Ralph Nader by RAR - Video.wmv

Video to accompany the Rick Alan Rice (RAR) composition "Ralph Nader". Images are pending approval. RAR NOTE: This song was written after the disputed 2000 presidential election and during a period when I was commuting regularly to San Francisco to work at the Bechtel Corporation. This is a bulwark of Republican political muscle, the source for many leading figures in the Reagan administration. I would occasionally, by quirk and accident, ride the elevator at 50 Beale in San Francisco with former Secretary of Labor (1969-70)/Secretary of Treasury (1972-74)/Secretary of State (1982-89) George Schultz, who always looked at me suspiciously. He is a long-time member of the board of directors, and the presence of such as he, plus Bechtels involvements with foreign policy initiatives, make that building a constant focus of political protests. Back around the start of the War in Iraq I remember walking in front of a row of fully armored riot police, their shields aligned edge to edge so that they formed a black wall at the end of Market Street. It felt surreal and certainly disturbing, particularly as it brought me face-to-face with my own contradictions. Like others I worked with at Bechtel, our hearts and sympathies were with the anti-war protestors in the streets, and yet we had mouths to feed and Bechtel paid for our services, often beyond what any of us could get working elsewhere.

This video satisfyingly, at least for me, captures something about the pressures of living in the U.S. in these days, bombarded as we are by government policy decisions and environmental pressures. It takes a certain Zen approach to live in denial, in the clouds above it all. And it more or less divorces us from the ramifications of our personal need to survive and provide.

A NOTE ON IMAGES: Special thanks to those creative types whose images have been incorporated to this not-for-profit presentation. Please bring all concerns to the attention of Rick@RARWRITER.com. - RAR. Learn more at www.rarwriter.com.

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