Peter Alsop‘s SONGS TO CHEW

Two days ago I posted my song ‘New Ground’ about loss, … so, just to keep us in balance, … here’s a song about how us humans always start looking for someone to blame when the world goes crazy! We’re going through huge changes socially and globally these days, … people are dying and it sure feels like we don’t have much control over our own little lives. Y’know, … it makes it a little bit easier if we can just find someone or something to blame it on!GONE FOR GOODAn old brown cow was sittin’ GIn a pasture eating grass D7, C#7When she looked down at the ground, C7 She saw a black bug walkin’ past. D7-GShe watched him push and struggleWith that little twig he’d found,Then she raised her hoof and mashed that bug!(SQUISH!) Into the ground!Cho: I can’t find a reason C7Why some of us must die. GAnd others live and feel bad, C7-C#7Maybe God knows why, D7, C#7But I can’t find a reason, C7If I only understood, G-G/F-EmThen I wouldn’t be so angry, GYes, that bug is gone for good!! A-D7-GNow later in the afternoon, That cow went home to eatAnd the Farmer, he packed her friends and herInto a truck out on the street.He’d decided to quit milkin’ cows And start t’raisin’ ducksWell Old MacDonald had a cow, Now she’s a Cheeseburger Deluxe!Cho: Well I can’t find a reasonWhy some of us must die.And others live and feel bad,Maybe God knows why,But I can’t find a reason,If I only understood,Then I wouldn’t be so angry,Hey, that cow is gone for good!!Well Old MacDonald choked to deathOn one hard-boiled duck egg.And the duck who laid it ended up, …As “Roasted Duck With Nutmeg!”And the chef who roasted up that duck,Stepped on an avocado,Slipped underneath a tour bus,Bound for southern Colorado!The driver’s name was Alice,And she didn’t even stop!They caught-up with her in Dallas,Eating pancakes with a cop, …He was this foolish guy named Jerry, Who never carried guns.He’d fed her boysenberry syrup And he caught her with the runs!When he took her down to book her At the nearest precinct house,Well next door there, all the local circus elephants, They got frightened by this mouse,And they stampeded on the squad car, They didn’t even hurt their feet!But Jerry, Alice and the car,Were tramped into the street!And the mouse who scared them elephants,He gave one little shrug,And three weeks later he died,When he was bitten by a bug, …Who was the thirty-second cousinOf that bug killed by that cow!Well if it wasn’t for that bug, …Maybe they’d all still be here now!Cho: Well I can’t find a reasonWhy some of us must die!And others live and feel bad,Maybe God knows why, …But I can’t find a reason,If I only understood!Then I wouldn’t be so angry,When you’re gone, you’re gone for good!No, I wouldn’t be so angry, …When you’re gone, … you’re gone, … for good!!Written by Peter Alsop, © 1985, Moose School Music (BMI)On Fan Club Favorites and Songs On Loss & Grief – www.peteralsop.comThere’s a great lesson about blaming that gets passed around in Alanon circles. When I point my finger at you, and blame you for something you did, ... I might be very accurate at analyzing how you were part of this problem, ... but, ... if I look at my own hand with the pointing finger, there’s only one finger pointing at you, … and the other three other fingers, … are pointing back at ME!! Unless we’re Mary Poppins, ... (perfect in every way,) ... there’s usually some part of this problem that I need to look at, otherwise, ... I wouldn’t be pointing at you!The main reason we want to blame others is that, … if we do it really well, ... we deflect attention from ourselves, ... and we don’t have to take responsibility for OUR part of the situation! Besides, I can’t really do anything about you and your part of this, ... but I CAN look at my part, and make some changes there!Don’t forget we can vote! There’s an election coming up!Bye for now!Peter Alsop’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.If you’re not a Subscriber please click the Subscribe button. It’s free! You can always reach me at [email protected], and you don’t have to be a ‘paid’ subscriber to get my posts. All my posts are always public! Everyone gets ‘em, … some folks send in money to support my work, which I greatly appreciate, but in either case, I’m glad you’re here! (If