“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 is worth saving you better start swimming, or you’ll sink like a stone…” The weekend of The Fourth of July awaits, the red, white and blue is waving, the aroma of the apple pie wafting,the picket fences all painted crispy white as we pretend that this nation is only wholesome and whole hearted, ready to welcome the tired and poor…THAT IS if they look the way believe Americans should look, believe in the God we expect Americans to behold, and find commonality in a perceived common enemy.
“Come writers and critics who prophesies 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 telling who it’s naming. For the loser will be later to win…” Independence Day approaches and as it nears we discover more divide in this nation, not based on facts but piled on by fear. We seek much more to finding the faults, feeling it is easier to blame, then to claim, it might be me who has not tried enough. No more truth in advertising, better to disparage, destroy, divide, say what is bad about the other, knowing that the good can never find footing unless those who you oppose are gone.
“Come senators, congressmen please head the call, don’t block up 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 its raging. It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls…” It is our birthday, this United States of America and to the citizens who are poor, we give them gifts of coal, saying lazy people deserve nothing more. To the citizens of color we insist that unless you behave like Caucasians you get what you deserve. To citizens who are women we recite Bible passages which demean and demonize any female who wants more then a man.To those citizens for whom we have decided loving the same-sex or finally defining your own gender is nothing more then anarchy and sick we relegate them to ridicule and make up rules to keep them from any pursuit of happiness.
“For the times, they are a-changing.” A holiday is coming to this nation how we perceive its meaning of course relates to how we see ourselves living in America 2016. We can celebrate with the noise from the past, we can cheer with the angst of today, we can toot our horns, pop the lids of our beer bottles, place our heads in the sands hoping the chance of tomorrow will fly by without any of us taking any responsibility for something new. We all have a choice to change the times or watch as they change us. ‘The Times They Are A-Changing’ Bob Dylan
