(Dear Sister):
We were not the silent generation. I went one way motivated by a sense of duty to protect and defend. Others protested and resisted. I was inspired by the generation before me and a religion that made me easy prey for those to use for their own agenda under the banner of defending freedom and our country. The protestors made change. Not me, not the military. The price of change was costly.
We had our protest songs. I sang them in college.
Our Project Peru group sang this often when we gathered. Easy tune. Words that could be heard.
It was the early 60’s. In the mid 60’s I went into the Navy for 25 years. The majority of my generation protested, their anthems became more direct and intense.
The inspiration continues: The tune is the same. There is militancy underlaying all of these musical expressions of defiance as well as hope. That militancy emerged when the soothing voices sending the the message became strident demands.
The fight continues. The division in the nation has not been healed.
A great president, the leader of our nation, said this: http://cwmemory.com/2015/03/04/with-malice-toward-none-with-charity-for-all/
Now our great leader is a moron that express himself in idiotic tweets and appeals to racism, division and a slogan to make America Great Again as militant ruler of the world and enforcer of special interests. We, The People, did not get the president we deserve. He was foisted on us by the worst of us that have always had the same narrow agenda that sent so many to Vietnam, police to Birmingham and so many more places to do things we should never have done to benefit the wicked or profiteering agenda of so few.
Our generation was great too. It made a contribution to social change. It raged against the machine. It had inspiring music to express itself. The following generation had its music but not something that is sing along and soul stirring but more like a bad drug trip. Still, it raged against the machine in its own language. It must appeal to someone. The link has more than 63 million views.
Why? Is it the words that to me are so hard to hear? Or the incessant pounding of the eardrums with a primitive barrage of sound that beats itself into an equally primitive emotional feeling of some kind? Beats me!
Today I ran across an old tune with new lyrics done by a couple from my time that is carrying an old tune into the present with a new message. They probably marched and smoked pot in their youth. Still fighting the good fight and perhaps legally smoking pot today. Good for them.
Where are the rest of my generation? Too old, too tired?
Not Bernie!
The spirit is alive in a new generation of politicians out numbered by the the political establishment:
Tulsi Gabbard
Jeff Merkley
Elizabeth Warren
I think that the message of the new generation is being delivered by comedians. Comedy, not music is the new medium of the message. Extremely effective I think even though I long for a uniting tune.
5 Million Views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rR9IaXH1M0
Late night hosts addressing gun control which is their most recent focus. They have already turned back to full time ridicule of our pathetic president which I believe will drive him to go postal. That is one way to foment the revolution but not a pretty one. Essentially it divides the nation. One one side the usual minority driven by fear and hate and the power of special interest profit, politics and militarism. On the other side stand the rest of us. Many different beliefs but generally believing in the essence of our democracy. Drawing a symbolic line in the sand to divide into two sides is prepatory to conflict. If that is the only way to change then must I say: Bring it on?
Who benefits from social division and unrest? Never let a good crises go unused. The result could go either way. The few that would benefit from it are certainly making their strategic plans to benefit themselves for private gain at public expense.
These late night hosts are speaking for us. Comedians are our thought leaders not so much the singers and their songs of the past. Maybe they are more effective users of words than repetition of the same old lyrics and the same old tunes of the past. Tunes and lyrics emotionally inspired intent but did not fully deliver truth as well as a media streaming logic and reason exposing a king with no clothes.
You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught:
MEB
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