Tag: activism

MAR 29, 2013 - JTMP is joining and supporting the calls for Reebok to drop rapper Rick Ross as a spokesperson because his new single talks about drugging and raping a woman. In the single he said, "Put molly [a drug] all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it / I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it." This is not only totally offensive and outrageous in general, but coming on the heels of the Steubenville rape case shows very bad taste. Sending the message to young people that it is okay to drug and sexually violate a woman is horrible, and he should be dropped as a Reebok spokesperson, and this single needs to be boycotted.

Ultra Violet has a petition going calling for Reebok to drop Rick Ross as a spokesperson here.

MAR 29, 2013 - I ran across this great quote from Jerry Garcia this morning. The Grateful Dead were big time musical-activists. At Earth Day, Bob Weir told me they used to pay for the gasoline for Greenpeace's boats way back on the 1970s. Here is the quote:

"If we had any nerve at all, if we had any real balls as a society, or whatever you need, whatever quality you need, real character, we would make an effort to really address the wrongs in this society, righteously." - Jerry Garcia

More Jerry Garcia quotes here.  (photo credit: Carl Lender/CC)

Today's featured activist-musician is Thollem McDonas. From SouthbendTribune:

"Activism and music have been a part of Thollem McDonas’ life for as long as he can remember. He gave his first music lesson at 13, and his activism started a few years later. “My activism started in high school,” the pianist, who performs Tuesday at Merrimans’

McDonas worked with the ecological club and started an animal rights group while in college. He became an anti-war activist in the run-up to and aftermath of the Persian Gulf War of the early 1990s. “It was natural for me that once (the war) got started to get into the streets,” McDonas says. “At the very least, I felt that I could not participate in society the way that it was."

Read more on SouthbendTribune.com here.  (photo credit: Angela C. Villa/SouthbendTribune.com)

MAR 20, 2013 - Several Michelle Shocked shows have been canceled after the singer, who has been known to "speak her mind" in the past, went on an anti-gay tirade the other night. Fans are outraged, and the blogosphere has not been kind to her. She was actually somewhat of a "gay icon" at one time, but not anymore after this stunt. Even after she tried to  distance herself from her remarks, it looks like she may have burned a bridge. Check out the juicy details at Queerty.com here, and start up a discussion and tell us how you feel about this on our Justice Through Music Facebook Page here. Abby Huntsman from HuffPo Live has a video on the story below.  (photo credit: CC/RKeaton)

MAR 20, 2013 - Pearl Jam and MoveOn.org have launched a campaign on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War, to read and share a letter from an Iraqi vet who had to fight this immoral war. Pearl Jam's spokesperson Nicole Brandenburg said,"Our brave and incredible friend Tomas Young is dying. He asked us to pass along Chris's story along with his letter in the hope that --  as uncomfortable as it is -- people will take a moment to look death in the eye and remember him and the many others like him as more than a war statistic." The brave Iraqi War veteran  is Tomas Young, and he penned a letter to former Vice-President Dick Cheney and former President George W. Bush criticizing the decision to go to war with Iraq, as he lies dying from a bed in hospice care. He writes:

"I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole."

To help out soldiers like him, contact and pressure your representatives to direct more funding to veteran care, and one can also help out by donating to the Wounded Warrior Project which helps out disabled veterans. For more information and to read the letter in full, check out TruthDig.com. Also, check out a great article about Tomas Young by Chris Hedges on TruthDig.com here, , and finally, check out the full MoveOn.org Iraq War campaign here. Pearl Jam's website also shares Tomas' letter, and also points out the 2007 documentary titled, "Body of War" which followed around Tomas Young and can be viewed on Netflix and purchased; read more on Pearl Jam's website here.

Share this letter with your friends, and join the conversation on Justice Through Music's Facebook Page here: http://www.Facebook.com/justicethroughmusic