Received via email from Ian Rhett:
Semper Fi is Alive!
Just in time for Memorial Day, I’ve released my next music video, an antiwar song inspired by my sister, who is a 19 year, active duty United States Marine. The song’s called “(I Know Why You’re) Semper Fi”. “Semper Fi” is the Marine Corps motto and means “Always Faithful.”
Please forward the video far and wide, especially to family members of the U.S. military community, for whom it was created. And please support the organizations we’ve chosen to benefit – IAVA.org, The Fisher House, and Veterans for Peace. And when you do, tell ’em Ian Rhett sent ya.
The goal of this video is to powerfully demonstrate that one can “Support the Troops” and oppose war at the same time. Hopefully this video will open the national dialogue in some small way. While this war bears many unfortunate similarities to Viet Nam, today’s AntiWar movement is very different from our predecessor. I have yet to attend a march or rally where there was anything but love, respect and heartbreak for the sacrifice of military members being sent off to fight what is, at its essence, an unjustified, pre-emptive [sic] war.
The Link: www.sharedvoice.org/semper_fi/
First Major Pub Interview:
The Orlando Sentinel
Not exactly the cover of Rolling Stone (yet), but the well-regarded Orlando Sentinel responded to the media release for the Semper Fi video with an interview and inclusion in a story that ran this past Sunday on the re-emergence of protest music. The article wasn’t a review, so there aren’t any juicy endorsement quotes (unless you consider “invisible to mainstream media” an endorsement – I’m on the fence on that one), but the writer was kind enough to put my website address in the article. I was pleased to see he used a quote I gave him about the influence or impact of protest music.
In thinking about the article, it occurred to me that the chandeliers don’t shake the house. Music is as much a reflection of culture as it is a projection of it. To me, music is the canary in the coal mine (a phrase lyrically embedded in popular culture by the Police) – it’s the weathervein of the mass mind. I knew the chandeliers reference was a good one, and it may have been what kept me in the article.
The Link: Rock and Rebellion by Jim Abbott, Sentinel Pop Music Critic
Semper Fi is a pretty powerful piece. If you have not seen / heard it yet, be prepared for a few tears. I absolutely believe that the best way we can support our troops in this time of trouble is to acknowledge that we as a nation made a mistake, and bring them home alive now.
And now, we have Neil Young, the Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, Pink, even Merle Haggard, lining up to tell the world that we need to change what we have been doing.
ETA: Ian is also responsible for “(Didn’t Know I Was) UnAmerican”. Hear it here.
ETA 2: Talk about synchronicity: Editorial in the 15-May issue of The Nation: Songs of Protest
Adventures Of An Aging Trans Woman 
Leave a comment