Last Friday,I saw Buddy Guy at UPAC in downtown Kingston,N.Y.He is seventy-four and still playing like he was seventeen.Eric Clapton feels he still is the best blues guitar player in the world.He has played with Magic Sam,Otis Rush,Muddy Waters,Willie Dixon,Little Walter,Sonny Boy Williamson,Koko Taylor,Aurther Crudup and Lonnie Johnson.He had a long-standing relationship,friendship with the late harpist Junior Wells for many years. It was their image that was satirized by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in the comedians' Blue Brothers act.Buddy talked a lot during the show about the blues and its influence on British rock and roll.He gave credit to the Stones for demonstrating their respect for the American musical form and the players Buddy admired.The Stones still play all forms of the blues and carry on the musical tradition.Buddy is still touring because he loves to play and he is very concerned the idiom might fade because the blues is rarely played on the radio today.
The show uplifted our souls Friday night because Buddy is so honest with no pretensions about who he is and what he represents.He was speaking the truth through his amplified guitar and interactions with the audience.The blues can bring peace of mind if you let it in and run around your veins.I wish the Bush administration had let Buddy make the decisions to go to war with Afghanistan in October,2001.He wouldn't have let the pressure of vengeance blind our decisions. Buddy would have remained cool(as a blues man should) and thought about the best way to take care of the harmful,deadly opponent.
I must say,I wasn't shocked by the disaster at the Twin Towers in NYC. It wasn't something out of the blue because violence had been growing in all parts of the world and the U.S. had made many enemies through its association with Israel and its lust for cheap oil.Egyptian Islamic Jihad (a.k.a. Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiyya) is a militant Egyptian Islamist movement dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic state in Egypt. The group formed in 1980 as an umbrella organization for militant student groups formed after the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence. It is led by Omar Abdel-Rahman, who has been accused of participation in the World Trade Center 1993 bombings. In 1981, the group assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. On November 17, 1997, in what became known as the Luxor massacre, it attacked tourists at the Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahri); six men dressed as police machine-gunned 58 Japanese and European vacationers and four Egyptians.The first Palestinian suicide attack took place in 1989 when a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad ignited a bomb onboard Tel Aviv bus, killing 16 people.[191] In the early 1990s another group, Hamas, also became well-known for suicide bombings. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi and Mohammad Taha of the Palestinian wing of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood had created Hamas in 1987, at the beginning of the First Intifada, an uprising against Israeli rule in the Palestinian Territories that featured little deadly violence.[192] Hamas's militia, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, began its own suicide bombings against Israel in 1993, eventually accounting for about 40% of them.
The violence listed above,many knew, would come to America in the near future. I'm sure many government organizations were keeping a close eye on various terrorist groups around the world.When the day came,I knew the terrorists would be hunted down and destroyed and anyone who got in the way would feel our anger. I was very angry at the time but wanted us to take our time and catch the right people or organization that committed the crime. I wanted revenge but not at the price we have paid.I feel we over-reacted and made decisions too quickly.I know the majority of both parties were behind the Bush administration's push for war but I wanted our special forces to silently track those who destroyed the towers and capture the leaders and many of the key followers(have some cool about us like Buddy Guy).We were too public with our intentions and anxious to show our citizens and the countries around the world that our shores were sacred.So many young souls were lost and the military cost eventually has topped $1.5 trillion and is still growing(endless debt is OK with conservatives for national defense). America didn't have to make these costly decisions if they weren't so revengeful and full of hubris.To continue into Iraq,with no understanding of its politics or sovereignty,was beyond my comprehension.I hate both wars because they were unnecessary and the total destruction on the young soldiers(kids) will last a generation.When will we stop and learn that from violence,distrust grows and distorts the positive efforts of our country.This drain on our country's health and welfare,with the distasteful greed of Wall St., has shadowed our economic recovery and has clouded our future. Unfortunately, anyone with cool knew the Bush/Cheney perspective was lame because they never understood the realities of war and the implications of their quick,politically motivated decisions. They are losers of the first fold and always will be.To follow their lead or future similar leaders will only bring more Twin Tower disasters to our shores.
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