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Sunday, January 18, 2009

OK, tell me you didn't blubber like a baby watching that
Posted by Jill | 4:25 PM
You'll be lying, and so would I if I said that.

You know, I almost always feel cynical about this country. I have for as long as I can remember, even back when I was a thirteen-year-old stuffing envelopes for a Congressional candidate who ended up losing. I don't think you can grow up when I did without being a cynic.

I've been watching the We are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial, with its smiling gospel choirs and its Geezers of Lefty Rock and Queen Latifah looking like, well, a queen. I've been watching the hoopla and the imagery and smiling faces standing in the cold to share a moment that's like nothing we've seen in my lifetime. And for at least one moment, it feels like we -- the people with whom I've identified my entire life -- are finally, FINALLY taking back our country from the people who have done everything in their power to ruin everything these symbols have stood for.

For over three decades, we've allowed wingnuts to appropriate patriotism, turning it from recognition that the vision, the dream of America is not a destination but a process -- one that needs constant tending, vigilance, and participation. It is a vision that is so easily corrupted to serve the greed of the few instead of the dreams of the many. And so it has been ever since Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew essentially declared a large segment of the population its enemy. It continued with Ronald Reagan waving the flag while talking about welfare queens and George H.W. Bush talking about a thousand points of light, because God knows he wasn't about to help anyone. It continued, albeit at a slower pace, with Bill Clinton, who compromised and triangulated his way welfare "reform" that did nothing for the poor, and was rewarded for his efforts with an attempt at impeachment. And the son of President Thousand Points of Light did all he could to finish the job.

I wonder what it must have been like to be Pete Seeger up there today. Born in 1919, Seeger has been at the forefront of progressive activism for over sixty years. Imagine being Pete Seeger, about to celebrate your ninetieth birthday this year, and being able to be there for the inauguration for the first black president. And how cool was it that Seeger decided to restore the angry verses of "This Land is Your Land":



There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.


If that didn't make you go all blubbery, you just ain't human.

But after Tuesday, the real work starts -- the work of making sure this president lives up to the hopes and expectations of those of us who put him in office to not just undo the horrific damage done to this country by George Walker Bush and Dick Cheney, but to uphold the rule of law by holding them accountable for their crimes.

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6 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Awesome! Thank you for sharing. You know if we were only listened to in the 60's and 70's we'd be so much better off now. Can we overcome the invisible puppetmasters now that they themselves have ruined the well?
1/18/09, 7:04 PM  
Blogger Bob said...
Very cool. Pete probably told the organizers, "I'm not singing that song without those verses." Because they were always taken out to make it a different kind of inoffensive song.
1/19/09, 12:22 AM  
Blogger Porlock Junior said...
Oh, just too wow. The boss man of American folk song, whose performance I went to in San Diego when it was picketed by the Young Americans for Freedom is still kicking, and with the original lyrics.

As the transcendental poet said, living well is the best revenge. Living well, and long.

Guess I'll be humming that tune part time, along with the one I decided today was my theme for this week. Year of Jubilo is a little incorrect, but a fine tune for the times.
1/19/09, 3:41 AM  
Blogger Porlock Junior said...
Oh, just too wow. The boss man of American folk song, whose performance I went to in San Diego when it was picketed by the Young Americans for Freedom is still kicking, and with the original lyrics.

As the transcendental poet said, living well is the best revenge. Living well, and long.

Guess I'll be humming that tune part time, along with the one I decided today was my theme for this week. Year of Jubilo is a little incorrect, but a fine tune for the times.
1/19/09, 3:42 AM  
Blogger Porlock Junior said...
Not only got a double posting but left off the point.
"I went to in San Diego in '65 when it was picketed"

If that's how I post now, I won't do very well at 90, but Seeger is plain amazing.
1/19/09, 3:44 AM  
Blogger Ralph Dratman said...
I sure cried. Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen piping in the first African-American president'll do that to you every time.

I remember the Kennedy inauguration, too. Moving and inspiring are not strong enough words to describe that occasion.

By the way, Kennedy was the first Catholic president. For those of us who weren't Catholic, that fact was barely noticeable at the time, but in retrospect it meant the Puritan-Protestant stranglehold on everything U.S. was beginning to loosen.

I am not at all anti-Protestant, but the Puritans were bullies who imposed their morality on any who were disinclined to accept their particular strictures. Sort of like the Taliban or the Radical Christian Right.
1/19/09, 12:14 PM  
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