April 2006 | Features
Medicinal Music
Spearhead's Michael Franti Makes a Middle East Peace Pilgrimage
by Lori Denman
Like many other peace activists, musician Michael Franti lost sleep over the war. Lying awake for countless nights with no relief had become routine as he attempted to make sense of the Iraqi occupation.
The musician wondered if others suffered a similar type of insomnia—a disorder triggered by unanswered questions cluttering the collective conscience. Finally, in June of 2004, two months after the fall of Baghdad, Franti grabbed his guitar and a video camera and set off to the Middle East. He wanted a personal look at war’s human cost, and he hoped to promote peace.
Franti’s journey is recorded in a new documentary DVD and book, I Know I’m Not Alone: A Musician’s Journey Through War in the Middle East. The film—shot in Iraq, Palestine and Israel—garnered praise at the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival and in cities around the world. Franti plans to release the film this June, along with two new albums recorded with his band, Spearhead.
“I was surprised to discover how many Iraqis believed Bush and America, who said that we were going there to liberate their country,” Franti said at the Ragga Muffins Festival in Long Beach this past February. “They thought America was going to come in, take down Saddam Hussein and leave. [We’ve] been there three years now and their anger and insurgency shows. I cannot speak for the whole country, but I did not meet one person who wanted us there. They asked me to imagine if it happened in reverse and questioned, ‘What would you do if we came to the United States, took over your government and stayed there?’ The war is now for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, not the militaries.”
Following his journey, Franti has one message for all activists finding it difficult to suppress anger and move forward with peaceful non-violent protest.
“The best way for any of us to fight back right now is simple. Speak up! Support for the war has dropped from 78 to 40 percent. That didn’t happen suddenly because CNN decided the war was bad. It happened because people spoke up—at the water coolers of their work, at their dinner tables, at home and in the streets to protest. We are now at a point where, instead of being bummed out and saying, ‘The war is still going,’ we need to look at how much progress we have made by changing minds. It happens drop by drop.” Franti continues to give the medicine of music, drop by drop, to newcomers and veterans, whom he calls “Spearits.” He encourages fans to host showings of the documentary. To learn more about Franti, Spearhead and the new film, log onto iknowimnotalone.com or spearheadvibrations.com.
Lori Denman is a freelance contributor to WLT.
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