Tom Sawyer’s Tree House
Hello, and thanks for stopping. I’ve got a story I’d like to tell you. I’ll be writing more in the coming days, but please, for now, take time to view the slide show and listen to the podcasts below. I’m sure you’ll agree that each interview is worthy of its own story.
I spent a good deal of time over the past few weeks putting together this audio and arranging some photos. I did my best to do justice to the story. Click the picture to watch and listen:
Brigid O'Donoghue, CEO and Founder of USSA
Download: brid.interview.final
Jason Moon
Download: moon.interview.final
Here’s part of Jason Moon’s bio, which is posted on his website. Read more, and listen to his music at jasonmoon.org
Jason Moon is a Milwaukee-based folk/rock singer and songwriter, a veteran of the Iraq
War, and a tireless advocate for veteran’s issues and for peace, and was named a
“Peacemaker of the Year” in 2009 by the Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice. He
recently released his latest album Trying to Find My Way Home, “an accidental concept
album” based on his own war experiences and on his attempts after his homecoming to
regain the man he was before he was deployed. His other original solo recordings
include Naked Under All These Clothes and Poverty.Jason began his musical career playing around campfires in his home town of Eagle
River, Wisconsin, and later relocated to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he attended UW Oshkosh
and was a focal point of the burgeoning Fox Valley music scene. He hosted
several weekly open mics, wrote dozens of songs, and played hundreds of shows from
1995 until he was deployed in 2003. In Iraq he performed frequently for his fellow
troops, but for over five years after his return in 2004 he was unable to finish more than
a single song despite songwriting once being his greatest joy in life.During this time, Jason struggled with his war experiences as best he could, suffering
through many bouts of PTSD, depression, and self-medication. Breaking the cycle, he
began to volunteer for Never Homeless, Milwaukee’s Homeless Veterans Initiative
(www.neverhomeless.org). In 2009 he was interviewed for the forthcoming documentary
feature film On The Bridge and was asked to record one of his original songs for the
credits roll, an experience that energized him to finally begin to write songs again in
earnest, and which ultimately led to Trying to Find My Way Home. In addition, he is a
2010 graduate of Cardinal Stitch University, with a Masters degree in Religious
Studies.Jason Moon has performed as a member of the following acts: The North Country
Ramblers, Moon & Thacia, Drivinʼ Wheel, Moon & Lipsky, Little Mischief, The Deep
Bellum Revival Band, The Great Garbonzos, Every Day Toast, The Paste Eating
Elmers, and Moon ʼn Schultzy. He has been honored to share stages with dozens of
extremely talented musicians over his many years of performing.Trying to Find My Way Home is available through this web site and major Internet music
retailers.
Super job !
August 2, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Really great work, Mario. The average American lives a very insulated, safe existence and although this is a luxury and a wonderful gift, it is also in many ways a double-edged sword as our freedoms do us no good unless we continue to work to grow in awareness of the people who sacrifice to make that life possible. The work you’re doing here helps an individual such as myself to continue on a path towards a deeper gratitude and understanding of the people who really make it possible to live the lives we choose. Hopefully, your work will also help them to find peace and meaning in what they have experienced. For those of us who reap the benefits of what they have given, it is an impossibility to truly understand what they have gone through, but the work you are doing makes it much more possible for us to help share the burden in some way.
August 3, 2011 at 9:07 am
Thanks for the feedback, sir. I always appreciate it.
As far as this story goes, like you, I’m just a witness. That’s not a bad thing, and the best I can hope for is to pass the story along in an accurate way. Before my little stint in the Army, and even after to a certain degee, I saw the military as one big faceless gang of rednecks that drove around in an armored pickup, blasting Toby Keith and Ted Nugent. As any good liberal artist would. But time gives perspective, and I’ve come to believe that closed-minded liberalism can be just as annoying as staunch conservatism. Maybe worse, because somehow “liberal” has been often grouped with words like progressive, educated, and tolerant. (By the way, have you seen that episode of South Park, where Kyle’s dad buys a hybrid, then goes around smelling his own farts because he likes it?)
The more vets I speak with, the more I realize that very few enlisted and served based on some moral or political platform. The more vets I speak with, the more I see that politics are placed on the backburner, and the real issues become human issues. I think Jason Moon summarized the need for veteran attention best when he compared it to a basic philosophical question. If you see somebody suffering, and you have the tools to help them, are you obligated to do it? Now, I’m not so self-aggrandizing that I could assume I could provide help for anyone. I have a hard time figuring out the can opener most days, but the very least I can do is listen and do my best to tell others about what I hear.
August 3, 2011 at 11:21 am
Keep doing what you are doing !
August 3, 2011 at 11:35 am
Thanks, Larry. And you too. Hats off to you.
August 3, 2011 at 11:56 am
Your story demands the attention of anyone who hears it and stabs your heart after realizing what these young men have gone through and still go through every day. My deep felt gratitude to all of you who have fought for my freedom and my gratitude to you Mario for telling this story with such elegance. Keep the truth coming and never lose your empathy that you have for all you have written about.
August 3, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Thanks for getting it out there and taking the time to listen
August 10, 2011 at 11:33 am