Hello from Portland! (Now without apocalyptic amounts of wildfire smoke.)
The summer in Portland was spent trying to adapt to prolonged social distancing as we also endured gestapo state violence against peaceful protesters in our city. Then in September, massive wildfires destroyed small towns throughout Oregon, causing many people to need to evacuate. The fires led to the worst air quality in the world in Portland and the Willamette Valley for a few days, showing us that climate changes is not a future possibility: it is here, now, and beginning to have massive impacts on our lives.
Just as we knew it would, ten years ago. Twenty years ago. Half a century ago, well before I was born. And nothing serious has been done to address this massive problem.
And then Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, which will allow Republicans to install a reactionary majority onto the Supreme Court. This Supreme Court can prevent any necessary progressive programs from being created, from universal healthcare to measures to address climate change to a new voting rights act. This new justice will be nominated by Donald Trump, who continues to be a vicious liar, a power-hungry dictator who will stop at nothing to amass power. He sees anyone who does not support him as an enemy, which means that a sizeable majority of the United States is now his enemy. He also continues to gain even more accusations of sexual assault and abuse from women he had power over. He also continues to have unwavering support from nearly 40% of the voters in our country.
At a time like this, it can feel small and even selfish to share my music with you. After all, we live in a country and a time where the death of one 87-year-old-woman has now imperiled the rights and even the lives of millions upon millions of people. We live in a time when our president is threatening to suspend the election, or to refuse to accept the election if he loses. We live in a time and a country when nine unelected justices on the Supreme Court could rule that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, which would take away the health insurance I and millions rely upon to survive in our cruel hellscape of a healthcare system.
When we live in a time like this, when the president and his political party are actively lying, actively trying to destroy our ability to see what is real and what is fake, and the media is not holding them to account in an attempt to maintain their supposed objectivity, it is imperative that we fight back by engaging with the world, including art and music. We must sharpen our minds, expand our awareness, take in new sights, sounds, and ideas, and continue to think and act towards justice and a better life for all people the world over.
I hope my music can help provide this for you. As I see it, every moment we spend contemplating art and music, letting it change the way we see, hear, and think about the world, we are resisting the forces that want us to submit, stop thinking, and give our power to them. Let’s take our power back through how we live our lives.