The End of the Bush Years in the Presence of Leonard Cohen

international | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis

Thursday November 06, 2008 19:35

by Ciaron O'Reilly - Catholic Worker/Ploughshares

Glasgow, Scotland

"Democracy is Coming to the U.S.A."
clip -Leonard Cohen
http://noolmusic.com/yahoo_videos/leonard_cohen_-_democ...y.php

I've been in Glasgow the past few daze catching to my godson Seanoidh and his parents Brian and Babs. I met B & B when I accompanied my friend Richard, who had just been deported from Genoa as he was trying to make his way to the G8 2001 demonstration, down to the Italian embassy in London to register our protest at the killing of Carlos,

Brian and Babs had likewise been immediately deported after landing at Genoa Airport and had missed the demonstrations in which Carlos was subsequently shot dead. The only thing Richard, Brian and Babs seemed to have in common is that they had been arrested in the very fluffy blockades of the British Trident nuclear submarine base in Faslane Scotland. This has been one of the most disciplined campaigns of nonviolent resistance in Eng/Scottish history so it seemed to me the authorities were keen to weed out the fluffies from Genoa!

Babs had shouted me a ticket to see Leonard Cohen in Glasgow. Cohen is someone I have listened to for years growing up in Australia. We use to joke his music and lyrics were a good soundtrack to slash up by as opposed to Nick Cave who some friends thought was good music to shoot up to!

The previous night I had stayed up watching the U.S. election results and texting an American friend in Hungary who claims to be an anarchist except in U.S. election year! My friend had come out of Michael Harrington's tendency in the U.S. Democratic party. Harrington had jumped ship from the Catholic Worker movement in the 1950's for reasons of political pragmatism and had written "The Other America" that had a significant influence on the Kennedy administrations "War on Poverty"

I didn't want to ruin his night with the Ammon Hennacy quote "When you choose the lesser of two evils, you soon forget your choosing evil!" I don't know much about Obama. I haven't tried that hard. What friends, who have taken more of an interest than me, say is he has been formed in black liberation theology and I was impressed with him equating civil disobedience as significant as civil war in bringing change in America (even though it was a speech in which he was disassociating from his black liberationist pastor). I had also been disappointed that he isn't an opponent of the death penalty which must be the most premediated acts of taking life.

I knew I was going to be more depressed if the Republicans won than excited if the Democrats won. So it was a good result I guess?

The feeling I had the next morning was that a storm had passed (this could be premature as I was still in the U.S. when George Sr. did a one more time drive by attack on Iraq daze before the handover to Clinton.) I had a been a prisoner under George Sr. for nonviolently resisting Gul Massacre 1 we ANZUS Plowshares had disarmred B-52 Bomber and shut downa U.S. Air Force runway on the eve of that assault.

I could not believe George Jr. became the President of the United States! I was present in London, placard in hand, the day George Jr. first visited Europe. George Jr. did not have the curiousity to visit Europe before he became President of the United States. This is a rich kid without a big work record and free time and plenty of money who did not bother to "do London" or "do Paris" or "do anywhere". This was man with no curiousity about the world who got to run the world for 8 years! That can't be good.

So it was great to be in the presence of Leonard Cohen within hours of the Bush-Cheney neocon period lapsing in total economic disarray while losing wars simultaneously on two different fronts. Nice work lads! 74 year old Cohen's 3 hour stage presence was so digniified, gracious and self depreciating. I saw a lot of Buddhist, Catholic, Jewish imagery in there and the spiritual over the political (but hey that's just me there were a couple ofother thousand at the gig so you'd have to ask them!).

I had to meet a friend of Babs in a bar to pick up my ticket. Big guy and the head of a Glasgow Rangers FC supporters club. Nice guy/ the other. Meanwhile Celtic were doing well against Man U at Parkhead. It was great to hang out with the 'Gers guy, only the second one I've ever met!. It was great to hear Cohen deliver "Democracy is Coming to the U.S.A. introduced as "his love letter to the U.S.A." with no reference to Obama. Obviously not a man to jump on any bandwagon is our Leonard!
http://noolmusic.com/yahoo_videos/leonard_cohen_-_democ...y.php

Good luck in the daze ahead...check out what good friends are doing in Chicago www.camphope2009.org and at the White House www.witnesstorture.org

Keep the faith