you run into a request to pay something from Substack, … you can just ‘click on’ past it!)I’d also appreciate it if you would take a minute to ‘spread the word’ and share my Substack posts with your friends, family or anyone who you think might like to hear some of the information I pass on through my songs and stories. Feel free to check out any of my past posts that you haven’t seen yet, and please ‘Re-stack’ them if you think others might like to discover my work. They’re all here! Thanks for your support! Bye for now! PeterCheck out my audio podcasts here:Peter Alsop’s SONGS TO CHEWAnd you can find my CDs, DVDs & Songbooks at:Bandcamp.com.I’d love to hear from you! Please send comments or ask questions!LIKECOMMENTRESTACK2 Likes Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

Our lives shift when a big loss happens. Things go along smoothly, then ‘BANG!’, something occurs, and our lives change drastically, and our perceptions shift.Hurt feelings can help us see things with new eyes. When we ‘lose’ someone or something important to us, we feel an emptiness and sadness inside. Sometimes we act brave for the people around us, and we need to give ourselves permission to cry, express anger, and grieve our losses. It’s okay to feel ‘not-okay’! Crying is a healthy way to release pent-up stress, fear, loneliness, and sadness. If we allow others, especially children, to see our sadness, we give them permission to express theirs too.NEW GROUNDThe leaf falls from the tree. EThe sap runs deep. B7Snow in the winter ECovers seeds that sleep. B7Sun melts the ice, EAnd the warm Earth gives B7Water to the sprouts EAnd the green world lives. B7-ECho: Watch for a sign. A-B7Keep your heart alive. E-C#mThe spirit breaks new ground A-B-C#mWhenever something dies. E-B7-EWatch the shadows closely, A-B7The tears will clean your eyes E-C#mThe spirit breaks new ground A-B-C#mWhenever something dies. E-B7-EInstrumental E-F#m7-G#m6-F#m7You may have lost a toyYou may have lost a dreamYou may have lost a friendSomeone who you need.Your chest can feel the painThat makes it hard to breathe,But your love will always stayAnd the pain will leave.Cho: Watch for a signKeep your heart aliveThe spirit breaks new groundWhenever something dies.Watch the shadows closely, The tears will clean your eyes.The spirit breaks new groundWhenever something dies.Written by Peter Alsop, ©1987, Moose School Music (BMI)On ‘In The Hospital’ & ‘Songs On Loss & Grief’www.peteralsop.comThe opposite of ‘love’ is not ‘hate’, but fear. When we’re afraid, our fears cripple our ability to help our loved ones who are experiencing a loss. The comfort of a warm touch, or of listening silently to them are some of the most valuable things we can do when someone is sad.Here are some exercises I’ve used when working with kids.- Take a seed out of the next piece of fruit that you eat and plant it in some dirt, about two inches under the surface. Water it and keep the soil moist, but not soggy, then watch for what comes up!Ask a parent or grandparent to plant a small garden with you. Ask them if they ever knew anyone who died or left them, and what they did to adjust to the changes.Draw a picture of how you felt when you really missed someone.Illustration by Terri Asher - (colored in by Peter!)And here are some simple questions to ask others, … and ourselves! ( Make sure we ‘really listen’ to the ‘answers’!)Did you ever lose something or someone that you really liked or loved?How did your heart and chest feel when you thought about it?Have you ever grown too big to wear a favorite article of clothing?Was it hard to watch your younger brotheror sister wear it? Why?Have you ever had to move away from some place or someone you loved?Was there anything that made the pain of leaving go away? What?Have you ever had friends or family members move away from you?What did you do to take care of your feelings?Do you know a person or an animal who died? Were you sad?Did you cry about missing them? What things did you miss?Do you still need to do some crying now about something you lost?Can you find a safe place to cry?Do you know someone who you feel safe to cry with?How do you know when someone else feels ‘safe’ for you?Grief can cause sensations of physical pain, difficulty in breathing, depression, and