Peter Gabriel to take sledgehammer to violence against women
Posted at 3:28 PM Mar 19, 2009
By Andrea Grimes
Peter Gabriel wants to be your sledgehammer--if you're a thug in Juarez who murders women in the border town plagued by drug violence. Actually, he wants to be Mexican president Felipe Calderon's sledgehammer against said thugs. Actually he's just going to petition the president to do more to solve the hundreds of unsolved murder cases in the city. Sigh. Referential eighties pop metaphor FAIL.
The LA Times' La Plaza blog reports today that Gabriel, who's long been a human rights activist in addition to the dude who brought you "Solsbury Hill," intends to strong-arm the Mexican president by handing over a petition against the murders that contains over 1,000 signatures! If there's one thing Mexican drug lords fear, it's white guilt and self-righteous posturing. You show 'em who's boss, Gabriel!
Still, the situation in Ciudad Juarez is mighty sobering--violence against women there is rampant and unresolved, much of it tied to the drug trade. Gabriel's performing in Mexico City on March 27 and plans to use the opportunity to speak out against the violence. And I'm performing right here, right now on this blog, and I'm planning to use this opportunity to link to this YouTube video:
