Revolution #10

"You say you want a revolution,
we all want to change the world"
-John Lennon

These protesters were a bit different. The signs were the same- "Support our troops, End the war now", "US out of Iraq", "Peace". They were older folks, perhaps they had marched against the war in the sixties and seventies. The difference was that they were at a suburban intersection, in front of a McDonald's restaurant and a Snyder's drug store. Mid-America. Middle-class. It is said that all politics are ultimately local. If that is so, then this action may be a harbinger of changes, big changes in the American political scene. The rest of the world has no doubt felt a sense of disgust with the acquiescence of the American masses to "Dubya's War" and his arrogance and bullying of any country that may have reservations about unprovoked invasion, occupation, sanctioning of torture, and suspension of constitutional rights.

There are midterm elections in less than a month. If the voting machines aren't rigged, there well may be a change in congress. Whether it would mean anything or not will have to be determined later. When Lyndon Johnson choose not to run against antiwar candidates, the public voted for a change, and got Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger who escalated the violence.

In the early sixties a young singer-songwriter wrote a song that was at the time criticized as being naive about the cause of modern warfare. That song's time has come again, I recently heard it played on the college radio station. Perhaps there has been a revolution, a return to the same point on the circle. The words of that song speak for itself:

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

-Bob Dylan