loss of appetite. When we discuss past losses with our friends and loved ones, painful feelings are acknowledged and expressed, and we discover that ‘new sprouts’ of hope start to appear. Unexpected strength, wisdom, compassion, insight, and acceptance can grow out of loss experiences. Watch for a sign. Keep your heart alive!Peter Alsop’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.If you’re not a Subscriber please click the Subscribe button. It’s free! You can always reach me at [email protected], and you don’t have to be a ‘paid’ subscriber to get my posts. All my posts are always public! Everyone gets ‘em, … some folks send in money to support my work, which I greatly appreciate, but in either case, I’m glad you’re here! (If you run into a request to pay something from Substack, … you can just ‘click on’ past it!)I’d also appreciate it if you would take a minute to ‘spread the word’ and share my Substack posts with your friends, family or anyone who you think might like to hear some of the information I pass on through my songs and stories. Feel free to check out any of my past posts that you haven’t seen yet, and please ‘Re-stack’ them if you think others might like to discover my work. They’re all here! Thanks for your support! Bye for now! PeterCheck out my audio podcasts here:Peter Alsop’s SONGS TO CHEWAnd you can find my CDs, DVDs & Songbooks at:Bandcamp.com.I’d love to hear from you! Please send comments or ask questions!LIKECOMMENTRESTACK Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

Crows have developed a reputation as ‘thieves’ who steal a farmer’s seeds and crops after they’ve been planted. Maybe so, … but I don’t think crows could ever be as devastating to farmers as Monsanto/Bayer. I first heard about the Monsanto company creating problems for farmers when I traveled to play music for folks in the Mid-west.LOW FLYING CROWSLow flying crows EmSail in on a wind Cmaj7As cold as a city Asus4As cold as their grin EmSkimming over our fields EmSowing seeds full of tears Cmaj7For their hybrids won’t yield DEven one seed next year EmCho: Low flying crows CWant your eyes to stay closed DMake sure everyone knows EmWatch for low flying crows! Em-DWatch for low flying crows! Em-DWatch for low flying crows! Em-B7-EmWith their corporate sealThey darken our skyFor the profits to riseOur old seeds must dieWhen our heirlooms are goneThen the crows who we feedCrow all night longFor we must buy their seed!Cho: Low flying crowsWant your eyes to stay closedMake sure everyone knowsWatch for low flying crows!Watch for low flying crows!Watch for low flying crows!Instrumental BreakNow we stand as one! AThey’ve been blocking the sun CBack to shadows they go DWhen all of us know, Em-D-EmWatch for low flying crows! Em-D-EmWatch for low flying crows! Em-D-EmWatch for low flying crows! Em-B7-EmWritten by Peter Alsop, ©Copyright 2010, Moose School Music (BMI)On ‘Disciples of PerFection’https://www.peteralsop.comMonsanto genetically modified seeds to resist certain kinds of toxic chemicals. The great idea was to sell these crop seeds to farmers, and when their crops started to grow, the farmers could spray them with Monsanto’s ‘Roundup’ or ‘Dicamba’ or some other kind of toxic plant killer, and these crops would have a built-in immunity. All the other plants or bugs in the area however, … would be killed. Farmers wouldn’t have to weed their crops! Great sales pitch! The crop plants could then use the minerals, water and sunlight resources, without having to compete with any other plants or insect pests around them.Seemed like a good idea, but the problem with spreading toxins around where we grow our food, is that Monsanto couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that toxins would NOT be the absorbed by the plants or the humans who work in the fields, or who live nearby or who consume these crops!And when the wind carried some of these seeds accidentally into neighboring fields, Monsanto’s lawyers would sue those neighboring farmers for copyright infringement and the theft and of their modified plants, because Monsanto had copyrighted the DNA of their genetically modified seeds!The farmers who had legally purchased and used the GMO seeds and toxins on their property, in order to grow corn or