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Monday, February 28, 2011

Music Monday- The Unwelcome Guest

So yes, I decided to stay home this weekend.  And while I'm looking at pictures this morning of well groomed crowds out at state-capitols and large cities around the country in solidarity today I'm glad I did.  We have a short attention span in America and really it looks like everyone wanted in on this latest photo op.  I'm beginning to believe the words "The revolution will not be televised"  are truer than ever because anyone doing anything to change in one direction or the other will be too busy to be on t.v. or any other sort of a camera.  Busy, thinking, changing and doing.  It's the changing part I think that people are missing though, we're getting pretty good at doing.



Anyhoo, anyone heard anything about Arizona lately?  We have at Subversify. There was this article this week discussing Arizona House Bill 2582 http://subversify.com/2011/02/24/karma-arizonas-republitards/  come by and take a look. There's still work to be done and people are continuing to be marginalized.  

It has me thinking, a revolution of any sort in our country is going to be a dicey and difficult thing to accomplish, our country is just too bloody big.  There are too many states that can and will do too many different things.  And just like any other county our military which the federal government relies upon to "keep the peace."  is made up of citizens.  The problem is they come from all over the country and their real, heartfelt allegiance is hard to figure.  We saw this problem in the civil war when brother was pitted against brother and Union soldiers defected to the Confederacy and vice versa.  How much bigger we have become since then. And how many different loyalties and separations are being born in the hearts of each person.  It's hard to account for.  

I don't think we'll see a revolution of the sort that we saw in Tunisia or Egypt which is why I think headlines like "Is Wisconsin our Egypt?" are just stupid. No it's not, it's our Wisconsin.

But it may be time to think about our country being smaller.  Just maybe....

In anycase I spent Saturday walking the streets of my town, just getting out and seeing how people were feeling here.  It had snowed a couple of days before and Saturday it was sunny if crisp, but the sun in the early spring always brings people out.  Usually it brings smiles too.  However not this Saturday.  People were on-guard.  There were glares, suspicious glances at street peddlers.  Off handed cussing with families in the car by overworked and aggravated fathers.  In our own neighborhood there has been a rash of burglaries and down the street there is a rumor that some guy in some car keeps trying to pick up kids from around the school.  No real description is given, which to me is indicative of just fear.  Fear produced by the ongoing parade of media and the very real problems around job loss and poverty. 

Anyway when thinking about the unrest we have here, the inability to help our own, to elect officials who want to be helpful or even to recognise the good from the bad, I thought of this song, penned by Woody Guthrie and put to music by Billy Bragg and Wilco. 

The Unwelcome Guest.  -It may be that we need some outlaws just now, and not the kind from t.v., the real ones-




To the rich man's bright lodges



I ride in this wind


On my good horse, I call you


My shiny black Bess


To the playhouse of fortune


To take the bright silver


And gold you have taken


From somebody else

And as we go riding


In the damp foggy midnight


You snort, my good pony


And you give me your best


For you know and I know


Good horse 'mongst the rich ones


How oftimes we go there


An unwelcome guest


I never took food


From the widows and orphans


And never a hardworking man I oppressed


So take your pace easy


For home soon like lightning


We soon will be riding


My shiny black Bess


No fat rich man's pony


Can ever overtake you


And there's not a rider


From the east to the west


Could hold you a light


In this dark mist and midnight


When the potbellied thieves


Chase the unwelcome guest


I don't know, good horse


As we trot in this dark here


That robbing the rich


Is for worse or for best


They take it by stealing


And lying and gambling


And I take it my way


My shiny Black Bess

I treat horses good


And I'm friendly to strangers


I ride and your running


Makes my guns talk the best

And the rangers and deputies


Are hired by the rich man


To catch me and hang me


My shining black Bess

Yes, they'll catch me napping one day


And they'll kill me


And then I'll be gone


But that won't be my end

For my guns and my saddle


Will always be filled


By unwelcome travelers


And other brave men


And they'll take the money


And spread it out equal


Just like the Bible


And the prophets suggest


But men that go riding


To help these poor workers


The rich will cut down


Like an unwelcome guest

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