I was opposed to the Bush war policy long before I became Maine’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate this year. In fact, the immorality and illegality of the Iraq War was a primary reason why I am running for office.
For those of us who experienced the Vietnam era, these are troubling times. The invasion of Iraq and all its ramifications, of so many deaths overseas and so much neglect of issues at home, is heart-wrenching. I’m pleased to see that the weekly peace vigils all across Maine are increasing. The number of people involved in them is growing, and the positive response from passing cars — the honks, the waves, the peace signs — is encouraging.
Here in Maine I have joined various peace and Veterans groups at meetings, demonstrations, rallies, readings of the Iraqi war dead, forums, marches, and in parades, including the Memorial Day Parade in Bangor. This holiday weekend I’ll be marching with Democrats as a peace candidate in several parades. While most people in parades toss out candy, I and my supporters pass out my home-grown organic shell peas with the message “Jean Hay Bright says: Give peas a chance.”
Some may see passing out peas as a gimmick, but it gets people’s attention, and we need more of that . We need even more ways for people to show their support for the peace movement, to express their outrage over the war, more ways for people to know that they are not alone in their anguish.
We need some protest songs that speak to all generations, like the songs we heard during the Vietnam War.
A friend of mine, Patrick Scanlon of Andover, Mass., thinks so too.
Pat is a graduate of the U.S. Army Intelligence School, a Vietnam veteran turned environment and peace activist. In 1969, Pat held a Top Secret security clearance and was working in the Army Intelligence Bomb Damage Assessment Headquarters in Saigon.
He’s also a musician, and over the years he has used his talents to support such causes as nuclear disarmament and recycling. His experiences in Vietnam still haunt him, and they are what drives him to work for peace.
When I talked to Pat the other day he told me, “Every day my stomach turns in knots when I hear the latest news report of another fallen soldier in Iraq, a war that did not have to be. War is very personal for the soldiers, their families and friends. During the Vietnam War we heard stirring protests songs on the radio, but not today.”
He, and I, believe that in order to end this war, it has to become personal for all of us.
Pat has written, sung, and produced two new Iraq War protest songs.
“I Have a Feeling I’ve Been Here Before” plays on the many comparisons between the Vietnam and Iraq experience. Pat says he’s finding the song rings true to those who lived the Vietnam war — whether in the jungles of Vietnam or in the streets of America.
“Where Is the Rage” expresses the sentiments of Vietnam veterans and others who find it hard that so many Americans are detached from the Iraq war. He wrote `Where is the Rage,’ he says, to help people feel a connection to this war, a connection to the experience of the soldiers and their families.
These are very powerful songs, the 21st century equivalent of ‘Blowing in the Wind.’ People concerned about what’s happening in this country and around the world need to hear them.
The Vietnam War was very personal for Pat. The picture on the cover of his new CD is of the casket of his best friend from high school, PFC Timothy McHugh USMC, as McHugh arrived home from Vietnam at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia in March of 1968,
“During the Vietnam War we saw the tragic images of flag-draped caskets returning home. Today, we are not allowed to see those images,” Pat told me.
For my part, the late 1960s was a time of worry and waiting with other military wives outside a base in Gulfport, Mississippi, during my first husband’s two tours of duty in Vietnam. We watched the war on TV. We heard the protests. We wanted our men home, but we didn’t say anything because we were military wives. Yet I firmly believe the protests at home helped end that war.
I hope as more people hear Pat Scanlon’s new songs, they will be inspired to join the current protests, to speak out against this war, to keep the pressure on our politicians from the outside. I’m running for federal office because I want to work on ending the war from the inside. By working together, working both outside and inside our political system, we can and will achieve peace in our country.
Pat is not collecting royalties on his songs, and he is making them available to anyone who wants to use them to promote an end to the Iraq War. The two songs can be heard and downloaded from my campaign website, http://www.jeanhaybright.us.
I’m pleased to be able to help Pat spread his message and his songs. I hope you’ll listen to them.