soy crops, eventually discovered that those modified plants were hybrids that did not produce new seed that could be planted for the next season’s crops. With their lands tainted from the toxins they had already spread, the farmers had to buy more seeds from Monsanto year after year, ending the age-old cycle and practice of collecting seeds from the previous year’s crop to seed the fields for the new year. Monsanto effectively had a monopoly, so, … of course they raised the price of their seeds.This system also created health problems. The main active ingredient of Roundup is isopropylamine salt of glyphosate. There is a graph, easily accessible online, that shows the remarkable, almost exact correlation between the rise in childhood autism and the manufacture, sale and usage of Monsanto’s Round Up (glyphosate) on corn and soy crops from 1994 to 2010.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the prevalence of childhood autism continues to rise here in America. Although we do not yet know the actual cause of autism, more and more research points to the connection between autism risk and exposure to the herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s common weed killer ‘Roundup’. Scientists, as yet unable to prove that that glyphosate causes autism, point out that the exact similarity in the aforementioned graph implies a strong connection.On March 21, 2025, after a three‑week trial in Cobb County, Georgia, the court awarded John Barnes, 65 million dollars in compensatory damages, plus 2 billion dollars in punitive damages when the jury concluded Barnes’ NHL(non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) cancer was caused by glyphosate exposure and that Monsanto (now part of Bayer) withheld or failed to disclose known risks about ‘Roundup’. Expert testimony linked glyphosate to NHL; Monsanto argued no credible scientific proof and cited regulatory safety assessments.Many victims, including farm workers, landscape professionals, golf course green-keepers, and private homeowners have already come forward now to file claims against Monsanto after having been exposed to glyphosate.Glyphosate has made its way into our food supply, as about 90% of all corn and soy, as well as a significant amount of wheat, are treated with this toxic chemical. The presence of high amounts of glyphosate in the urine samples of the severely affected children in the current study, who had been eating nonorganic food, calls into question the wisdom of distributing GMO foods dependent on glyphosate usage throughout the world.Please Restack or share this post with your friends and family. We can try to change these unhealthy profit-based systems by boycotting and writing letters to these irresponsible corporations. We need to pressure them to base their decisions on caring about our health, not simply on making a profit. It’s common to feel small and overwhelmed when we challenge the callousness of huge corporations like Bayer and Monsanto, but then I remember what the Dalai Lama said, …“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito!”Peter Alsop’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.If you’re not a Subscriber please click the Subscribe button. It’s free! You can always reach me at [email protected], and you don’t have to be a ‘paid’ subscriber to get my posts. All my posts are always public! Everyone gets ‘em, … some folks send in money to support my work, which I greatly appreciate, but in either case, I’m glad you’re here! (If you run into a request to pay something from Substack, … you can just ‘click on’ past it!)I’d also appreciate it if you would take a minute to ‘spread the word’ and share my Substack posts with your friends, family or anyone who you think might like to hear some of the information I pass on through my songs and stories. Feel free to check out any of my past posts that you haven’t seen yet, and please ‘Re-stack’ them if you think others might like to discover my work. They’re all here! Thanks for your support! Bye for now! PeterCheck out my audio podcasts here:Peter Alsop’s SONGS TO CHEWAnd you can find my CDs, DVDs & Songbooks at:Bandcamp.com.I’d love to hear from you! Please send comments or ask questions!LIKECOMMENTRESTACK Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

