(Finished to the backdrop of the historic KCAC Fourth of July collage-read Jimmy's post below-this is dedicated to Bill Compton, the community, and the legacy he left us to carry on, in the spirit of patriotism and love for America)
July 4th, 2006
A PATRIOT'S LOVE SONG
by Mariah Fleming
Once safe to breathe, there's no blue sky; it's sick with acid rain
Mountains have been sliced off like boils for streets with homey names
On city streets where birds once sang, we inhale poison fumes
to a constant soundtrack in our lives that cannot mask the gloom
In theaters built like playing cards stacked up against all odds
actors drunk on White House dreams lead massacres like gods
Once Washington was Camelot, now it's Valley of the Dolls
And where our Eternal Flame was lit, only darkness falls
Politicians swear, with hand to God, to keep us free and strong
then drown us in false promises that placate us along
our journey to the future here in demographics land
where freedom is just a logo we buy at the t-shirt stands.
Oh corporate America, we bow our heads to thee
Will you sponsor every word in what's left of our libraries?
Will you decide whose thoughts are worthy of song or printed page?
who's the 'target audience' and whose ideas you'll wage?
America, land of the free, is it really thee, whose red
is blood that's spilled by kids in schools; on bombed out streets?
Whose blue's the bruised integrity of cherished freedom's heart
and whose only stars are the stars that shine on our TVs after dark?
America the beautiful, can things be what they seem?
Filled with dread, asleep, awake, we fear we've lost our dreams
We've stripped the stars off of our flag, it burns in effigy,
now the only stars are the stars that shine every night on our TV's
America the beautiful, is it really thee whose
only stars are the stars that shine every night on our TV's?
Copyright 2006
10 comments:
Beautifully stated, Mariah.
I have to assume the position of Political Observer the way that a confused person takes the position of a Traffic Cop when he finds he has sleep-walked onto a freeway.
It appears our American Democracy at least for now, is morphing into a confusion of Leadership By CEO. By that, the controlliing POWER in our society lies at the heads of the corporate structures. (read Funding Providers)
At the same time this is happening we have what appears to be a bureucratic degeneration of authority into almost a FEUDAL social structure. Mayors and Councilmen become Barons and Earls and such. Military heirarchy takes on an almos godlike stature during times of war - which partially explains why THIS war will continue on forever. It'$ great for bu$ine$$.
Did you know that if someone with XYZ company wants YOUR house for say, a warehuse or storefront and they can talk the Barons and Earls into declaring imminent domain on your property - they can TAKE it? And for usually just a token payment. There goes YOUR American Dream....... and the love that built it.
Consider; In America of today we do not OWN anything. Nothing. Your car, your home - everything that is subject to TAX - that's pretty much all of it, can be taken,
There are some deep, deep lessons in The Blues. Perhaps as we REALLY learn to sing the blues, we will give birth to Another American Dream. We should not continue to prop this one up against the wall and talk to it anymore. It does not seem to be alive.
Thank you for the Love Song. Got an E chord? Most blues are in E...
Ronco
Definitely in E. (o:
Thank you for the compliment and your comments. I didn't think the thing about imminent domain was true when I first read about it six months ago (when Congress voted in the new bankruptcy bills) But I have since learned that what you say is technically true. However, some individual states are actually questioning the legality of the new law (it only takes one person to ask 'why' if they are willing to do that.)
That's the catch 22 and the beauty of our system, isn't it? When it is understood and used as the founders intended, our govenment actually represents the people. 'Cause after all, as we learned in grade school, the people actually ARE the government. The leaders are only stewards we've chosen to keep our system of government functioning as the constitution intends.
I am not being ironic, but isn't it sad that I have to qualify that?
I'm glad I"m not a kid growing up now...and parents have their hands full. This time trumps our fallout shelters, directions to "wash off the radiation!" in showers, hiding under desks to protect us from the bomb (desks are wood, though, so I always wondered about that logic!)
and so on. I never thought the air raid drills we experienced every Saturday at noon for years would seem like a bad joke one day.
Mariah, Your thoughtful post and Ron's reply reminded me of the opening paragraph of a chapter on, "The Irish" in a book on the History of Crime in America... It said something to the effect that; The Irish came to America in the 1800's with a learned attitude, that if you cant live with the law, become the law, failing that , live the out-law...
Now, in our own small way, is this not still the way of todays Everyone. With laws being put in place almost daily to restrict and contain us citizens, it makes sense to revert to the basic laws of nature, human and natural, to survive and protect our own from the intrusion by the ruling classes on our unique constitutional libertys.
