Tuesday, September 28, 2010

John Prine: "Paradise"--Meditations on Progressive Politics

"There is nothing new under the sun." As our technology improves, humans find ways to use it for good or ill.

So Mr. Peabody's coal trucks have become dynamite blasting apart mountains for Mountain Top Removal, and we have billionaire Koch brothers bankrolling Tea Party crackpots, thwarting climate reform legislation, and seeking to extinguish all gains made by working class folk in the guise of getting government off the back of the people

Listening to this song (also below)--way back in my youth in the time of dinosaurs, vinyl albums, and no internets--probably helped make me a yellow dog Democrat.  I'll vote for a yellow dog before a RepubliKKKan.

So now we have washed hordes of "liberal" bloggers bashing Barry Obama, so pure in their ideals they know, without a metaphysical doubt or conception of the un-democratic framework of US Republic, what he ought to have done as if he could have magically wiped away misuse of the filibuster by RepubliKKKans.

Don't blame me; I voted for Hillary. But just as hysterical as John Aravosis got during '08 primaries over Hillary trying to hijack the process, he and others--hi Susie Madrak--have become just as shrill over Obama's failures to accomplish items on their agenda.

Now while agreeing the current, legally elected, President may not have used the "bully pulpit", as well as one would wish, he ain't on the ballot this year.

"All politics is local," said Tip O'Neil. In my US congressional, FL 08, we have Alan Grayson, a firebrand true progressive running as a Democrat against a self described arch conservative who deny women abortions in ALL circumstances.  You can give him $ with match at Act Blue.

We have Feingold in WI, Meek in FL, Sestak in PA, Sink for Governor of FL and tons of Democratic candidates in state races that need our help, if not monetarily, than by reminding friends and other voters of issues that matter, like a woman's right to Choice.

One benefit of my giving my proverbial widow's mite has come getting on a first name basis with Alan, Kendrick, and Alex. So quit your bitchin' and organize because we all live "Under the Gun."

A million "mites" of $5 makes $5,000,000.

Do not despair; change yourself, your block, your neighborhood, bit by bit, and brick by brick (link NSFW) maybe we can make the world better.

Hey, it has happened in history, with near eradication of human slavery and women's sufferage.




When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.

Chorus:
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Airdrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

Repeat Chorus:

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

Repeat Chorus:


No comments: