Charlotte kicks off the North American leg of Neil Young’s “love earth tour.” I’m sitting in a bus that contains the opening act, the Stop Shopping Choir. They are 7 singers and musicians from different eras of our earthchxrch’s 20 year history. Our bus-driver Johnny, a glorious punk from Wyoming covered with living color tattoos, is looking for a place to park the big brown bus.
Our opening show last night was an exploration in raging monologue, although I was told that at times I would croon half a song, then move on with the next stormy thought. My hope in my rehearsals was to invent a new language for the emergency of the Earth, but I believe that here in the land of crazies who “hear the call” and buy a pine pulpit, I just preached.
Charlotte is the “City of Churches”. There are more than 3,000 churchs in the area, and of course, right here you have the mega-MAGA Billy Graham HQ and now his hate-monger son Franklin, a protest of which got me roughed-up by cops and jailed three years ago. At the end of our set, a woman embraced me in tears, moaning regrets that Jesus was not my personal savior.
In response to our environmental message, she said “Worship the Creator, not the Creation.” My answer was along these lines: “The Creations IS the Creator, and its Mother Earth!”
We found that lots of the 20,000 Charlotte folks last night were excitedly shouting “Earthalujah!”, as if our basic step by step instruction on how to become an activist for the Earth was a source of great relief. When Neil sang “Southern Man” the audience cheered like he was honoring their personal work against Hate. In this American moment where Confederate names are repainted back on aircraft carriers, singing that song was an important choice. It became a moving experience, last night.
Rev. Billy