I do a lot of children’s songs, … and Pete Seeger did too. I had two daughters though, … I feel ‘rich in daughters’, … and that can be a little bit confusing as a parent. I told the kids “to not write in books!”, and then I got all these little kids’ books with a woodchuck! … And it was always a ‘little boy’ hero. I didn’t understand it! … so I went in, and changed all the he’s to she’s, and thehims to hers, and, then I wrote in the books! ‘Cause I think that they needed to hear that little girls could be heroes too? Don’t ya think?!Pete did a song called ‘Abiyoyo’ which is taken from and old African tale which I’m gonna do for you. There’s a little boy, … so, … it’s gonna be a little girl today, … I’m sorry!! (Not really!)ABIYOYOAbiyoyo. Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo. DAbiyoyo, ya-yoyo, ya-yoyo! A-A7-D, A-A7-DAbiyoyo, ya-yoyo, ya-yoyo!Once upon a time there was a little, … girl, who had a ukelele.She’d go around town going,plunk-plunk-plunk-plunk!plunk-plunk-plunk-plunk!People said “Get that thing out of here!”Not only that, but the girl’s father was a-gettin’ in trouble.He was a magician, and he had a Magic wand.He could go Zoop! Zoop!Make things disappear!Well, the problem was, the little girl’s father,Was playin’ too many tricks on people.Someone would be doing a hard day’s work,Zzt, zzt, zzt, zzt! (sound of sawing)Father would come up with his Magic wand and,Zoop! - No saw!Come to someone about to have a big cold glass of, … something,Father would come up, Zoop! the glass would Disappear!He’d come to someone about to sit down after a hard day’s work,Zoop! No chair!People said, “You get out of here, too!You take your Magic wand and your daughter!”And the little girl and her father were ‘ostracized’.That means that they had to live on the edge of town.Now in this town, people told stories. DmThe old people told stories about the GiantsThat used to live there in the old days!They told a story about a Giant called “Abiyoyo”!Said he was “Big as a House!”And he could EAT - PEOPLE - UP!Of course, no one believed them,But they told the stories anyway.One day, … one day,The Sun rose, blood red over the hills .People woke up and looked out their window.They saw a big shadow in front of the Sun.And they could feel the ground shake!Stomp! Stomp!Women screamed! “Ahh!”Strong Men fainted “Ohh!”“Run for your lives! Abiyoyo’s coming!”Abiyoyo went into a sheep pastureGrabbed a whole sheep, GULP!He went to the cow pasture,Grabbeds a whole cow! GYEULP!People said, “Grab your favorite possessions.And run for your lives!!”Just then the little girl and her father woke up.They looked out the window.“Hey Pa! What’s coming over across the fields?”“Oh, Daughter, … that’s Abiyoyo!If only I could get him to lie down, I could make him disappear!”The girl said “Come with me, … Pa!”She took her Father’s hand and she grabbed the ukulele,And Father grabbed the Magic wand, and they ran across the field.People yelled, “Don’t go near him! He’ll eat you alive!”It was Abiyoyo!He had long fingernails, ‘cause he never cut ‘em.He had slobbery teeth, … ‘cause he didn’t brush them.He had stinky feet, ‘cause he didn’t wash them.And he raised up his claws!And the little girl whipped out her ukelele, and she said,“Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo.Abiyoyo, ya-yoyo, ya-yoyo!(nervous & scared)Abiyoyo, ya-yoyo, ya-yoyo.”Well, the Giant had never heard a song about himself before.And a foolish Grin spread over his face.And the Giant started to dance and sing!“Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo.”The little girl played faster!“Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo.Abiyoyo, ya-yoyo, ya-yoyo!Abiyoyo, huff, puff, huff, puff!”The Giant got out of breath!And fell down, … flat on the ground!Zoop! Zoop!The people looked out their window.Abiyoyo disappeared!They ran across the field! They picked up the little girl, … and her Father!They said, “Come back to town.Bring the damn ukelele, we don’t care!”And they all started to sing!Abiyoyo, Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo, Abiyoyo.Abiyoyo, ya-yoyo, ya-yoyo!Abiyoyo, ya-yoyo, ya-yoyo!Far as I know, … this story collected by Pete SeegerNow I know there’s a bit of Magic in this story. I like to think that some