Choosing a reaction to violence …

“This will be our reply to violence:  to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly, than ever before” … (Leonard Bernstein)  I am reminded of the days after 9/11 when so many were groping for words to explain those inexplicable events.   I was one of many songwriters who responded with a song and wrote “One Heart at a Time”.   As Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us again and again, transcendence of violence through peaceful acts is the only choice to be made.  As a musician and a writer I continue to add my voice to the many who search and pray for a way to react, for ways to sustain a consciousness that has any hope of tearing down the wall of fear that terrorists are so masterful at building.  Lest we forget how powerful hope and love is, we must continue to cultivate all sources of it, or the masters of terror will win.  We have to dig more deeply for the source of inspiration, the essence of love and light and God as we know it.  In that way, the horror ultimately cannot penetrate the goodness of man and womankind, or prevail.  As the brilliant economist Paul Krugman said, “The point is not to minimize the horror, it is instead, to emphasize that the biggest danger terrorism poses to our society comes not from the direct harm inflicted, but from the wrong-headed responses it can inspire.”  He’s reminding us that from a societal perspective, we must refuse to give in to fear.  As artists and writers, our job is to nourish the souls hungry for answers, and create ways to tip the scales toward a brighter future.  “One Heart at a Time” is my offering.  I offer a free download of this new recording from my latest “Each Moment We’re Alive” CD that is part of the photography book gift set.   As I wrote in my forward to the book, art is the only fathomable way to harbor hope that the world can heal the insurmountable wounds of our darkest times in history.  In this sense, art forms are created as a tapestry for a world we refuse to surrender to total darkness.  Listening to and sharing this song and other songs of hope and positive direction, is a way to nourish our souls and move on in the face of fear.  You’ll find the song under the music tab of my website, debrasong.com.  Please share it and be part of a positive reaction to violence.   Every heart, every choice is a step in the right direction, one heart at a time …..