released We Will Not Be Silenced. Despite everything the Bush junta was trying to do, I still had enough confidence in the Constitution to speak out against the Iraq War. We used a great speaker, Reverend Graylan Hagler to deliver a message of hope and peace through non-violence and protest. Rev Hagler, was a pastor for the United Church of Christ in Washington DC. WWNBS took off beyond our wildest imagination, this video, distributed online, went on to become a historical piece of agit-prop. It was not us that made it so, but the thousands of Americans, who passed this around, made it go viral. Any doubt I had that America would not come through disappeared at this point. A couple of months later, a young prospective Senator from Chicago, who was also a member of the United Church of Christ, delivered a momentous speech to the Democratic National Convention. On that day in 2004, I heard Barack Obama and I heard the future. The future in now.
People ask me who the "We" in We Will Not Be Silenced are, and I refer them to my dads quote, "anyone who has had a politician to push an agenda in their name that they disagreed with". The remarkable thing about WWNBS, and even to this day it staggers me, is that whilst one can say I am left of center, we received thanks from soldiers, mothers of soldiers who had died for Bush`s illegal war and ordinary Americans from all sides of the political equation. This was a country that supposedly was racist, yet here was an example of the America I knew, where decency trumped everything, where the truth, be it coming from a "radical" preacher in Washington DC or a young politician from Chicago, was more important that the colour of their skin.
So today, November 6th 2008, I sit in the America that I know. An America that the world has missed for the last 8 years. An America where the voice of the people is never silenced. An America where the beacon of liberty, freedom, hope, truth, decency and justice for all, once again burns brightly. Am America where the American dream is the American reality. An America where a young African-American man has become President.
To the American people, thank you.
Peace
Paul Edge
www.wewillnotbesilenced.com
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