JAY MANKITA'S 'LIVING PLANET'
PERFORMED AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

Many of my old friends have been in touch
recently to ask me if I knew that my song 'Living Planet' was used in
the well publicized commencement speech for New York City's New School For Social
Research (http://www.newschool.edu) graduation given a few weeks ago by Jean
Rohe at Madison Square Garden, in which she dressed down keynote
speaker John McCain for (among other things)
his support for the Iraq War.

Of course I am absolutely thrilled to see Jean breathe new life and meaning into the song!, and no, I'm not (really) embarrassed that Jean said, "That was an excerpt of a song I learned as a child called "Living Planet" by Jay Mankita." I did after all, write the song in 1988!

You can read Jean's article on the Huffington Post, called 'Why I Spoke Up' (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jean-rohe/why-i-spoke-up_b_21358.html?p=7), in which the text of the speech
is also quoted. This article has been reprinted on over 150 blogs so far!

You can also download an
MP3 (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/09/1427215&mode=thread&tid=25)
of the speech, featured as a segment on Amy Goodman's wonderful show, 'Democracy Now'.

The song was recorded by the folk duo Magpie (http://www.magpiemusic.com) in the early 1990s, and most
folks who've heard the song know their version, although I recorded it as well, and you can
download an MP3 (http://jaymankita.com/downloads.html) of that for free from my website.


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Jay Mankita
http://jaymankita.com