WEC certainly understood this and took to the airwaves to constantly remind us that we have the Right & Responsibility to repond to untoward intrusions on our privacy and property. Sadly, his and the other voices of freedom have been silenced by the corporate media of today and our only free to speak media is this Net that allows us citizens to communicate beyond the control of the would be Masters of the Universe.An, lookout.!..They want to control this too.
You, Ron and the others who are blasting the blogosphere with daily rants and reflections are bit by bit breaking down and out of the boundarys they have tried to impose on us. Hey, Mr/Ms Natural..lets keep on truckin freedoms road.
Were Bill with us today I'm sure he would be out of a Job. He too would be sitting in his homelair/catacomb responding to the news of the day in the only forum left to him. He too would feel powerless one moment and all powerful the next...He would turn Neil Young up loud and in his softly powerful way would tap out a thoughtful missive to the community that he still enjoyed and depended upon to maintain sanity. As christianity emerged from the catacombs of a dieing Roman Empire, he too would feel empowered to participate in the transformation needed to move his small community to peace and justice through communication. We are blessed to have his memory and activity as a guide to what we must do next to insure peace on Earth and goodwill towards all in our Universe.
With love, hope and promise,
Miner/Poet
You have touched on the "100 monkeys" syndrome. 100 monkeys on 100 typewriters will inevitably in whole or in part - type all the great books. North Korea launched something like TEN rockets on the 4th of July as apparently a "test".
There are something like 150 "suitcase nukes" distributed all over the world. SOME are very probably in this country. They weigh less than 100 pounds and have a relatively short shelf life - about ten years, I believe. There are two ways of looking at that scenario - Yaaaay! they won't work after ten years OR -Boooooo we gotta set 'em off pretty soon.
Despite what Clinton and a few others attempted to do, there remain THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of both ICBM sites as well as nuclear weapons to arm them with. There's your 100 typewriters.
We've been living under this magic spell for over half a century now. Some monkey probably Muslim but maybe even a former gang member turned military - is gonna push that button.
Give us this day our daily bread. Sooner or later, we are toast.
Ronco
Yeah, Ron, its all monkey bizness...Will we die from a North Korean Nuke or a kook in Kingman, a tweeker at the OK on Glendale & 12th St. ?
Timothy McVey may have been a Brother in another time...who became a Monster in our time...Why do they call them 7-11, cause thats the odds you'll live worken the night shift. What is the secret to a long life in PHX, Dont make left turns.
Yo, Bob
AMERICAN LOVE SONG VERSE 4
Yo Bob... good to read you and yes, I have started on the bike - probably will need a new head.
Ya know the older I get, the cloudier my eys become, the more clearly I SEE. And these days I at least TRY to see the Other Side - like through the eyes of Timothy McVeigh. Now I might get arrested for writing this and YOU might get arrested for reading this........ BUT.
This whole thing is MY fault. Bob. I screwed up big time. When Randy Weaver and his wife and dog were murdered at Ruby Ridge, I sat by the radio listening to the story (which was waaaaay old by the time I heard it) wondering WhatTheF***? The guy had a buncha guns and may have been a drug dealer. After it all came down it seemed to me the question was not about Right or Wrong but whether or not they would SUBMIT. End of Story.
I didn't do a thing. I didn't go there, I didn't call anyone, I didn't write, I didn't get involved in any way. Of course I had a career, wife and two kids to consider - so I didn't do anything.
Then Waco - wacky Waco happened with that whole deal that went on for WEEKS and WEEKS. Well the guy was screwing young chicks and had a bunch of guns and was trying to start a new religion kinda liike the Mormons or the Moonies - even though he didn't have his act together with all the huge payoff buck$ like the Moonies - but anyway all them people got killed and tortured and burned to death and I didn't do a damn thing.
After it all came down it seemed to me the question was not about Right or Wrong but whether or not they would SUBMIT. End of Story. EXCEPT for the Real Estate thing. Two years after the neighborhood was cleaned up the Bush family bought Crawford... about 60 miles to the Southwest.
I didn't do a thing. I didn't go there, I didn't call anyone, I didn't write, I didn't get involved in any way. Of course I had a career, wife and two kids to consider - so I didn't do anything.
Then came Oklahoma and yeah MAYBE McVeigh was responsible and should have been executed. But where did all those OTHER explosives come from? The ones that didn't go off that were planted all over the Murrah building? Well, let's not go there. Gotta career, wife and kids to consider plus OK City is 90 miles North of here and what could I do?
