Last week I wrote that I thought
John Kerry, America and the world need an anthem for change, something
to galvanize the opposition to the Worst President in the History of
the US and the damage he has done to the world on so many fronts in the
last three years. As a result of the responses I received, I've sampled
over 150 anti-war and protest songs. There are some great songs among
them, but the best are about specific events, and don't lend themselves
particularly to the situation we find ourselves in, in 2004. And I
really do believe that, in the face of a self-described 'war
president', who has in fact waged war on personal rights and freedoms,
on women, on children, on the poor and the sick and the homeless, and
on everyone that doesn't share his warped and paranoid extreme
right-wing vision for the future, our anthem should be a song of peace.
One song I discovered was a 20-year-old Peter Paul & Mary song
(it was played on a PBS special this week, backed by a children's choir
with candles, and was very moving). It's called Light One Candle and it goes
like this:
Light one candle for the Maccabee children with thanks
that their light didn't die
Light one candle for the pain they endured when their right to exist
was denied
Light one candle for the terrible sacrifice justice and freedom demand
But light one candle for the wisdom to know when the peacemaker's time
is at hand
chorus:
Don't let the light go out! It's lasted for so many years!
Don't let the light go out! Let it shine through our love and our tears.
Light one candle for the strength that we need to never become our own
foe
And light one candle for those who are suffering, pain we learned so
long ago
Light one candle for all we believe in that anger not tear us apart
And light one candle to find us together with peace as the song in our
hearts
(chorus)
What is the memory that's valued so highly that we keep it alive in
that flame?
What's the commitment to those who have died that we cry out they've
not died in vain?
We have come this far always believing that justice would somehow
prevail
This is the burden, this is the promise, this is why we will not fail!
(chorus)
The song is about the story of the Maccabees,
who resisted the oppression of their people and of the Jewish faith,
and whose bravery is remembered in the Hanukkah lighting of the Menorah
candles. It is sung also on Children's Memorial
Day, the second Sunday in December, when those who have lost children
to war or other causes light a candle to remember them. It has also
become, according to this
site
where you can listen to the song, "an anthem for the Jewish
ethical legacy; Judaism's commitment to a better world." It has
been embraced by the Israeli congregations calling for peace and an end
to the occupation of Palestinian lands. The version on the above link
is rather plain -- if anyone finds a version online with the children's
choir backing PP&M, let me know.
I like this song, and it is a
song of peace and defiance. And I like the idea of a Jewish song as an
anthem against Bush, whose endorsement of the current war-mongering
Israeli Prime Minister in a cynical attempt to co-opt Jewish voters has
merely opened up deeper divisions in America. But this song is a bit
vague, I think, for the immediate task at hand.
My next discovery was a song by Peter Stuart, who you may remember from a group called Dog's Eye View, which had a hit called Everything Falls Apart. Peter, who's now solo, has written a song called Waiting for Peace to Come. You can listen to or download it here, and its lyrics go like this:
Nothing else matters, everything shattered
Glass, steel and bone
As we all bear witness we turn to face this test of faith
With candles and hope to lead our way home
Chorus:
As we stand together hand in hand waiting for peace to come
Looking for someway to understand, terrified and numb
But standing, standing still and waiting, waiting for peace to come
Nothing will ever be as simple as it once was
We're forced to remember just how fragile life is
With candles and hope to lead our way home
(Chorus)
Take this precious moment to breathe, to let yourself believe
That love is stronger than hate, that love is fiercer than fear
(Chorus)
Beautiful, poignant, true, but perhaps a little too melancholy, a little too passive for ousting a psychopathic Presnit.
There's always the old standby, of course, Dylan's The Times They Are a'Changin'. Just in case anyone alive hasn't heard this, you can listen to it here. The lyrics are as follows:
Come gather round people wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a'changin'
Come writers and
critics who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide the chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon for the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'
For the loser now will be later to win And the times they are a'changin'
Come senators,
congressmen, please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside and it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a'changin'
Come mothers and
fathers throughout the land
And don't criticize what you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly aging
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a'changin'
The line it is
drawn, the curse it is cast
The slow one now will
later be fast
As the present now will
later be past
The order is rapidly
fadin'
And the first one now
will later be last
For the times they are
a'changin'
At the risk of being charged with sacrilege, or violation of intellectual property law, I'd like to suggest we update The Times... with some new and topical lyrics. The battle is no longer generational, it's ideological. So suppose we sang these lyrics instead:
Four years we have suffered from Bush's regime
These liars and killers are worse than they seemed
We're tired of their terror, we're through with their schemes
It's time for a "country reclaiming"
So America's glory may again be redeemed
Cause the times they are a'changin'
This "war president" gives the spoils to his friends
And he thinks any means' justified by the ends
And he can't understand that the message he sends
Isn't bringing us peace, it's inflaming
He's 'pre-empting' our future, it's time for amends
For the times they are a'changin'
While millions are losing their jobs overseas
And the poor they are hungry and racked with disease
Bush's corporate buddies just do as they please
As our children's legacy's wasting
They keep poisoning our water and clearcutting trees
But the times they are a'changin'
The right of assembly, a woman's right to choose
We must realize we have so much to lose
And we can't get the truth on the ten o'clock news
But their hold over us it is waning
Cause we now know the facts and there's no more excuse
And the times they are a'changin'
So gather 'round people, please heed the call
He's done enough damage, it's his turn to fall
But his lies never end so there's no time to stall
There's just seven more months still remaining
Then we'll end right-wing tyranny once and for all
For the times they are a'changin'
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
Last week I wrote that I thought
John Kerry, America and the world need an anthem for change, something
to galvanize the opposition to the Worst President in the History of
the US and the damage he has done to the world on so many fronts in the
last three years. As a result of the responses I received, I've sampled
over 150 anti-war and protest songs. There are some great songs among
them, but the best are about specific events, and don't lend themselves
particularly to the situation we find ourselves in, in 2004. And I
really do believe that, in the face of a self-described 'war
president', who has in fact waged war on personal rights and freedoms,
on women, on children, on the poor and the sick and the homeless, and
on everyone that doesn't share his warped and paranoid extreme
right-wing vision for the future, our anthem should be a song of peace.
