Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll - that's what geezers and geezettes my age grew up with. Freedom Riders, We Shall Overcome, Summer of Love, Woodstock (well, my mama wouldn't have let me go anyway - my job was pulling down the good grades...), Joan Baez, extreme hair, and all that. And now we are retired, about to retire, thinking about retiring, to that Ole Rockin' Chair.
But the rockin' is different than what our parents and grandparents did; we are rockin' to Golden Oldies radio, resurging vinyl, and to Beatles, Stones, Creedence Clearwater tribute bands, and to new kidz like Beyonce, Kanye, Garth, Mariah, the Righteous Babe, and all that. Still crazy after all these years, and still rhymin' with Simon, emoting with EmmyLou, diggin' on Dolly (the original self-made power woman). Duuuuuuudes!
We who survived, through luck, pluck and by the skin of our teeth, should know by now that the music is not enough. There's STILL something happening here, and what it is is becoming extremely clear. Greed-heads, liars, controllers, fools, pimps for God, and out-and-out loons are trying to rule the world and they really do not care who or what they destroy in the process of establishing their Evil Empire, wherein the rest of us will be 21st Century serfs expected to pull our forelock, bow, and acquiesce. The bread and circuses handed to us are electronic - silly toys to keep us chained in maxed-out-credit-card Hell and distance us from one another and from the horror outside the window. Throw that crap away unless you're using it to foment dissent, otherwise it's just Anti-Social Media and a waste of our precious time - don't think twice, it's not all right. Talk to someone face to face; you will be astonished to find he/she is human, just like you.
I would like to hear a Roger Daltrey primal scream from us 60s leftovers; we should be mad as hell and unwilling to take it anymore. If you're going to stand up for the vulnerable, the helpless and hapless, the animals, the forests, the rivers and streams, the farmers and ranchers (should we really pave it all and depend on a country whose name we cannot spell to feed us, really, should we??), the very air we suck down ever so many times a minute - if we are going to stand up, the hour is getting late so let's do it.
99% of the politicians are wearing the Emperor's new clothes and this should be pointed out daily and fearlessly, with regard only for facts as opposed to rumors and lies repeated so often they're taken for truth, and with a real (not fake Beck/Palin/Bachmann/Romney/Perry et al.) moral outrage. Follow the money and shine a light on its nasty source.
Get the rockin' chair rockin'. Remember what it was like to take situations in hand and go for broke. Don't be afraid; we're old - what can they do to us?
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself." ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
This is so so true! If what's going on with our economy now is not enough to enrage EVERYONE, I don't know what is. And it's so true that all we need to look at is the cold hard FACTS! And nothing else.
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