_______________________
news from
the cockburn project
at
www.cockburnproject.net
_______________________
28 March 2003

Greetings:

Readers are writing in, looking for answers, looking for connections,
looking to find the way to turn at this juncture in what we like to
call 'time'. Digging through the archives at The Cockburn Project,
looking for inspiration myself, in these dark times, I came upon two
songs, a dichotomy if you will, that Bruce himself recognized as
having a connection: He juxtaposed Grim Travellers with Rumours of
Glory himself when he said circa 1981:

"Based on whatever observations I've done of history there's nothing
I've seen that indicates people have the ability to straighten
themselves out as a [song?] he says ruefully. Grim Travellers starts
out from terrorism, but it's about the fact that none of us are free
from the darker qualities that are part of human nature in general.
It's a fairly hopeless song. One of the reasons why we followed it
with Rumours of Glory is that it gives the other side of the coin-
that however negative we can be, we can also depend on each other and
are capable of great love."

-- from "Bruce Cockburn's Quiet Optimism", High Fidelity, 1981, by
Stephen Holden

Grim Travellers
Humans (1980)

Ministers meet -- work on the movement of goods
Also work on the movement of capital
Also work on the movement of human beings
As if we were so many cattle

Grim travellers in dawn skies
See the beauty -- makes you cry inside
Makes you angry and you don't know why
Grim travellers in dawn skies

Twelve mercenaries got weapons primed
Gonna take that African nation in record time
You wonder why they bother, why not leave it alone
They say, "Every man wants to retire to a place he can call his own"

Those grim travellers in dawn skies
See the beauty -- makes them cry inside
Makes them angry and they don't know why
Grim travellers in dawn skies

Redness, richer than a roseBlooms against the backdrop of somebody's
white clothes
Bitter little girls and boys from the Red Army Underground
They'd blow away Karl Marx if he had the nerve to come around

They're just grim travellers in dawn skies
See the beauty -- makes them cry inside
Makes them angry and they don't know why
They're grim travellers in dawn skies

Down on the plain of 10,000 smokestacksTrucks butt each other to
establish dominance
The newspaper next to me leans over and says matter-of-factly
"Sacred mountains towers above meadows" - uh huh - and above us

Grim travellers in dawn skies
I see the beauty -- makes me cry inside
It makes me angry and I don't know why
We're grim travellers in dawn skies

And yet he's also able to observe:

There's often a great beauty for me in the play of opposites. You
can't understand good or be good without an understanding on some
level of the evil. Now I stress 'on some level' because I'm not in
favor of the philosophy that would have people go out and steep
themselves in evil in order to understand. I don't think any of us
are that far from it that we need to exercise that degree of effort
in order to learn about evil. We've all got lots of it in us and it's
not hard to see. At the same time, people who try to be good and only
good and only do the good things all the time, while it's worthy to
try to do, if you expect that you are going to succeed at it then
you're in for trouble. You know because the other side is always
going to be there."

-- from the RCA "Special Radio Series" LP, Volume Two (1980).

Rumours of Glory
Burnett's Rapids
31 December 1979
Humans (1980)

Above the dark town
After the sun's gone down
Two vapour trails cross the sky
Catching the day's last slow goodbye
Black skyline looks rich as velvet
Something is shining
Like gold but better
Rumours of glory

Smiles mixed with curses
The crowd disperses
About whom no details are known
Each one alone yet not alone
Behind the pain/fear
Etched on the faces
Something is shining
Like gold but better
Rumours of glory

You see the extremes
Of what humans can be?
In that distance some tension's born
Energy surging like a storm
You plunge your hand in
And draw it back scorched
Beneath it's shining like
Gold but better
Rumours of glory

We are witnessing to the extremes of what humans can be when we pick
up the paper, click on the TV or look into our children's eyes as
they 'witness' our undoing. Are you interested in learning more?
Are you deciding to take a stand? Here's some suggested places to do
some reading, find out ways to get involved, or to take a little
action. To every action there is a reaction....reach out in
peace....change another mind:

Editor's Picks:

http://www.moveon.org
http://www.warchild.org
*Read about Bruce's contribution to a peace album due to be
released April 15th at:
http://www.cbc.ca/artsCanada/stories/music270303
http://www.vvaf.org/campaign/index.shtml
http://electroniciraq.net/

For further reading go to http://www.cockburnproject.net and visit
the Issues page. We have a series of links to sites of causes that
Bruce has supported over the years and that offer positive avenues
for energy in these difficult times. We don't need to be Grim
Travellers.

In other news:

True North has announced some new tour dates for those of you looking
to fill out your summer calendars. Please note that The Cockburn
Project only publishes dates that are confirmed by True North. As we
get them we pass them on to you:

NEW SINCE LAST UPDATE

Jul 2 Brantford ON     The Sanderson Theatre
Jul 5 Orillia ON       Mariposa Folk Festival

LAST UPDATE

May 18 Perth ON        The P.D.C.I Theatre
May 19 Ottawa ON       The Tulip Festival

We've also been in contact with True North checking out what Bruce
will be contributing to The War Child peace album. Thanks to the
reader in California who contributed that information. I'll let you
know what I find out!

Find some peace in the world today,
Suzanne Myers
editor@...