With the title, “Build a Peace Chorus Against the Ghouls of War,” the combined independent campaigns of Jose Vega and Diane Sare hosted a public event in New York City on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 26.
Jose Vega, Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the 15th CD of the Bronx, opened the event, promising “something that has never been done before, a hybrid classical concert/political rally.”
The Sare Brass Quintet then took the stage, performing the Little Fugue by J.S. Bach, featuring candidate Diane Sare on trombone, followed by a piece for brass quintet by Russian composer Victor Ewald. The quintet was then joined by the Friends of Sare-Vega Chorus, conducted by Megan Dobrodt, for an arrangement of a chorale from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, with new lyrics in English, “Because All Men Are Brothers,” by Tom Glazer.
Diane Sare, Candidate for U.S. Senate in New York, introduced the guest speakers, “who are all geniuses in their own way.” The first to speak was Dennis Fritz, Command Chief Master Sergeant (ret., USAF) and director of the Eisenhower Media Group, who asked the audience to consider that if the U.S. Congress can stand by and say nothing about the killing of women and children, then what is our value to them? He and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (ret.) and Col. Ann Wright were among those denounced on the floor of the Congress for demonstrating outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearance there: “Our Congress spat in our face on behalf of Bibi Netanyahu.” Fritz asserted that in the U.S., our students and professors have more courage than our members of Congress. He offered a message to Netanyahu on war against Iran: “You wanted this war, you got it, but leave us out of it.” To his fellow Americans, he said, don’t blame Muslims, Arab Americans, peace-loving Jews, or Black men if your candidate loses. Blame the Israeli lobby.
Angela McCardle, Chair of the national Libertarian Party, and co-organizer for the Rage Against the War Machine, sent a video message, wishing success to all the independent and third party candidates.
Dr. Mark Perlmutter, MD, in another video message, reported on the ghastly cases of civilians he treated in Gaza, which were clear evidence of war crimes.
Next came a musical interlude with an arrangement for soloist and chorus of “Go Down, Moses.”
Russell Dobular and Keaton Weiss, from “Due Dissidence,” a platform for political commentary, spoke next. Weiss presented a snark-laden roast of both mainstream Presidential candidates, focusing his polemics mainly on Kamala Harris. He saluted Vega and Sare as the only pro-peace candidates, who “give me hope in hopeless times.” He was followed by Dobular, who praised the “relentless humanism” of Jose Vega and the LaRouche movement, and described sharing a Sunday brunch of chicken and waffles with Jose, who “quoted Plato from memory and at length.” He offered erudite remarks on the state of the U.S., citing 14th-century scholar/historian Ibn Khaldun on the concept of asabiyya, or solidarity, and asking provocatively, “Who wants us to lose our sense of ourselves as one people?” He went on to say that “Jose and Diane are among the few activists I know who have not fallen into this trap of hating the country they are trying to represent.”
Schiller Institute leader Harley Schlanger described the 50-year arc of economic decline of the U.S., following the “Nixon paradigm shift,” and the role of the LaRouche movement in offering an alternative, in the face of a campaign of slander and political persecution against LaRouche, which has failed. Now, the BRICS is poised to implement LaRouche’s alternative policies.
Schlanger was followed by tenor Everett Suttle, who performed a solo arrangement of the Spiritual “This Little Light of Mine.”
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and convener of the International Peace Coalition, warned that the U.S. has become the most feared country in the world, because it attempts to become the world hegemon. The wars in Ukraine and Southwest Asia both threaten to escalate into a nuclear war which could end all life on Earth. But the BRICS nations, representing the Global Majority, “are determined to end the period of 500 years of colonialism by building a new world economic system which will allow them to industrialize and overcome poverty and underdevelopment…. If the United States would take a cooperative attitude to this emerging system, and even become a part of it, virtually all problems in the world would become manageable, and could be overcome.”
