Several years ago Joules told me that she has always had a dream that other artists would sing more of her songs. So, when I found out that her MS had reached a debilitating level and she was no longer able to tour and perform, I got the idea to produce an album the proceeds of which would help pay some of her medical expenses. I mean dreams do come true, don’t they? I contacted 16 artists, all of which said “SURE!”. I have never worked on such an easy and wonderful project. They are all recording one of Joules songs for free. Nine of those artists will be appearing at the concert at the Mateel, produced by Darryl Cherney.

       Although, we will be wrapping up the recordings that weekend, we will be offering pre-sales of the album and the cover artwork will be on display. The artists are performing at both the concert and on the album for free, Rob Siefert of Small Town Audio Resources, here in Garberville/Redway, is mastering the tapes for free, the Mateel is contributing some of their costs, KMUD and KHUM are co-sponsoring the benefit, John Angus is contributing his art/computer skills for the poster and album, Darryl and I are contributing our time, so, as you can see it’s just one of those all around, very high events. So please come if you can, admission is donation only.

       If you can’t make it, you can make an advance purchase of the album by sending $20, inc. P&H, to me at 424 Wallan Rd., Garberville, CA 95542. Make the check out to Joules Graves and feel free to throw in some extra if you can.

       The artists appearing on the album, slight changes are possible, are:

       Tina Malia

       Jim Page

       Sasha Butterfly

       Joanne Rand

       Casey Neill

       Francine Allen

       Dana Lyons

       Dianne Patterson

       Darryl Cherney

       Al Torre

       Alice Di Micele

       Freedom

       Rafe Pearlman

       Lewi Longmire

       Korby Lenker

       Brian Cutean

       Fantuzzi ?

       Katia Chorover?

       and maybe a few more.

And, of course, feel free to send your good wishes to Joules, joules@joulesgraves.com

   It should probably not come as a surprise to any thinking person in the year 2006 that those in the present administration are paranoid and have an insatiable appetite for money and power. We must stop the sale of democracy by forcing campaign finance reform and we must defend our few remaining freedoms. Their latest scheme is to control the internet. This is a good place for us to draw the line.

   Please contact the web site below or go to MoveOn.org to STOP this most recent obscenity. Sorry I couldn’t paste the direct contact image. I am computer challenged after all.

   “The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections. Later on, however, this process of corruption spread to the law courts and to the army, and finally when the army became enslaved by the power of gold, the republic was subjected to the rule of emperors.” ............

Plutarch, on the fall of the Roman Empire.

http://www.savetheinternet.com

    ^{I want to express my gratitude to my web mistress Yvonne Hendrix [ yhendrix@sonic.net ] for her patient creation of this piece of art. For the web challenged, such as I, it is nothing short of alchemy. Thank you for making a dream come true. I also want to thank her partner, Kim Sallaway [ kimbacan.com ] photographer extrordinaire, who has been giving his heart and art to shows I've worked on for as long as I can remember (this is the place for all those jokes about my memory that may have crossed your mind). I am blessed to have had their help.}

          Over ten years ago, I started talking about the privatization of prisons, the incarceration of our fellow citizens, our brothers and sisters. I stated that it was one of the signs of the moral decline of our society, our culture, our country. The fact is that a private corporation, by definition, must grow every year so by definition the population of our prisons must increase annually to feed these corporations and of course these corporations are based in Texas. In a just society the goal would be to reform anti-social behavior and to rehabilitate and educate those who violently strike out against their fellow humans and their society, in essence to strive to eradicate the need for prisons at all, but that would be a healthy society.

          In the last twenty years, the male prison population in our country has tripled, the female prison population has quintupled. 75% of female prisoners are “in” for non-violent crimes. Almost 40% of the female prisoners are “in” for simple drug possession. We also know that it is extremely, disproportionately people of color. 84% of all youth in prison are people of color. And if I needed more statistics to prove my point, The United States has the highest rate of prisoners per capita of any country in the world. If we look in the mirror with some honesty, we must see a sick and declining culture, the manifestation of the sick, self serving agenda of some old white men. What we really have is a perversion of justice in the form of the misuse of the “3 strikes law”, a war of terror called “the war on drugs” and ultimately and what is happening now, the imprisonment of those who strike out at these injustices, who elsewhere in the world are known as “political prisoners”.

          Why would anyone want do this? Well it has created a tool. This tool was so aptly used in the 2000 Presidential election to deny an estimated 50,000 people their right to vote in the state of Florida and thus illegally place someone in the office of President of the United States. In 2004, there were no honest elections in the United States once again. Simply put, we no longer live in a democracy. There is a saying, “be careful which direction you’re headed in cause you might actually get there”. We are a runaway train headed in the direction of a Fascist State. I ask you, “What are we going to do about it?”

I am that scared boy, 4 years old, sitting at the top of the stairs, peeking through the railing, watching my mother being physically abused.

I am that crying boy, 5 years old, whose mother ran away.

