DOOM! Magazine

Posted by Heidi Minx / Built On Respect on Saturday, August 21st, 2010

The Future is Unwritten : Joe Strummer (Joe Strummer Memorial in NYC) - Photo ©2008 Mr Omega BY NC-SA 2.0

New blog on Huffintonpost.com! A Tribute to Joe Strummer: Use Your Voice

Joe Strummer would have been 59 on Saturday, August 21st. The legendary co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead singer of the English punk rock band The Clash first influenced me 25 years ago, via a mix tape, that I played repeatedly on my Radio Shack cassette player.

Songs like “Stay Free” and “Clampdown” became the anthems of my youth.

Those same songs later played from my CD player, my iPod, they followed me everywhere. Lyrics warned me away from corporate supplication, “It’s the best years of your life they want to steal.”

As I got older, the raw anger I flaunted in my youth became more tamed, and transformed into a more productive fight, against human rights abuses and injustices.

After Joe died in 2002, I began to steadily collect quotes from his past interviews. Here is a man I would give anything to interview.

In 2008 when I started my nonprofit, I carefully reviewed these jewels of wisdom — and used one in particular to represent the DIY Built on Respect mentality:

“In fact, punk rock means EXEMPLARY MANNERS TO YOUR FELLOW HUMAN BEING.”

The DIY ethos of punk rock is an amazing, empowering thing. Joe seemed to live this, to observe, to question, and create — and encourage others to do the same.…READ MORE

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 at 3:15 PM. It is filed under Activism, Blog, Music and tagged with Heidi Minx, joe strummer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.