Ground Zero and Fahrenheit 9/11

Met up with Doug Yowell, with who I struck up a great friendship with on the Suzanne Vega tour. Doug came on and played drums for me on the last few nights of the tour and those of you in the PQ will hear the results on the next free CD due in October. I also visited Ground Zero, which was a humbling event for me. I went to the top of the towers in 91 when my family were over for a while as I was spending prolonged periods of time in New York when I was recorded.I have video footage of us all on the top of the building. Just across the road is a small chapel called St Paul’s. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 the chapel became a shelter, feeding post and safe haven for the thousands of volunteers. The record of that and displays really got to me. This evening I went to Times Square and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11. Put that film together with the Ground Zero visit and that’s a lot of America for one day. It was as devastating a piece of work as I thought it would be and I wish every American would see it and before November. I mean even if only 20% of it was true, in the UK it would still be enough to make the Prime Ministers job untenable. The huge issues represented are pushed aside by Bush supporters, either because they are ignorant of them or because they see Abortion and same sex marriages as the most important issues on the planet. I heard one woman in a church say that she was voting for Bush because he was pro life and against same sex marriages, and that all the ‘other stuff’ would fall into place because he was a man of great morality. Basically, because Bush calls himself a Christian that is all that matters and it gives him a visa to the thinking part of a fundamentalist brain and lets him get away with murder, literally. This is why the word ‘Christian’ has become meaningless to me. It has been hijacked and rendered impotent. The Jesus I believe in would not tolerate these so called ‘morals’, and would overturn more than a few tables in the Whitehouse. I don’t want to even think about another term of office for this man but I fear it might happen. One of the problems is a lack of effective opposition, as the USA suffers in the same way as the UK with a blending of messages and policies that make every one sound the same. The people that lost their lives in 9/11 and their surviving families deserve more than they have been given, as do those who’s children are now dying in Iraq. Go see this film. Its not perfect but its good enough, and still may make the difference in the most important election of our lives.