Michael Franti had a little heart to heart talk with the audience in-between songs during Saturday’s “Mothers Day Speak Out For Peace” Concert In San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park last weekend.
(Near-complete transcription available below.)

Michael Franti on May 10, 2003 – Complete

Michael Franti on May 10, 2003 – Words – Complete (Small – 10 MB)
Michael Franti on May 10, 2003 – Words – Complete (Hi-Res – 149 MB)
Audio – Michael Franti on May 10, 2003 – Words – Complete (MP3 – 5 MB)
Press and others that just need a short clip of “some good stuff” from Franti’s talk.
I’ve created “edited” versions:

Michael Franti on May 10, 2003 – Edited version (First half.)

Michael Franti on May 10, 2003 – Words – Edited (Small – 5 MB)
Michael Franti on May 10, 2003 – Words – Edited (Hi-Res – 59 MB)
Audio – Michael Franti on May 10, 2003 – Words – Edited (MP3 – 2 MB)

Martin Luther King says that “peace” is not merely the absence of war, but it’s the presence of justice.
And now, we’ve invaded Iraq, and, at best, it’s just good old fashioned colonialism. You invade a country. We use its people. We use its resources, and we occupy the nation. At worst, it could turn into the next Palestine. It could turn into the next Berlin. They’re talking about possibly dividing up Iraq into three separate portions — dividing up the people by ethnic groups and ruling it militarily.
They’ve suggested this man “Kabala” to run the nation, and he was busted for stealing 200 million dollars from the people of Jordan, because he was running these illegal banks in Jordan, and he’s the guy who Tommy Franks says “That’s our guy!” He seems qualified. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, and he escaped and went and lived in England for a while. And now he’s back.
So, President Bush spends a billion dollars to go have a little tea party on this aircraft carrier and pose for a lot of pictures. And they say, “Well, things are gonna be different. We’ve liberated the people of Iraq.” And I look around here in San Francisco. I see people holding up signs on the street corner that say “I’m a U.S. Veteran. Please give me change.” And they’ve spent 76 Billion dollars of our change to fight this war in Iraq, but they can’t take care of Veterans back home.
And it’s been a big challenge to me in my heart to think, that now, those of us who have been setting up food stands and coming out to events like this for years and years, are going to now have to have bake sales and put on concerts to send money to support the people of Iraq. And I have a lot of ambivalence about that. And it’s a very difficult time right now. It’s a big challenge for all of us to find continued love in our hearts. And, I just want you to know that we’re all in this together, and that as long as a few of us like this can hold on to hope, there’s still hope in the world.