no, not that john edwards.
back in 1971, things were looking grim on the american homefront. the vietnam war was still raging; citizens, particularly the young, were feeling restless and anxious about a world in which they believed was dangerous and in which they were essentially voiceless. remember, back then, you couldn’t vote until you were 21; and yet lots of 18 year olds were being shipped off to fight a war they thought was pointless. jonathan edwards added his thoughts to the landscape via this wonderful protest song, sunshine.
recent events in egypt have made me think about this song anew. the people are speaking out against a government which they believe is not democratic. i believe that people have the right to determine their own government; i always thought that was what we were taught in school. you know, the whole american revolution thing, right? dropping tea into the harbor? making our own rules? Â i mean, as the scholar jeff spicoli once explained:
and yet some on the right — those who champion folks like the modern-day tea party and who claim to love america more than you and i do — are demonizing the protesters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6ThpZ1iyFY&feature=player_embedded#beck seems to believe that the entire middle east is going to blow. Â his inflammatory talk doesn’t give us any ideas as to how to make things better. and frankly, i think he’s played fast and loose with a lot of his so-called data. i find it confusing as well that he seems to not support people forming their own governments. are we happy when religious zealots form a government and rule a nation? no, we are not. but who are we, as america, to tell another nation who should run it and how it should be run? boy, we were so successful putting people into power (iran and egypt, i’m looking at you, among others too numerous to count) that i think we ought to rethink our strategy a bit here.
do i have the answers? of course not. i wish for peace every day; and i wish for people to be free the world over. and i will continue to monitor the events as they unfold.
but i can’t help but hear edwards refrain as i watch the news.
How much does it cost, I’ll buy it
The time is all we’ve lost, I’ll try it
But he can’t even run his own life
I’ll be damned if he’ll run mine, Sunshine
Beck has gotten so ever loving insane recently that I honestly wont even paint the far right with his brush of looney tunes. I think he’s out there on an island all of his own making. I’m pretty sure that like the John Birch society of our childhoods, Beck will be gradually disowned by anyone in the GOP.
That said – he’s pretty damn funny a lot of the time!
I want 8:50 of my life back. (The Mediterranean all becomes Muslim? China takes India/Pakistan? Really?)
Although underlying my thoughts the whole time I was listening to this was: How much should we care? Yes, we SHOULD care, but just how much is our responsibility to try to stop (even if it were as big an effect as Beck claims – although the mere fact the Beck is making the claim says it’s safe to assume true events are at least an order of magnitude less critical than stated).