Then there was New York and the World Trade Center and THAT whole story that seemed to keep changing as it went. And the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania where they say - there were no bodies. And the plane that crashed into The Pentagon that made that neat, round hole in the wall, next to where it is said (hear-say ya know)there were two burning barrels of jet fuel or diesel outside. Now it seems, there really WERE thermite explosives at WTC and the towers WERE imploded rather than being knocked over by airplanes and well..... these are questions, not answers. Thing is I didn't do a thing. I didn't go there, I didn't call anyone, I didn't write, I didn't get involved in any way. Of course I had a career, wife and two kids - well my daughter is dead now, killed in a wreck. Wife almost died..... gotta make that paycheck, ya know. Son escaped the Mammon Trap with my help and is relatively safe in college on grants and scholarships. Smart kid. Survivor.
So here I am. Hundreds of people being busted in Colorado. "Rave" desert parties being busted in the deserts of Utah, tens of thousands of children dissapearing every year to God knows-where but I am NOT going to get involved. I am old now and can't be bothered although I do see more clearly.
I'll just sit here by my walker, draw my Social Security, wish the Rainbow People and the Indigo Children good luck and check my rifle once in a while.
Someone may be coming to take my computer. Or my motorcycle. Or my home. I want to be able to welcome them.
Now that you have read this, how are things at your home? Is that someone knocking?
Ronco
Hey Ron.
Wow, you're being awfully hard on yourself. Everyone with a healthy consciousness and empathy looks back and wonders what he or she could have done differently yesterday or 30 years ago. If not, what's the point in living? Certainly no growth that way.
May I suggest you find a copy of Buffy Sainte Marie's "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot". toss in some Linda Perhacs 'Parrallelograms' (see I remember!) and read "Letters to God" by Rainer Maria Rilke? And throw in some Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks for good measure.
If that doesn't cheer you up, or at least give you some tether, I say crank up the newest DVD of the movie "This Is Spinal Tap" and watch a few cartoons every day...much better that the news and more accurate too. (o:
Fear breeds fear. Hope breeds hope. That and our wits and hearts are what we''ve all got. We are blessed. Our country is blessed. Just not necessarily with the things some people think.
My, you are a beam of sunshine on a rainy day, aren't you!
Well for entertainment I lean toward The Rocky Horror Picture show (still - after over 50 viewings). But in the mix I keep Leonard Cohen, The Incredible String Band and yes, Buffy - playing on my Mental Muzak Background Storecasting System.
The point is not to bum anuyone out, the point is to increase awareness, ALL awareness. Some of the most beautiful flowers grow from stinking garbage. Some of the most beautiful songs evolve from excruciating emotional pain. Some of the greatest passions come from the most unexplainable encounters of love.
Then there's whiskey.........
Ronco
Ah, Brother, you are fine, really, really fine and your narrative shines with the power only possessed by mystics and mad-men...When asked by a reporter where his creativity came from, Ray Bradbury said, "Sometime the gods make madness a calling."
Joseph Campbell said it well, "The mystic swims in the waters the psychotic drowns in ". Swim on, Mystic mate, seek solice in those small act you were abel to perform
back when you were on the stage as a performer and the thoughts you are sharing with your community Right Now.
There were too many places we were suppose to go to and fight for justice..But damn, man, didnt somebody say, "How can you be in two places at once, when your really nowhere at all ?" It was not only that you had a wife and kids, it was also the limitations imposed by time and space...We only have time to occupy so much space and we cant/couldnt be everyplace at once and be at one with our suffering brothers and sisters. Yeah, I'd love to drag my old ass over to Dufar, the Congo, Iraq and other hell holes on this earth, but Dude, I aint no Bono, Bill/Malinda, Buffet (Jimmy or Warren) so I got to stay stuck here in Hell whole of PHX and dream on what I might do in another world that is far, far away. You also have the power that flows from your pen and tippy-taping on the keyboard. Mariah has it right, turn off the news and the media mindfucking and listen to the music of the sphears in your universe.
I got what Obi Kanobi (sp?) said to Luke Skywalker, "Turn off the computer, trust your feelings." That was the boys turning point from the tightly controlled world of the Other and the beginning of his own power to effect change as a individual. Good advise, and when you ride off into the unwired desert you are indeed turning off the mindfuckers. In my several years up at the Sun Cloud, (mine) my greatest joy was that it was a place where I could, "hear myself think". I think about that alot as I'm somewhat stuck here in Valley of the Trolls.
I grew up with the FBI always keeping an eye on my Mom and me as they waited for my commie union leader Daddy to swing through town. If they show up tomorrow to bag my boxes full of notes , lyrics, poetry and this computer I would consider it a compliment.
Then there's whiskey, distilled spirits that rectify the minds distress.
Always, yo miner/poet Pal...
Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!
I have a alternative music lyrics site.
Come and check it out if you get time :-)
Greetings.
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