Biafra’s speech revealed him as a man with many plans
Jello Biafra has solutions.
At least that is what the lead singer of the band the Dead Kennedys and founder of the punk label Alternative Tentacles Records said during his speech at the 60th Annual Conference on World Affairs on Wednesday afternoon.
During the speech, entitled “WWJD (What Would Jello Do): Magical Solutions to the All of the World’s Problems,” Biafra disclosed what he saw as answers to current day issues.
“A common complaint I got when I was with the Dead Kennedys was ‘all you do is complain and never come up with any solutions,'” Biafra said. “But I have solutions.”
Biafra has solutions to a lot of problems, in fact.
Biafra has solutions for the War on Drugs, a war he said is much worse than the drugs themselves.
“Decriminalize all drugs and use the money used on excess law enforcement to treat people who want to quit,” he said.
Biafra has solutions for education about sex and drugs, which he said currently fail with their abstinence-only messages.
“How about having real education about sex and drugs instead of having people being talked down to and being told to ‘just say no’?” Biafra said. “If you use real drugs and sex in class, people might actually pay attention!”
Biafra has solutions for political campaigns where none of the candidates seem favorable.
“If you don’t like any of the candidates, there should be an option to vote for ‘none of the above,'” Biafra said. “If ‘none of the above’ is selected, then re-run the campaign with new candidates.”
But perhaps Biafra’s most emphasized topic during his speech referred to the current situation with the U.S. in Iraq, which he described as “the elephant in the living room.”
Although Biafra claimed to have magical solutions to everything else, he admitted that there was no easy solution for that. He said he felt that the War on Terror (which he referred to as “T.W.O.T.”) was an issue that needed to be resolved in immediacy.
“It’s time to get out right now,” Biafra said. “Not just with military occupancy, but economic occupancy as well.”
While Biafra offered his audience a series of his magical solutions, he emphasized that it is important for each individual to act upon his or her own solutions, whether in the form of protest, voting or other actions.
“Jesse Jackson says to keep hope alive,” Biafra said. “Well, I say keep fire alive. If we just sit on our ass and wait for someone to do it for us, we will just get fooled again.”
Biafra’s speech provided radical answers to current events and did so with a humorous connotation that settled well with the audience.
“I really like somebody who stands on stage and gives the full blast of what they feel, whether I agree with them or not,” said Paul Tm, 27, of Boulder.
Meredith Wilson, a senior anthropology major, said Biafra was a charismatic speaker, and she agreed with his idealistic views.
“(Biafra) said a lot of stuff that I can stand behind for sure,” Wilson said.
Wilson added that Biafra’s idealism, while radical, was not farfetched. She said it is never a bad thing to hold a high level of idealism and optimism.
“The future is so hard to predict,” Wilson said. “Being optimistic or pessimistic is based on how you view the present, so I don’t think you can ever be too optimistic.”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Sara Fossum at sara.fossum@colorado.edu.
