Tag: voting

June 5, 2012 - Truthdig has a cool article out about the Yo Soy 132 student movement going on in Mexico, where journalist Carmen Aristegui asked the students to create a soundtrack for the marches. Some of the songs that got "Tweeted" with her hashtag "#CancionesParaMarchar" were Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" but also many local Mexican artists were voted for also. Check out the article and what the soundtrack turned out to be at Truthdig.com here. For more information on Yo Soy 132 check out their Wiki articile here, and if you are bi-lingual you can check out their website here. Check out a video below of Molotov by eLbiser86; one of the bands that got a lot of votes, and speaks out about the poverty and corruption in Mexico. The band is called Molotov, and the song is "Gimme the Power".  (Photo CC by-sa 2.0)

MAY 24, 2012 - JTMP has been a participant in the State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program for 3 years now, where citizens from around the world involved in the arts get to come to America and visit to learn about the role of arts in the US. This year we had visitors that came from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia to see how Justice Through Music Project uses art to raise awareness on issues, and to bring about social change. This year's contingent had musicians, playwrights, and people involved in art production. We gave them a presentation and showed them many of our musical art videos that deal with politics and issues, while we spoke about how we operate and produce our art videos. We then showed them how we use this art on our website and YouTube channel to raise awareness on an issue to help bring about positive social change.

The program also hopes to spur and support cross-cultural dialogue, and we experienced a great debate and discussion with the group. We even had one person ask us if the US government interfered with our free speech, which of course we explained as long as its peaceful and  legal, a free society must have the free flow of thoughts and ideas, and no restrictions on expressions of art. We even had a great discussion on the role of the US interfering or getting involved in foreign countries, which there were many different opinions, but that was good. We showed them how a free society respects different opinions and solves things peacefully. We talked about how JTMP thinks the best way to bring about peace and social change in a country is for those citizens to be educated and informed, and have a free flow of opinions and dialogue, and be free to set up peaceful democracies. We explained how we feel art plays a big role in democracies, as they are the canaries in the coal mine, and can speak out about issues in unique way and sometimes see or sense problems such as civil rights issues in society before others do.

We chatted after our presentation, and answered many questions, as they were all curious about life in America, our freedoms, and how art plays a role. All of them come from emerging democracies, and most were from the Arab Spring countries setting up democracies for the first time and holding their first free elections, such as Egypt did today. We took photos, and even had the Tunisian guitarist play a few jazz riffs, and promised to stay in touch and continue to network using the Internet and work together on our shared social, political, and cultural goals.

For more information on the US State Department's International Visitor Leadership program, go to: http://exchanges.state.gov/ivlp/

MAY 15, 2012 - In an interview with CNN, Jay-Z has come out and praised Obama for coming out in support of gay marriage saying, "it was the right thing to do." He added, "I've always thought it as something that was still holding the country back. What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That's their business. It's no different than discriminating against blacks. It's discrimination pure and simple." Watch the interview below.

APR 20, 2012 - The youth vote is crucial for Obama in his bid for reelection, so the President has commenced a tour of key states pushing for Congress to extend the lower interest rates on student loans. The 3 state tour, through North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa will be aimed at young people who lately have been strapped with student debt once they leave college. If Congress doesn't act, rates will double after July 1 to 6.8%. Read more on Reuters.com here.   (photo credit: graciepoo/Flickr)

Justice Through Music has teamed up with hundreds of non-profit organizations and thousands of concerned America citizens in a coalition to end corporate personhood and overturn the Citizens United Ruling, called Move To Amend. We feel that big corporate money is poisoning our elections and democratic process, and preventing the voice of the American people from being heard by their elected representatives.

We strongly feel that the ruling in the Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission that ruled corporations are persons and entitled by the Constitution to buy our elections and run our government is un-democratic, misguided and wrong and needs to be overturned by a Constitutional amendment by Congress. As we say on the petition website, "We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights."

If you feel the same, and would like to sign the petition asking for Congress to act and overturn this horrible decision by the Supreme Court, and/or you are an organization that wants to join the coalition, please visit the Move To Amend website:

http://www.movetoamend.org