things surely do seem magical to us humans, … like electricity seems kinda magical to me. My favorite part of this story is getting to see the sometimes ‘invisible magic’ that happens to us humans, when one of us, … maybe a little child who loves the arts and music, has the courage to stand up against impossible odds and see what they can achieve by taking some action. This little girl recruited some help from her Pa, … and the community jumped up to support them.There are lots of scary and upsetting things going on in our world right now, and many of us feel like there’s no way out! We feel helpless, … like we don’t know what we could possibly do to make a difference because we’re facing ‘impossible odds’! Hmmm?So as you drift off to sleep tonight, maybe you can think about this little girl and her Pa. And maybe there are some real live people you know, who have shown courage and who don’t stop trying to make the world a better place. Maybe folks who have figured out how to set things up so giants aren’t so scary.Let me know what you come up with. I’d love to hear from you.Bye for now …PeterPeter Alsop’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.If you’re not a Subscriber please click the Subscribe button. It’s free! You can always reach me at [email protected], and you don’t have to be a ‘paid’ subscriber to get my posts. All my posts are always public! Everyone gets ‘em, … some folks send in money to support my work, which I greatly appreciate, but in either case, I’m glad you’re here! (If you run into a request to pay something from Substack, … you can just ‘click on’ past it!)It helps if you would ‘spread the word’ and share my Substack posts with your friends. Feel free to ‘re-stack’ a post or send it to anyone who might find it entertaining or helpful. Thanks for stopping by! Bye for now!Check out my audio podcasts here:Peter Alsop’s SONGS TO CHEWAnd you can find my CDs, DVDs & Songbooks at:Bandcamp.com.I’d love to hear from you! Please send comments or ask questions!LIKECOMMENTRESTACK Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

One of the many wonderful things about being a folk and family music performer is singing ‘sing-alongs’ with our audiences. It’s definitely a requirement for playing songs with kids, ... less so for a folk-singer, ... but still, there’s nothing quite as fun and dear as a room full of humans lifting our voices together.This video is from 1977 when I opened a show for Kenny Loggins at UC San Diego. I closed my set with Bill Steele’s song about ‘garbage’. It’s way fun to sing because my version of it is what I call ‘a scream-along’! Feel free to scream along with us!GARBAGEMr. Thompson calls the waiter, F#mOrders steak and baked po-tater,Then he leaves the bone and gristle,And he never eats the skin. C#7The busboy comes and takes it,With a cough contaminates it,Then he throws it in a can with coffeeGrinds and sardine tins. F#mA truck comes by on Friday C#7And carts it all away. D7And a thousand trucks just like it, G#7Are converging on the bay! C#7Cho: Garbage! (GARBAGE!), Garbage! (GARBAGE!) F#mWe’re filling up the sea with garbage! (GARBAGE!) F#m-C#7Garbage! (GARBAGE!), Garbage! (GARBAGE!) C#7What will we do when there’s C#7No place left to put all of the garbage? (GARBAGE!) C#7-F#mMr. Johnson starts his Cadillac,Winds it up the freeway trackLeaving friends and neighbors in a‘Hydro-carbon’ haze.He’s joined by lots of smaller cars,All sending gases to the starsThere to form a seething cloudThat hangs for thirty daysWhile the sun licks down upon itWith its ultra-violet tonguesIt turns to smog and settles downRight inside your lungs!Cho: Garbage! (GARBAGE!), Garbage! (GARBAGE!)We’re filling up our lungs with garbage! (GARBAGE!)Garbage, (GARBAGE!), Garbage, (GARBAGE!)What will we do when there’sNothing left to breathe but garbage? (GARBAGE!)Getting home and taking off his shoes,He settles down with the evening newsWhile the kids do homework ,With the T.V. in one ear.While Superman for the thousandth time,Sells talking dolls and conquers crime,They dutifully learn the date ofBirth of Paul Revere.In the paper there’s a pieceAbout the mayor’s middle name,And he gets it done in time to watchThe all-star Bingo Game!Cho: Garbage! (GARBAGE!), Garbage! (GARBAGE!)We’re filling up