(crossposted from the front page of
My Left Wing)
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
from The Times They Are A-Changin' ~ Bob Dylan
Our time has come, the tipping point has been reached, America is waking up and it hasn't come a moment too soon. Deep in the heart of Bush country, where I live, the Ws are coming off of people's cars. Even Republicans are beginning to realize that their post-9/11 patriotic fervor to back Bush no matter what has come to nothing but trouble writ large. Whether or not our awakening has come too late remains to be seen.
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
from The Times They Are A-Changin' ~ Bob Dylan
I shake my head in disgust and disbelief at the surreal nightmare that has been visited upon us by the Republican gangsters who have seized control of our country. My most cynical and dire predictions of the evils of Republicanism have been surpassed by the god-awful reality. I was foolish to believe that they were merely bad for America, when it turns out that they were an unmitigated disaster for the entire world.
These days when the President signs a bill into law, we all want to know what the signing statement says. When they say that cutting taxes to billionaires will help the economy, we know they're talking about their economy, not ours. When they say that exporting jobs is good for America, we know they mean that it's good for them, not us. When they call the war they started in the Middle East the "birth pangs of democracy," we know they mean, "Cheer up, Armageddon's a comin'." And when the Secretary of State refuses to back an international call for a cease-fire, we all know that she should be fucking **** (word redacted at request of Secret Service).
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
from The Times They Are A-Changin' ~ Bob Dylan
Well we better start swimmin' or we'll all sink like stones. Dylan wrote this song in 1963. It was apropos then but the present times bring out its true meaning. We just thought we were in trouble in the 60s. We're in trouble now like the world has never seen before. And you know what? It's the same old fucking crowd trying their damnedest to do us all in.
It's all the old Nixon and Reagan boys: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Abrams, all go back to the good old days of Tricky Dick or Reagan, or both. They were criminals then and they are criminals now. The difference is that now they are all grown up and mean to do the world some serious harm. They are desperate, as only the truly arrogant can be, to make up for the humiliation they suffered because of their losses in Vietnam, Watergate, and Nixon's resignation of the Presidency in abject disgrace.
The very same crowd who so ruthlessly demonized hippies, pacifists, leftists, and liberals are now showing their true colors. We now know who the real demons are; they're in the White House, the Pentagon, and in both houses of the congress. Yes we better start swimmin' or we'll all sink like stones for these demons are bent on our destruction.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
from The Times They Are A-Changin' ~ Bob Dylan
This is our time, this is our opening, and in my opinion it is likely to be our last. So come on you critics and writers who prophesize with your keyboards. Now is the time to strike your blows for democracy and justice. Let us slay this loathsome neocon beast while we still have a chance. Let us drive a stake through the heart of rightwing Republicanism and save our country while we can.
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
For the times they are a-changin'.
from The Times They Are A-Changin' ~ Bob Dylan
The loser now will be later to win. We're the losers, it is now later, and it is our time to win. Getting our people into office is the first thing we have to do. We have to defeat the Republicans and keep them from stealing the election at the same time. But once our people are in office, we have to demand that they serve us and NOT Corporate America, and NOT the almighty dollar. We have to demand ethical and responsible conduct: no more Abramoffs; no more lobbyists writing legislation; no more secret addendums to laws; no more pork barrel thievery; no more diebold tinkering with our elections; no more screwing the American people. It's time to demand that our politicians work for the common good - and to hold them to it.
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'.
from The Times They Are A-Changin' ~ Bob Dylan
It's time to shake the fucking windows and rattle the fucking walls. I refuse to lie down and watch my country go down the drain to be replaced by a fascist dictatorship catering only to the filthy rich - while treating the rest of us like dirt.
Fuck all this robbing from the poor to give to the rich. I've had a bellyful of this shameful bullshit! And fuck all these crazy-assed wars! Politicians who aren't serving the American people are the enemy and deserve to be treated with utter contempt - and those who have enabled the neocons should stand trial just like the war criminals themselves.
So come senators and congressmen, please heed the call. Don't stand in the doorway and don't block up the hall. Don't stand in our way, or you'll get the smack-down bitch-slap neocon treatment yourselves.
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 agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
from The Times They Are A-Changin' ~ Bob Dylan
This part still applies, but it's not so much generational this time, the divisions now are more ideological. I'm proud to say that my generation (many of them at least) have kept their eye on the ball, and that some of the most astute and righteous comments I have read or heard have come from people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. Our road may be rapidly agin', but at least we stand ready to lend a hand. If there is a generational problem today, it's that too many young people are not as politically and socially aware as they should be and need to be. These days, political awareness is the only defense we have.
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'.
from The Times They Are A-Changin' ~ Bob Dylan
And the first one now will later be last. This prophecy will come true when Bush and his cohorts are all in prison for their many crimes against humanity. This is a debt we owe the world and we need to make good on it. It's time to put this neocon nightmare to bed. We need to reverse their wrongheaded and destructive policies and begin the Herculean task of undoing the enormous damage they have done. We need to repeal the Patriot Act and the tax cuts to billionaires, and we need to bring our people home from Iraq and Afghanistan. If we can't manage to catch Bin Laden, we shouldn't be over there fucking up everybody else's lives. And we need to turn our defense industry to peaceful purposes like solving our ecological and alternative energy problems. Imagine what those trillion dollars we've spent in Iraq could have done for us here at home with our decaying infrastructure, our social injustice, and our screwed up economy.
We need to elect our people and then hold them accountable. And we need to be prepared to demonstrate our outrage should the Republicans pull off a last minute `surprise' win in November - because the only way they can do that is by stealing it again. I won't lie down this time. I hope you won't either.
If we want it, if we will it to be, if we each do our part - these times can be a-changin.' It's purely up to us.