[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIuFiYdYf8k[/youtube]
Pat Moriarity, 47 (drums) Jack Moriarity, 8 (guitar and vocals)

Jack and Pat Moriarity give us a great version of “A Peaceful Solution” and a personal story better than any movie script. Father and son, each born on Fathers Day but 39 years apart team up for their first performance together with “A Peaceful Solution.”

Perhaps the best part seemed to me when 7 year old Jack Moriarity wanted to know why all these people here on the Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute were playing the same song. Here he is now at the age of 8 singing the same song.

If an alert and intelligent 7 year old boy can get it then I can have hope not only for our country but also the world. If within a year of being exposed to “A Peaceful Solution” and asking the obvious questions people would be singing the song themselves then you can see the potential for a peaceful revolution.

I hope that all together we can muster the thoughtful insightful intelligence of a 7 year old boy then have the compassion and courage of an 8 year old to sing a song for peace.

As long as we have people like Pat and Jack Moriarity then We the People of the United States of America can have hope for a peaceful future.

* * * * * Artist’s Statement * * * * *

Pat here. I’m Jack’s dad, a cartoonist. I’m not a musician at all, never was. But my son has claimed to be a musician since he was three, and he makes me drum. When his friends start playing music, I’ll quickly be replaced and be history!

Jack just turned 8. He was born on fathers day 2000. I was born on fathers day 1961! Fathers day is always a Sunday, so Jack’s b-day is June 18th, mine the 17th. We always share a cake.

We don’t really have an artist statement. Jack and I are really just goofing around in the garage, recording music after I figured out how to hook a microphone up to my mac. The video I sent you from July 4th was his very first performance.

Parrick Haggerty, Jack’s guitar teacher, has this distinction in country music- He is in the Country Music Hall of Fame. He is known to have released the first known openly gay country record, LAVENDER COUNTRY, in 1973.

He lives nearby in Bremerton, and we’ve been friends for a long time. He’s barely in the video, yelling “WILLIE NELSON PEACEFUL SOLUTION “at the very beginning, and walking onscreen at the end.

Why are you passionate about creating peace?

I was never sold on the Iraq war and have attended peace demonstrations ever since.
Jack has demonstrated too, along with my wife Lori. As a professional cartoonist and designer,
I have also created posters for peace events. Here’s one from 2006.

How long have you been working for peace?

Since the Iraq war started. I started getting suspicious during the media build up to it.

Jack wanted to learn A PEACEFUL SOLUTION after he saw me looking at Willie Nelson‘s website.
He was 7 at the time and wanted to know why all these people were playing the same song.

Jack also wants to bring the troops home safely. Jack is the kid with the orange balloon in this picture,

taken during the armed forces parade in Kitsap County, in the town of Bremerton Washington.

They wouldn’t let us peacenics in the parade, so we had to march afterwards, at the very end of the parade,
behind a police escort.

What motivates you to work for peace and the environment?

I am motivated by my sympathy towards innocent bystanders and civilians who are victimized or killed by war, simply by being there.

Why have you chosen the path of Art for Peace?

Because I’m an artist and I don’t have any money. Art is all I can contribute right now, to help create change and awareness.

What are your ideas for peaceful solutions?

1) Well, of course “teach your children well”.

2) Stay informed.

3) Write your political representatives when you have a beef to voice.

4) Don’t be afraid to speak up and participate as a U.S. citizen.