I started writing this song in 2009, thinking about the people in Guantanamo Bay who were picked by the US “War on Terror,” alarmed by the sanctioned use of torture and the violation of due process and basic civil rights. While Obama casually remarked “we tortured some folks” as if he were discussing what happened at a neighborhood barbecue, we got to see the inner workings of the US war crimes across the Arab world, through the revelations of Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange, who both paid heavily for their attempts to wake up the world to what was happening. In 2013, 29-year old whistleblower Edward Snowden sacrificed his ability to live a normal life in the West to further shake us into awareness by sharing what he saw at the NSA.
This song was written in homage to those people who were waking up around the world, to the spirit of the Arab Spring, the yearnings and aspirations of people who just wanted to live their lives in peace in their homelands, without the violent incursions of Western empire and without being a participant in that violence. We performed this recording live in San Francisco on April 27th, 2013. I was 5 months pregnant and remember how I struggled to get the breath to sing and rock that guitar.
And now in 2025, we are watching a genocide continue to rage in Palestine sponsored by our tax dollars, while here in the US, judges are getting arrested, students disappeared, dissidents assaulted, immigrants deported to torture camps without due process and doctors and nurses fired. This wave of fascist authoritarian power did not start nor will it end with the current administration. This has been the underpinnings of US empire since its inception, as genocide and ecocide defined the establishment and reinforcement of what we know as the USA. Only now, it’s AI-powered and on steroids, insinuated into every aspect of your life through “smart phones,” internet tracking and social media.
Whoever attempts to shine light on this violence is characterized as “terrorist.” Knowledge is not terrorism. It is knowledge. And it empowers us with the ability to make the choices we know are best to build the world we want. When scholars are silenced and knowledge-production is being hoarded by those in power, we have entered into dark times. That is where we are right now in the US and across the West.
This is a period of epistemic violence. Stay strong, find the music that feeds you and turn up the volume to 11. Find the people you can organize nodes of collective care and mutual aid. We keep each other safe and also informed. Light that candle. It burns brightest in these darkest moments. It’s how we will find each other.
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