Dem belly full ... but dem 'ungry

Are you familiar with Reverend Billy?

This just in from change.org ...

"EXTINCTION SERMON" IN CHASE BANK LOBBY GETS REV AND MUSICIAN NEHEMIAH LUCKETT CHARGES OF "RIOT" AND "MENACE."

On a Thursday afternoon last month, a dozen singing activists from the Church of Stop Shopping in NYC performed in the role of extinct Golden Toads in a "wealth management bank" of JPMorgan Chase at 56th and 6th in Manhattan. The dancing, singing toads offered bank workers and customers information sheets about the impact of Chase investments on the environment. 

Reverend Billy Talen and the music director of the Stop Shopping Choir, Nehemiah Luckett, were arrested minutes later on a subway platform. The two were charged with riot in the second degree, menacing in the third degree, unlawful assembly, and two counts of disorderly conduct. The DA's office requested one year in prison for "this criminal stunt." But Atty. Wylie Stecklow, defending the two activists, insisted that the "15 minutes of performance art about the Earth's crisis" was well within "expressive political activity" protected by the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution. The lawyers went back and forth: "Art!" "Crime!" "Art!" "Crime!" "Art!" 

The Church of Stop Shopping, - a activist collective of musicians and other artists uses the research from BankTrack.Org of the Netherlands and the World Development Movement based in London to show that Chase Bank is a top financier of extractive fossil projects, responsible for more CO2 emissions release than any other institution, with the possible exception of the Chinese Communist Party.  The church believes that we must reach out to the workers within the fossil fuel cartel if change is to come. 

Show support for the Rev and Nehemiah by signing this petition, which will be presented to the court on December 9th.  The Stop Shopping Choir, with (hopefully) Reverend Billy preaching and Nehemiah at the piano - opens a series of performances Nov. 24 through Dec 22 at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater in New York.

They're going to throw the book at my boy Rev. Billy.

And, under the six degrees of separation matrix, if it's even a matrix, the Reverend and I are one degree apart.  I've stayed in the same guest cottage in the Catskills that he has.  That might be two degrees.  We each know the proprietors.

It figures that, of all the gin joints in the all the world, Billy would wander into a Chase Wealth Management Bank.  Those dudes have zero sense of humor.

Go here if you want to sign the petition to save Reverend Billy.  Save might be the wrong word.

I'll leave you with this from Bob Marley, who I saw perform live neither once nor twice.  But thrice, my friends.  Thrice.

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!

Preacherman, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. Come on!

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!

Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. Jah!

Get up, stand up! (Jah, Jah!)
Stand up for your rights! (Oh-hoo!)
Get up, stand up! (Get up, stand up!)
Don't give up the fight! (Life is your right!)
Get up, stand up! (So we can't give up the fight!)
Stand up for your rights! (Lord, Lord!)
Get up, stand up! (Keep on struggling on!)
Don't give up the fight! (Yeah!)

We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven in-a Jesus' name, Lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (What you gonna do?),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (Yeah, yeah, yeah!)

So you better:
Get up, stand up! (In the morning! Git it up!)
Stand up for your rights! (Stand up for our rights!)
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (Don't give it up, don't give it up!)
Get up, stand up! (Get up, stand up!)
Stand up for your rights! (Get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Don't give up the fight! (Get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! [fadeout]

To which I'll add:  Dem belly full, but dem 'ungry.

Let's all plan to meet at Joe's Pub.