Rich Man's War

With Gold Star Peace Mother Cindy Sheehan (be sure to watch the video) hanging tough in Crawford, Texas, waiting for the vacationing-bicycling-brush clearing president to give her two minutes of his precious time, we thought it would be a good time to buy tickets to catch musician Steve Earle at the Lobo Theater on Tuesday. You can too. A sample:

Rich Man's War, by Steve Earle
From the Album: Revolution Starts Now

Jimmy joined the army ‘cause he had no place to go
There ain’t nobody hirin’
‘round here since all the jobs went
down to Mexico
Reckoned that he’d learn himself a trade maybe see the world
Move to the city someday and marry a black haired girl
Somebody somewhere had another plan
Now he’s got a rifle in his hand
Rollin’ into Baghdad wonderin’ how he got this far
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

Bobby had an eagle and a flag tattooed on his arm
Red white and blue to the bone when he landed in Kandahar
Left behind a pretty young wife and a baby girl
A stack of overdue bills and went off to save the world
Been a year now and he’s still there
Chasin’ ghosts in the thin dry air
Meanwhile back at home the finance company took his car
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

When will we ever learn
When will we ever see
We stand up and take our turn
And keep tellin’ ourselves we’re free

Ali was the second son of a second son
Grew up in Gaza throwing bottles and rocks when the tanks would come
Ain’t nothin’ else to do around here just a game children play
Somethin’ ‘bout livin’ in fear all your life makes you hard that way

He answered when he got the call
Wrapped himself in death and praised Allah
A fat man in a new Mercedes drove him to the door
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war
*************

"Before this all started, I used to think that one person couldn’t make a difference... but now I see that one person who has the backing and support of millions of people can make a huge difference."--Cindy Sheehan

On the national level, the Huffington Post has an abundance of commentary on Sheehan, the Iraq War, Bush and Democrats by people like Gary Hart, Norman Lear, Andy Stern, Tom Hayden, Rep. Jim McDermott, Cindy Sheehan herself and even New Mexico's own Jim Baca. Go read.

Texas blog The Lone Star Iconoclast has a running diary from the Crawford Peace House.