People Got The Power

[Jamila]

As my final post regarding this year's presidential election in the USA and to highlight the fact that this may be the most important election for the future course of our country in our lifetimes, I leave you all with the words of a GREAT American poet and songwriter - Patti Smith.

Read her words with your heart and not your mind, and you will know how to vote tomorrow.

People Have the Power

I was dreaming in my dreaming
of an aspect bright and fair
and my sleeping it was broken
but my dream it lingered near
in the form of shining valleys
where the pure air recognized
and my senses newly opened
I awakened to the cry
that the people / have the power
to redeem / the work of fools
upon the meek / the graces shower
it's decreed / the people rule

The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power

Vengeful aspects became suspect
and bending low as if to hear
and the armies ceased advancing
because the people had their ear
and the shepherds and the soldiers
lay beneath the stars
exchanging visions
and laying arms
to waste / in the dust
in the form of / shining valleys
where the pure air / recognized
and my senses / newly opened
I awakened / to the cry

Refrain

Where there were deserts
I saw fountains
like cream the waters rise
and we strolled there together
with none to laugh or criticize
and the leopard
and the lamb
lay together truly bound
I was hoping in my hoping
to recall what I had found
I was dreaming in my dreaming
god knows / a purer view
as I surrender to my sleeping
I commit my dream to you

Refrain

The power to dream / to rule
to wrestle the world from fools
it's decreed the people rule
it's decreed the people rule
LISTEN
I believe everything we dream
can come to pass through our union
we can turn the world around
we can turn the earth's revolution
we have the power
People have the power ...

What more can I say?

The common man and woman, the working people of our country, who have seen their income and savings go down over the last four years, who have seen their health care coverage disappear or priced too high to afford, who have watched our country's debt soar to UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS and who worry about our country's security in a world that increasingly despises us need to WRESTLE THE WORLD AND OUR FUTURE BACK FROM THE FOOLS THAT CURRENTLY STRANGLEHOLD US.

WE CAN TURN THE WORLD AROUND - People have the Power!

Never let the b#stards grind you down....VOTE FOR CHANGE TOMORROW!

 

[ShellBeThere]

Thanks for posting that verse Jamila...it's wonderful (knocks self in head for not knowing patti smith's music and recalls some old friends who used to listen, she thinks)!

It was soo gorgeous to vote today!
My polling place rocks. It's in a community center at the U-M, where there are student families from all over and my line-up of booths stood under this display of flags representing I presume the nationalities of the students who've lived in the community or maybe just some random selection but it was so cool.
And all the older women mostly who get dressed up and totally stoked for this, helping people both familiar and newbie with the little ritual of lookup and papers and tickets and ballots and secrecy sleeves and which part of the alphabet do you live in and then working the line to manage the crowd (the crowd!) and the young folk who appear mostly only . when it's *really* important and have laptops (polisci school projects?) and sweatshirts and papers to write and even the never-by-me-seen-before-at-polling-place in my decades of doing this thing dude in the khaki pants and navy blazer and stripedtie with an official badge in fineprint saying I assume 'election oversight official', who felt like a spy from the wearewatchingyou bushie camp making sure the overwhelmingly kerry-supporter neighborhood and town I live in (so I believe anyway!) doesn't vote two-per.

And I took *two* little " I voted" stickers, one for me and one for my kid to wear later if he wants...

cheers all!

 

[Jamila]

Shell Be There, your genuine enthusiasm for wanting to be part of the democratic process is TRULY what all this presidential campaigning stuff is all about.

Ultimately, we should concentrate on the health of our democracy and freedom of expression as given to us by the founders of our country and should concentrate less on always winning.

When we lose sight of the bigger picture of inclusiveness and openness in our democracy and are only concerned with "our side", we actually belittle the great concept on which democracies are built.

So I encourage Shell Be There to continue to develope your political awareness and involvement both locally and nationally.

And thank you for appreciating the wisdom and the vision of an American poet - Patti Smith. She embodies the BEST of what the USA stands for - freedom of expression and love of the common people.

I thank Bruce Springsteen and company for resurrecting this American anthem - right up there with Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land".

ALL TRUE AMERICANS....

 

[nbcrusader]

A gracious shift in tone. If anything, I hope we all learn from the process and choose to work together.

 

[Jamila]

There is no shift in tone in my comments, nbcrusader - I have been saying this all along.

It's just that certain people want to jump to attack my comments without allowing their BROADER MEANING to sink into the poster's consciousness.

I think George Bush and his corporate cronies who are ruling the USA and destroying the fabric of our economy and of our democracy and are threatening the future security of the USA with their foolhardy escapades to rule the world and making the majority of the nations in the world distrust and even hate us, are the BIGGEST THREAT TO DEMOCRACY that I have seen in my 45 years on earth.

My concern is for the American people - whoever we are - to not lose faith in the basic principles upon which our country was founded and to challenge the neoconservative fringe from Texas who is determined to undermine and destroy our democracy.

Patti Smith is not conciliatory: Woody Guthrie wasn't either - I stand with them.

But I personally wish you well, nbcrusader - we're just on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

 

[Liesje]

If George W. Bush is the biggest thread to democracy you can think of, you're a lucky woman!

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

If George W. Bush is the biggest thread to democracy you can think of, you're a lucky woman!

 

[nbcrusader]

I think George Bush and his corporate cronies who are ruling the USA and destroying the fabric of our economy and of our democracy and are threatening the future security of the USA with their foolhardy escapades to rule the world and making the majority of the nations in the world distrust and even hate us, are the BIGGEST THREAT TO DEMOCRACY that I have seen in my 45 years on earth.

You realize that both sides have financial interests that could be considered to be "destroying the fabric of our economy".



Lies said it best - if Bush is your biggest "threat" you indeed live a fortunate life.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

last time i checked, i do believe Heinz is a large corporation.

 

[Jamila]

The ketchup industry is not drilling for oil in Iraq.

And, unless people would like to walk in my shoes and be making $5 less p/hr on a job than I was making in 2000, please don't tell me who is a threat to my survival.

LivLuv, I find your comments to be short-sighted and personally offensive.

Please don't comment on my life - you have no idea about it.

And I promise not to comment on your life - OK?

So much for the reconciliation that Bush supporters were talking about yesterday.