Tom Morello

Tom Morello

Tom Morello a.k.a. the Nightwatchman leads a double life. One half, a Grammy award winning guitar virtuoso and the second half, a tireless, committed, political activist. Tom was born on May 30, 1964 in Harlem, New York, to Mary Morello and Ngethe Njoroge, a Kenyan Guerilla soldier and eventual first Kenyan ambassador to the United Nations. Morello then moved to Libertyville, Illinois. At an early age, the guitar hero received his first tastes of racism and oppression.
Libertyville was a virtually all white, conservative community. Much of the townspeople were prejudice and hated Tom for simply being a different color. Morello would later describe some of this prejudice he experienced in his famous folk ballad, “One Man Revolution.”- “Found a noose in my garage, now about that, so tonight I’m in the bushes with a baseball bat.” The white supremacists and Ku Klux Klan members his town placed the nooses in his garage to scare him away. Tom felt small and inferior at first, and then he discovered music.
Initially Tom listened to heavy metal greats such as Black Sabbath and KISS, but by high school he found his solace in politically charged Punk Rock, with the likes of The Clash and The Sex Pistols. Music was an escape for Morello. He claims it made him see past the constraints and boundaries of his small town and see a world that needed change. In 1982, Morello graduated from Libertyville High School and began attending Harvard University. During his college years, he began practicing guitar seriously. This means eight hours a day, no matter how much work he had to complete. By 1986, he graduated with a BA (with honors) in Political Science. In 1988, Morello landed a slot as lead guitarist in the glam metal band, Lock Up. Unfortunately, they found very little success. His next band, however, would permanently alter the role of Politics in music.
Rage Against the Machine was formed in 1991 and took the world by storm. In the past, artists have incorporated social and political issues in their craft, but none like RATM. Every single song by the band preached some sort of radical, revolutionary message. The band saw themselves as renegades in a corrupt world fighting injustice wherever they saw it. In 2000, they broke up and it’s safe to say they were a success: selling millions of albums world wide and more importantly educating their audience about social issues and how they can actively prevent them.
Morello then moved on to form Audioslave, which after six years also became a huge, commercial success, selling millions of albums along the way. However, fans and Morello himself, felt he needed to play political music again, having been in what Tom calls “A right wing purgatory.” He had been playing as The Nightwatchman on the side, but now he is taking it more seriously: Albums and touring. The music is far different from his previous work (heavy metal), being folk and folk rock.
Throughout his adult life he has been a committed activist, specifically in the areas of peace, human rights, social and economic justice, and various other issues. Personally I admire Tom more for his dedicated activism and this is why I chose him. Specifically, I admire his non-profit organization, Axis of Justice (which he formed with Serj Tankian of System of a Down). The organization was formed in 1999, when Tom noticed an overwhelmingly large amount of fans sporting Nazi Swastikas and other hate symbols. The organization has made it clear that they are Anti- Racist and Anti-Fascist. Through the organization, concerts are performed in small communities where all the proceeds go to charities and activist groups. On top of that, Tom and his buddies go into the impoverished communities, where they’re playing and they help them out during their stay.
I can relate to Tom Morello, because he also sees the need for change in the world and like me, he believes in peace, freedom, and equality.

Peltier Denied

Imprisoned American Indian activist Leonard Peltier has lost another round in court in his effort to compel the FBI to disclose about 10,500 pages of documents about his case.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis on Wednesday rejected Peltier's claim that the district court should have reviewed all the documents, not just a sample of about 500 pages.

The appeals court said Peltier didn't make that argument during the trial, so the Minnesota district court did not abuse its discretion.

Further, the appeals court said the lower court was correct in ruling that the Freedom of Information Act's exemptions cover the bulk of the disputed documents, shielding them from disclosure.

Peltier is serving two life sentences for the deaths of two FBI agents during a 1975 standoff near Oglala, S.D., on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He has appealed his conviction several times without success.

In 2001, he requested and received more than 70,400 pages of FBI records on himself. The FBI claimed thousands of additional pages were exempt from the FOIA because they could reveal confidential sources, among other reasons.

— Associated Press
Damn, the courts never like political prisoners.

Activist Spotlight: David Dellinger

Background: In 1915, David Dellinger was born in none other than.... Wakefield, Massachusetts! He got his first taste at politics, while studying Economics at Yale University.  He then moved to Maine and worked in a factory (he studied economics and yet became a factory worker, this sounds strange even to me lol).  Around this time Dellinger became a Radical Pacifist.  Fast forward a couple of years and we find our hero in some deep trouble; being arrested (this was not the first time, he had just served a year) for refusing the draft to join the army in World War II, spending two more years in a cage. In 1945, this pacifist created the left wing magazine, Direct Action, prominently criticizing the use of  atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Jump to 1967, Vietnam is in flames and David Dellinger is one of the main forces in the war's opposition, organizing the famous march on the Pentagon that same year.  1968 brought Dellinger his greatest fame or infamy for that matter when he, along with six other radicals, was charged with planning to incite a riot at the Democratic National Convention.  The boys became known as the Chicago 7; Dellinger and others were found guilty (not of conspiracy but for crossing state lines) and were ordered to serve five years in the  slammer along with a nice, little fine of $5,000, however all of the radicals were acquitted of these charges.  The peaceful protester committed the rest of his life to activism, as he always had.  Well, into his eighties the man could be seen marching in protests.  Sadly, the world lost David Dellinger on May 25, 2004.  He was eighty-eight years old. 

Accomplishments: Yale graduate, Liberation editor for over twenty years , Protest on Pentagon organizer, and countless others.

Notable Works: Revolutionary Nonviolence: Essays by Dave Dellinger (1970), From Yale to Jail: The Life Story of a Moral Dissenter (1993), Dellinger's autobiography, "Vietnam Revisited: Covert Action to Invasion to Reconstruction" (1986), and several others.

Influences: Gandhi

Influenced: The New Left (which he was also part of) in the 1960s, Noam Chomsky, Martin Luther King  Jr., Me, and several others. "Before reading [his autobiography], I knew and greatly admired Dave Dellinger. Or so I thought. After reading his remarkable story, my admiration changed to something more like awe. There can be few people in the world who have crafted their lives into something truly inspiring. This autobiography introduces us to one of them- Noam Chomsky.

Rage- WGA Writers' Strike

I came across this video last night, and I must say I have mixed opinions. Musically, I think this is a fantastic, unplugged version of their popular hit "Bulls On Parade." On the other hand, I find it a tad bit enigmatic that Rage care so much for television writers. I also strongly hope Zack is joking when he says he watches reality shows and Desperate Housewives. One person commented that Rage was against commercials, news, etc not sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows. I don't believe this one bit. They are all part of the propaganda system inadvertently or not. Ok, ok some sitcoms/ sketch shows, whatever, can be taken off the roll. But,if one listens to "No Shelter," it is clear that Rage believed entertainment was sometimes used as a device to keep peopled distracted from real issues in the world. Best exemplified by this line: "Godzilla, pure mother fuckin filler, keep your eyes off the real killer..." I don't know. I still think they are outstanding musicians and activists, but I just found it bizarre. I like what one guy said on the Youtube comments (I'm paraphrasing): Rage fights for all of the oppressed.