our minds with garbage! (GARBAGE!)Garbage, (GARBAGE!)Garbage, (GARBAGE!)What will we do when there’sNothing left to sing about, nothing left to talk aboutNothing left to look like, and nothing left to smell like,Nothing left to be, … but garbage?! (GARBAGE!)Written by Bill Steele, ©1973, Chinga Music LtdOn ‘Peter Alsop’ – www.peteralsop.comThis concert happened 50 year ago, and since then, ... we’ve been overrun and overloaded with excess packaging for our food, our plastic bottles and individually wrapped apples, extra-large bulk store quantity boxes. We didn’t have many recycling bins back then, and now they’re being phased out because we have too much plastic waste in the US that companies no longer value it as a recycle-able resource.Alana Semuels wrote an article in 2019 in The Atlantic Magazine entitled “Is This The End of Recycling?” We’re consuming more and more stuff, and now that other countries won’t take our papers and plastics anymore, all our discarded stuff ends up in the trash, or the ocean and our water. Our municipalities face two choices: pay higher rates to get rid of our recycling overflow, or throw it all away. Most choose the latter, because we can’t afford to be environmentally responsible.And maybe you’ve heard, ... there’s an area in the middle of the Pacific ocean, between California/Mexico and Hawaii where there’s a high concentration of plastic waste. Last time I heard, the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ was 1.6 million square kilometers and growing. Fortunately, there are young activists trying to reduce the amount of plastic waste produced, so it won’t end up in our oceans or as micro-plastics in our bodies!Many of our weather reports include something called the AQI or Air Quality Index. Some days our AQI numbers are healthy for us, but increasingly we face numbers that are unhealthy for sensitive groups, or very unhealthy for everyone! Recently this has included smoke from the plethora of wild fires blazing in the West and dust generated by drought.Perhaps the most powerful verse of Bill Steele’s song, .is the one about ‘filling our minds with garbage’! If that could be heeded, ... we could actually focus on what’s going on in our world; then, instead of teaching children in schools ‘what to think’ so they can past a test, we could be teaching them ‘HOW’ to think!’ We need their new little brains to address some of our most critical issues facing us today! Instead of buying and swallowing corporate propaganda about our, need for any kind of jobs (regardless of what’s being produced), ... we could give people jobs making solar and wind power more available so that everyone could benefit from renewable energies. We could unglue from our cel phones and get out on the land to support our indigenous water-defenders, our youth climate activists, and find ways to slow down the huge increase in our human population that puts such demands on our finite resources.So yes, ... my audience and I had a great time screaming along together, and building community like that creates opportunities for us to get other people’s attention! We have an election coming up soon. ... and we need to organize with each other to go out and make sure our votes count! There is some genius to the art of putting deep ideas into a fun, musical format. We listen, we think, we stir the pot, we chew on ideas, and then we make an effort to see what we can come up with! Let’s find the missing puzzle-pieces, ... so we can make caring about others, ... important again!Bye for now!Thanks for subscribing! It’s public so feel free to ‘re-stack’ it or share it with anyone who might find my posts helpful. Check out my audio podcasts here: Peter Alsop’s SONGS TO CHEWAnd you can find my CDs, DVDs & Songbooks at: Bandcamp.com.I’d love to hear from you! Send a comment, or ask questions, and if you're not a Subscriber please click the Subscribe button. It’s free! And you can always reach me at [email protected]. You don’t have to be a ‘paid’ subscriber to get my posts. Everyone gets ‘em, … some folks send in money to support my work, which I appreciate. In either case, I’m glad you’re here! Thanks for spreading the word and sharing with your friends. Bye for now Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe