Today shoppers killed a human being at Walmart in Nassau County on Long Island. Shoppers wanting great limited quantity deals mowed him down and trampled him after destroying a metal door.

A pregnant woman was among the many who were trampled and injured. This didn’t slow the shoppers down one bit because they were going for great limited quantity deals on TVs and other things. As the man lay dying, shoppers continued to enter Walmart for their great limited quantity deals.

In the story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? written by Philip K. Dick which became the movie Bladerunner, the only way to distinguish genetically manufactured beings called replicants from a real human being was through the empathy test.

Replicants were unable to feel empathy. The problem for the status quo was that as time went on the replicants learned to feel empathy. At this point it would be impossible to distinguish them from real human beings.

Right now the United States is waging two wars without any end in sight. Mark Grayson feels this war in Iraq is “…particularly senseless.” Through his song and video, Mark Grayson wants you to take the empathy test.

Are you a real human being?

Do you feel empathy and will you choose to whatever you can to stop these horrific wars now or do you just want to go shopping for your great limited quantity deals?

Please check out Mark’s friends at Code Pink.

* * * * Artist’s Statement * * * * *

I wrote “why Billy why” last year when my son-in-law was deployed to Iraq. He thankfully came home safe but many of his buddies did not.

At the time there was  alot of music coming out of Nashville that I thought did not reflect my view of  the war. I wanted to give a voice to the mothers of the fallen soldiers. I felt  that if I could make people feel..if only for an instant…a fraction of the  pain that a mother feels when her son is lost at war…they might empathize and rethink their position on this particularly senseless war with Iraq.

I have always felt it was wrong to fight our ‘war on terror’ on someone  else’s soil…and to thinly disguise it as bringing ‘democracy’ to Iraq  infuriated me. There are so many other… more productive ways to spend our resources and I felt we should have started right here at  home…protecting our own borders…our own infrastructure…our own  national landmarks.

After I  had the song demo’d by a friend of mine in  Nashville i decided to put together this video and release it myself…via the  internet. The response I have gotten from around the world has been  tremendous.

Emails from as far away as Australia…Korea…Israel…told  me that while I may never get a mainstream artist from Nashville that has  the balls to record it…I certainly consider it one of my best…and definitely most important pieces.

I want to thank Willie Nelson and his Peace Research Institute for having the guts to stand up and be counted…he is one of  God’s angels…here on earth…believe it!