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Taken from JamBase (October, 2004)
By Anton Corbijn |
MICHAEL FRANTI
Spearhead
by JamBase | San Francisco
Why is it important to vote?It's not who gets elected that determines the equality of a democracy, it is how many people participate and the foreign policy of the U.S. government dramatically effects the day to day life of people around the world that can not vote in our elections. So when we ignore the ballot box, we are ignoring potentially billions of people who suffer at the leadership of this nation.
Is this election any different than elections past?To me This election is no different than any election in the past. The only reason that this election has the illusion of being so important is because we have reached a crisis state due to the lack of participation in previous elections. If all of us had taken it upon ourselves to be more aware, this right wing take-over by a C-minus college student, neo-conservative might not have happened.
Do politics have a place in music? Why or why not?Music is the expression of emotion covering the full rainbow of issues and concerns that all of us have and it is impossible living in the world we are living in today for people not to have strong feeling about the war, homelessness, lack of health care, lack of education resources, clean air or clean water and jobs, all of which are effected by politics. Rock and rap music have always been about rebellion, and in keeping in that spirit, it is important for artists today to raise their voices when they see there is an under-representation of concerns of the people and an over-representation of the concerns of the Corporation. But as much as there is a place for politics in music, music should also equally represent the other wide range of emotions that we all express, included among them, happiness, love, sadness, fear, anger and celebration. I don't know if music can change the world overnight, but it can help up make it thru a difficult night.
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