Kumbaya

Kumbaya- is a spiritual song first recorded in the 1920s. It became a standard campfire song in summer camps, and enjoyed broader popularity during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. The song is originally a simple appeal to God to come and help those in need. In my many years working at one of the greatest summer camps, Emma Farm, during my years living in Pittsburgh I recall the magic of the song, Kumbaya. It was usually sung at the end of a theme day in which all the campers learned that competition is healthy as long as everyone competing was working toward the same goal. The nights we gathered around the campfire it was as if the heavens behaved and the stars glittered brightly in a sky not diminished by the ugly glare of man made lights. The kids became mesmerized, (in those days a counselor could hold a campers hand or have the kids sit by closely) swaying to the beat of the song. Kumbaya along with the traditional Emma Farm Camp song caused tears of happy/sad especially on the final night of camp, emphasizing just how close and comfortable of a summer family you had. Kumbaya  my friends Kumbaya… was it a higher power, or a God you believed in nature or just the magic of summer camp; but we all felt connected we all felt whole.

Kumbaya is originally a simple appeal to God to come and help those in need, but more recently it is also cited or alluded to in satirical or cynical ways which suggest false moralizing, hypocrisy, or naively optimistic views of the world and human nature. Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan Insist 'Friendship' And 'Traditional Marriage' Can End Poverty. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan courted some of Wall Street's most powerful political benefactors on Monday, insisting that love, friendship and "traditional marriage" can combat poverty better than government programs. (Huff Post) It seems a campfire is no longer necessary to persuade a group of anxious people that there is hope for the future. All you have to do is pontificate, propose a solution with little action but a lot of accusations. Poverty unlike climate change according to Mr Ryan and Bush is man made, and unlike global warming it can be remedied by man. “…love, friendship and of course ‘traditional marriage” are like the spoonful of sugar take doses of those and your unemployment, medical bills, poor wages, will be erased and you will experience Kumbaya!

Hot air rises to the top so we are told expands and just looms large doing nothing but making us uncomfortable. Mr Ryan and Mr Bush are at the top of the T-Publican presidential food chain all bloated and full of bull shit. Both men find little necessity for any government involvement in handling poverty, but know that the touchy feelyness of friendship (love thy neighbor, unless that neighbor ain’t an Evangelical Christian Conservative) sounds kind of conservative cool. Making friends ( but not if they are immigrants, the elderly, disabled, women who want control of their own reproductive rights or a black president) is neat also. Oh yeah, of course traditional marriage is always a bonus after all its the way Jesus stated was the traditional way to wed when he wrote the Constitution. No laws, actions or attempt to adjust the income divide or adjusting the income playing field or acknowledging that all the T-Publicans have done to date is make the rich richer. It seems both Ryan and Bush representative of a political party hell bent on any government have discovered one more way not to govern, just sing Kumbaya.