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Review by The Dead Author IconMail Icon
Rated: E | (3.5)
Wow! Thanks for writing this. I remembered reading about this when it happened. I have to say that I wasn't all that surprised by this incident, but the irony wasn't lost on me. Cat Stevens was seeing the world in ways that most of us are still struggling to discover, at a time when seeing the world differently had become fashionable. But his perceptions were not the contrivance of current fashion, they reach for something deeper. Something within everyone of us, something we knew about but couldn't quite reach. His music helped us remember those things that are truly great in life.

And his personal statement, stepping away from public life to pursue something more personal, was in my estimation an example of someone who is willing to grow and change within the bounds of their life. Something that is often so difficult for most of us.

As a child I remember this music in our house, and of course my mother still has the albums. And I have his music on my computer. It's the kind of music the never becomes dated or passé, it resonates on from its inception reaching people as yet unbegotten.

Your article is well title, and when we were listening to this song, the importance of that message had already been learned at far too high a cost. The deaths of millions, including some 50,000 Americans and a generation of people crippled in mind and body by their experiences in war.

No the irony isn't lost on me, that a man who revealed himself so deeply in his music, could now be suspect at a time when a new conflagration (just thought I'd use that word again since you liked it so much) looms on the horizon. That he of all people would find himself in this situation, is itself representative of how clueless we still remain. And how our fears and apprehension can overwhelm even what we know to be right and true and just.

As someone who's had a great deal of exposure to the music world, and someone who appreciates the value of great music, I can say say that I probably understand Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) better than some of the people I've known my whole life. Regardless of how he chooses to be addressed, the person, the heart and soul of the person within that name and within that body, are things that cannot change or be altered with the passing of time. No more than I can alter or change the core of my being.

I wouldn't care if he were stuffing thousand dollar bills in the G. string of Hamas, I would give him the benefit of the doubt because unlike many of the people who are running our current government, he is someone I understand intimately. And as a Jew I have no love for Hamas.

Structurally, I'd like to see this piece condensed, with special emphasis placed on losing some of the color commentary. Probably staying on message a little more and some tightening of the focus would be in order.

I'll leave you with the lyrics of peace train because they are so pertinent and timely. Just as they were when they were first written. And maybe if we play the song enough, people will start to listen again. And maybe it will save some lives.

Sincerely
ABB


Now I’ve been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun

Oh I’ve been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be, some day it’s going to come

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again

Now I’ve been smiling lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun

Oh peace train sounding louder
Glide on the peace train
Come on now peace train
Yes, peace train holy roller

Everyone jump upon the peace train
Come on now peace train

Get your bags together, go bring your good friends too
Cause it’s getting nearer, it soon will be with you

Now come and join the living, it’s not so far from you
And it’s getting nearer, soon it will all be true

Now I’ve been crying lately, thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating, why can’t we live in bliss

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again

Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam).



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Review of Peacenik Prose  Open in new Window.
Review by The Dead Author IconMail Icon
Rated: 13+ | (3.0)
I'll start by commenting on the continent of this piece; I think it's an important subject that few modern writers are seriously contemplating. Personally what I want a gut check, I go to the Washington Post web site and look up "Faces of the Fallen," to have a look at those US citizens, those mostly young people who are dying daily.

Looking at this for a while, I gained some inspiration to go back and look at the lists of casualties from Vietnam. I noticed if I looked long enough, there was almost no city town or crossroads across the United States from which some person came and was subsequently killed in Vietnam. Part of my own family comes from rural Missouri, and even in those small places, such as Lagrange and Canton near my family's farm, even in those places you'll find lives that went missing. Missing in the sense that everything that they had ahead of them stopped somewhere at some specific moment in Southeast Asia. And from that moment on every life who would've come into contact with them or they would of had an influence on was altered irrevocably.

Of course this is thinking in the abstract, but as your poem touches on ,they are dying for whatever the philosophical or ideological reason. But the only thing that really matters is that you are dead. You don't get any more life, as far as anybody knows for certain. And I think in this sense that the current war is beginning to mirror that war. Already from every state Americans have died, not to lessen the deaths of Iraqis or everyone else from some 150 odd countries who have died in this current war. But as an American I can relate to Americans and the places they have lived. And within that abstract which is America I wonder about those lives that never were. Kind of like ghosts walking through every town where they would have lived and experienced more of life .

And in your mentioning of history, I think it's important to note that most recently during the political season, Vietnam by implication was being portrayed as some kind of failure on the part of the American people to support the military. That's beautifully revisionist in its approach but hardly speaks to the catastrophic futility of that engagement. Historically few wars could have been engaged upon with less chance of achieving anything then this war was.

Politics aside, anyone portraying the Vietnam War as anything but a colossal blunder on the part of American policy makers, is attempting to rewrite history. It seems that the same kind of ignorance and arrogance which led to that conflagration is again reminding us that history is quickly forgotten.

Structurally I'm a little disconcerted with this "poem". While the first four stanzas seem relatively sound and your transition into Vietnam is interesting, I don't see it working particularly well with your (draft state) section. This philosophical tact seems rather distracting as well as detracting from what seems to be your main themes.

Again if I were to interpose what I think is important in this topic, I think the people who are being maimed and who continue to die in the Middle East should be reemphasized as well as the historical perspective.

In the ending you asked the question, "Would YOU go," and here again I think it does a service to those who have gone, to remind the reader that they didn't have any choice. For most people in the military, your choices are very limited. And for the vast majority of young people who join the military, in peacetime especially, the concept of war is something they can hardly fathom let alone have the wherewithal to be prepared for.

Sincerely

ABB
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