Everett Suttle then returned to perform “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”
Garland Nixon, veteran progressive radio and television talk show host and member of the National Board of the ACLU, offered observations on the importance of the just-concluded BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia. He quoted a commentator who compared the BRICS to Noah’s Ark, a vehicle to save humanity from the impending collapse. “I do not believe that humanity can survive with a hegemonic notion in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “Americans think that they’re on a luxury liner—they’re on a pirate ship.”
Diane Sare then conducted her chorus in a performance of “O, Freedom.”
Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector, referred to himself ironically as a “ghoul of war,” because of his long military career in Marine Corps. He provided a poetic description of the process by which he became transformed from a gung-ho lover of war, to wanting the end of war and becoming a strong supporter of Vega and Sare and what they represent.
This was followed once again by the chorus conducted by Diane Sare, with an arrangement of the spiritual, “Hold On.”
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (ret., U.S. Army), former chief of staff of then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, reviewed the history of empires. They are all gone, except for the present, American empire, which has the one distinguishing feature of having invented the means to extinguish human life. “That alone makes us unique—horribly unique.” He had hoped that the failure of Israel’s attack on Iran would discourage them from further escalation, but unfortunately, it looks as though Netanyahu, who is “a far worse scoundrel than Golda Meir,” who had said she would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons to defend Israel in war), plans to escalate recklessly.
The grim and alarming mood of Wilkerson’s remarks was then soothed by a gentle and tender performance of a choral arrangement of the Spiritual, “Steal Away.”
Political comedian Jimmy Dore served up his patented brand of black humor. He began with a tongue in cheek announcement that our government is telling the truth about Ukraine, even though they have lied about every other war. He recalled that Lindsey Graham had recently announced that there is $11 trillion worth of minerals under Ukraine—"He just blurted it out, like his boyfriend’s name on Valentine’s Day.” He said that he has Zionist friends, who insist to him that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, to which he responds, “Do you know why? It’s because we overthrew all the other democracies.” In conclusion, he introduced Jose Vega, saying, “there is no greater joy that I can experience in this day and age than watching a video of Jose Vega do an intervention on a neoliberal war pig.”
Vega described something he only learned recently, that the Salvadoran government drafted his father at the age of 14 to fight the U.S.-armed Contras in the civil war. He went on to explain the working of the “Intervention Principle”: “Our job” in these interventions “is to shock the consciousness and the conscience of America and Americans.”
Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, or VIPS, endorsed Jose Vega in a video message. He observed that Vega is running to represent the same Bronx district in which McGovern himself grew up. “We need to have somebody there who is not a creature of some lobby…. Jose is golden, he gives me hope. … With Jose, you won’t have somebody winking, or keeping his mouth shut about genocide.”
Diane Sare then spoke, saying that although the U.S. has been going fascist since the death of FDR, and that we now have an escalation of censorship under the Biden/Harris war administration, still “we still have enough freedom to change the direction of our nation, if we use it.” She went on: “My dream is that, in the City of New York, no one should be able to come here and tell lies in public … this should be a city where people know that when they come, they’re not going to be able to lie to the population, because someone is going to get up and pull a Jose Vega.”
What followed were special video presentations of music from Iran, Sweden, Finland, and South Africa, along with a live performance of a song from Albania. The remainder of the event was a concert, featuring:
• String Quartet No. 12, “American,” Op. 96 B. 179, Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) NEO String Quartet
• “Quia Respexit” from the Magnificat in D, by J.S. Bach ("He has looked upon my lowliness"), soprano, oboe duet
• “Shalom Chaverim” canon, Hebrew traditional folk tune, Chorus and audience
• “My Country ’tis of Thee” arr. by Fred Haight from Dvorak’s String Quartet, Op. 97 B. 180 Larghetto, Chorus and NEO String Quartet
• “Battle Cry of Freedom,” George Root, 1862, Chorus and audience.
The original posting of this article reversed the identification of Weiss and Dobular. It said that Dobular spoke first and then Weiss. The correct order is now represented.
