Interview: G. Love on R&D and the Election

G.Love & Special Sauce might not be a band widely associated with political action. But HeadCount has been getting out the vote at their shows since 2008. Notable writer and promoter Jay Sweet recently caught up with G.Love (AKA Garrett Dutton III)  following a show near Boston, to get his thoughts on the upcoming election.

HeadCount: Do you think it’s important to vote and if it is, is their any cause that for you that you think is important? I mean anything, I don’t care if it’s saving dolphins or music education programs in schools.

G. Love: I’m no politician, but I’d like to see a lot more of research and development projects going into things. Like electric power and stem cell research. I think we’re falling behind right now on a lot of technology for the first time since the industrial revolution our country is now falling behind different countries like China, and other countries in the fields of  medical, and stem cell research. While we are busy spending billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars on a war with no end in sight, China is putting the same kind of money into developing electric power. It’s really going to be fucked up when we see ourselves not being the main super power in the world anymore. The thing that’s made us a super power is our technology and our advancements in medicine and that’s what I’d like to see more of the focus on and more people  get in office who support progressive development and not supporting a war for oil. I’d also like to see marijuana legalized coast to coast, I do smoke marijuana, but I also feel it could be a great boost for our economy. I’d also like to see the development of more alternative energy. I think the development of alternative energy is something that we need to really focus on.

It''s ironic that if we used even a fraction of the money we used to fight wars that really stem from our need for oil to actually find alternative sources, we wouldn’t have to go to war.

G. Love: Exactly, I mean it’s just unbelievable

Do you believe in voting because it is a thing that is important because these are the people that control the appropriations to determine where this money goes, whether to research or war?

G. Love: Yeah. My dad sent this article to me, and it says we’ve got a fund that’s got 25 billion dollars a year set up with all the major developers of electric cars that are going to be changing the way that people get around. That’s what they are going to be driving, new electric cars. And then the writer writes, but don’t worry, the US also has their  plan with what to do with 25 billion which is a war in Afghanistan. People are literally living in caves. I mean really? Let’s get over 9/11. We’ll never forget it, but let’s move towards the future and be the country that we’ve been since this country started and that’s been a leader and not a stuck in the muck.

So, how does this all tie in with the election”

G. Love: When you vote you change things, especially the young people that have new ideas, that are learning new things and have a new way of looking at it. Those are the people that we need out there. We need these people to represent their ideas and the only way they can represent  their ideas is not by complaining, but by voting.