Young men, do you know that current scientific research shows that excessive “machismo” attitude is what one does to compensate for a lack of testosterone, not a surplus?

The reason the world is out of balance, the reason the world is in the mess it’s in, is the fact that male and female energies are out of balance, as the Hopi elders have told us for over 150 years.

For 25,000 years our species worshiped the Feminine Divine, the Goddess, undisturbed, during which time we created the first law, the first medicine and agriculture, the first architecture, metallurgy, wheeled vehicles and textiles and… the first written word. There was once a time with peace on Earth. There was once a time of recognizing the Feminine Divine.

Then came the patriarchal religions. 5,000 years ago the Kurgans came from the north with their KKK pointed hats and their Male War Gods to start the assault on the Feminine Divine in that cradle of civilization called Mesopotamia.

3,000 years ago, as Moses marched from Egypt, the Hebrews slaughtered the Pagans of Sumer and Babylon. “Kill every male…and kill every woman who has had intercourse with a man but spare for yourselves every woman among them who has not had intercourse” Numbers 31:17

Again from the Old Testament….

“So the Lord our God also delivered Og King of Bashan into our hands, with all his people. We slaughtered them and left no survivor…in all we took sixty cities… Deuteronomy 3:3-7

To this day, in Judaism, Hebrew males are taught to offer the following daily prayer; “Blessed art Thou O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has not made me a woman.

Islam is but a baby, just 1400 years old, but in that little time, their patriarchal orthodoxy has subjugated women to an unprecedented degree. Thus even in their infancy patriarchal religions seem only to feel secure after the oppression of women.

2,000 years ago, along came Christ, who wedded Mary Magdalene, a Priestess of the Temple of Love, in the long lineage of the Temples of Tiamet and Asherah, Isis and Astarte, of Aphrodite and Venus, of Chandi and Gaia. Goddess worship was worldwide and had nurtured humanity for 28 millennia. Christ, a preacher of Love, would marry her, and in their lovemaking would make her the Chalice. Orthodox Christianity would call her a whore.

Orthodox Christianity would also twist the Pagan Earth story of the first woman and man and their life in paradise. In pagan mythology, the woman gives man the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge through the Serpent, the symbol of regeneration, meaning we must accept change to grow and that nurturing love is the path. Christianity twists that beautiful story into that of Adam and Eve in Eden and the supposed temptation of Adam by Eve. They call it “original sin” and have forever oppressed women in it’s name.

And since the “Y” chromosome doesn’t come along til six weeks after conception, it would seem to me that it is more likely that Man came from Eve’s rib. We are all female to begin with in the true design of the Divine.

The origins of the cross are two equal perpendicular bars expressing the balance of male and female energies, the original yin-yang. To me the symbol of the uneven cross is nothing more than what it is, an instrument of torture.

It is time we let that man down off the cross…. and in so doing… set Her free.

St. Thomas Aquinas said “nothing deficient or defective should have been produced in the first establishment of things; so women ought not to have been produced”

It is time we let that man down off the cross and set Her free.

In 391 AD, Christian Emperor Theodosius ordered destroyed the Library of Alexandria, repository of one million volumes, the world’s entire resource of recorded knowledge of the human experience since the birth of writing 5000 earlier, burnt to the ground.

It is time we let that man down off the cross and set Her free.

In 500 AD, Orthodox Christianity in fear of the power of sexuality orders people not to bathe, result: the spread of the Bubonic Plague, one hundred million dead and the Dark Ages descend.

It is time we let that man down off the cross and set Her free.

In 1250 AD the Pope decrees that torture and death are sanctioned means to convert Pagans to Christianity. That decree was not rescinded until 1917, and paved the way for Christians to march forth, much as their supposed mandate sends them out today, in Crusades, Inquisitions and Witch hunts destroying our knowledge of medicine, science, and the arts; and setting back the peaceful development of our species…. In the name of their God.

It is time we let that man down off the cross and set Her free.

In the 1500’s Martin Luther, founder of Protestantism, said, “If women become tired or even die in childbirth that does not matter - that is why they are there”

It is time we let that man down off the cross and set Her free.

Adolph Shickelgruber takes his new name from the Hittites, descendents of the Kurgans, and 7 million Gypsies, Jews, Gays and free thinkers are gone.

It is time we let that man down off the cross and set Her free.

A family named Bush for three generations supplies arms to Hitler and other dictators around the world, spewing hatred and suffering, pain and agony, spreading corporate fascism for personal gain and fame, all in Christ’s, …….her lover’s, name.

It is time we let that man down off the cross and set Her free.

5,000 years of violent assault upon the Goddess and those who honor the Feminine Divine and yet,… we are still here… and we are healthy and growing.

When we are still, she speaks…….Listen! For it is now time to let Her down off the cross and in so doing… set ourselves free.

                                        ********

C (copyright)  Doug Green, 2004    Please do not use without permission, dhgreen@asis.com

Eternally marching for peace.   March against the war in Iraq, San Francisco 2003.