The guitarist and songwriter, Makana, sang his wonderful protest song, We are the Many, at a gathering of APEC in Honolulu on Saturday night. He sang it, and was allowed to sing it, for 45 minutes, to a group of world leaders. The song brought back my own youth, the 1960s, when we were all attuned to protest. The protests of our generation contributed to bringing home America’s youth, to stopping the bombing, the use of mines, of Agent Orange, and other destructive forces that killed and maimed the people of mainland SE Asia.
We are now confronting a danger just as destructive of people’s lives, if (at least in the West) in a less immediately deadly manner. Obama came to power with promises to address the inequities that plague our country, our world. His efforts, admirable as they are, have been constrained at every turn by the power of the existing system (including even the strange collusion of many of America’s own poor and middle class). But people around the world are rallying to this cause: the creation of a more just world. The Arab Spring is one global manifestation. Academics are speaking out, sharing their findings, decrying the growing inequities they find everywhere. Those who have ‘occupied Wall Street’ in cities throughout America are making a dramatic statement, demanding effective resolution, a genuine fix of this broken system. And a protest singer is allowed to sing his song. Perhaps this joining of the multitudes, of the high with the low with the in-between, can bring about real change.
We all know the power of song—and this is one powerful song.