May, 4th 1970; America Declares War on its Children

(sorry, I didn't have time to finish the story I was working on so I used an earlier one)

Where are the Voices?

"Some folks are born made to wave the flag
Ooh, they're red, white and blue
and when the band plays "Hail To The Chief"
Ooh, they point the cannon at you,
Lord It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no senator's son
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate one"
John C. Fogerty

Coming of age in the late 60's musicians used their voice to influence a generation. It was a time of change, a time of cultural revolution, America's youth said "NO MORE". The voice of a generation was never so loud than at the Democratic National Convention, in 1968 where protestors took to the streets with chants such as, "THE WHOLE WORLDS WATCHING!"

"Though your brother's bound and gagged
And they've chained him to a chair
Won't you please come to Chicago
Just to sing
In a land that's known as freedom
How can such a thing be fair"
Graham Nash

The whole world was watching then as it is now, the question is, where are the voices? The people we relied on then no longer speak to this new generation, a generation of grunge, house, techno, and rap. America's youth is willing to step up to this new threat known as the bush administration, they just need a leader. Thinking back, I remember the FM airwaves, and the 8-tracks giving us direction, it still sends chills up my spine.

"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 to you
Is worth savin'"
Bob

America's youth is under attack, the writing is on the wall for a draft. Soon our best and brightest will be numbered, indexed, cataloged, and filed, only to be returned to us folded and mutilated. Some of us have seen this and remember the boy down the street returning home hobbled by the atrocities of war, once an athlete now he sits on the porch in his wheel chair watching cars go by, or worse the friend who came home in an aluminum box.




"Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send 'em off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box."
Country Joe

I recently saw a thread approaching the feelings I have, it was ALMOST a call for revolution. At this I step back, and think, "why the disclaimer?" Your not advocating change? It's this fear of the "man" that's keeping us down, the fear of some invisible G-man. It's time to shed this fear, a new day is dawning and its time to take the fight back to the streets.


"There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
There's battle lines being drawn"
Stephen Stills

Once, along time ago we had hero's in this fight, the anniversary of their fight is today. It was May 4th, 1970, Kent State where we lost four brave souls. I think its time we say their names here; Allison Krause, Jeffery Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder, you waved the flag of peace, you changed the world, and we miss you dearly.

"Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio Gonna get down to it soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been down long ago
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know.
Gonna get down to it soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been down long ago
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know."
Neil Young


I will not be silent, nor will I serve a "crusading" government,
Michael Harris

"I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling. I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you. I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kind of songs and to sing the kind that knock you down still farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think you've not any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I'd starve to death before I'd sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your songbooks are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow."
- Woody Guthrie.

p.s. Sorry for the excess quotes, I usually don't use many, choosing only to write from my heart.

thanks for posting this. Allison Krause graduated from a rival high school and this tragedy brought it all home. I was a senior in high school, but somehow it doesn't seem that long ago.........

I had so hoped to finish the article I was working on about the future these individuals had. A fantasy piece about where they would be now. I had hoped to end the story with a rush, back in time to a blood stained parking lot on the Kent St campus. Maybe someday I'll finish it. Thank you once again for your kudos.

Michael

p.s. on edit, It is a shame that in our hectic world we failed to mention the names of these individuals on the front page of DU. Life just gets the better of us sometimes.

It's important that we never forget what "we" have done to our own citizens.

I'll look forward to reading it one day :-)

I will :)

have been running through my head the past few months ... Thanks for the memories ...

Do you know a web site that streams some of these songs?

no I don't, I don't do too much online music. I do however have all of those songs on CD :)

p.s. Miss talkin' you :(

These are folk song writers and performers of today
http://www.mudcat.org/threads.cfm#BS

you can search and discover many new songs as well as older ones going back hundreds of years.

thanks