"I got fury in my soul
Fury's gonna take me to the glory goal
In my mind I can't study war no more
Save the people
Save the children
Save the country
Save the country now"
Hayley Barbour, governor of Mississippi, has declared war on MEDICAID!
If you're disabled, or a senior citizen, TOUGH LUCK! You just didn't work hard enough, you just weren't born into the right family. It's time for you to FEND FOR YOURSELF!
From now on, as many as 65,000 people have to pay for THEIR OWN drugs and health care.
Why?
Because the state budget MUST be balanced!
Oh, how about a CIGARETTE TAX? Hell, Mississippi has some of the lowest cigarette taxes in the NATION!
Oh, NO! Hayley Barbour was a LOBBYIST for the tobacco companies. He can't FUCK THEM!
And you can't tax the public anymore. The Republicans say it's UNFAIR! That that's a DEMOCRATIC PLOY! To tax and spend. We've got to STOP THIS!
At WHAT COST?
If you're under 40, you're going to find it hard to believe that Lyndon Johnson pushed for a GREAT SOCIETY! Yes, we had a WAR ON POVERTY! The mission was to raise the lower elements of our society up to a THRESHOLD! That all human beings deserved. High school students wore buttons, they raised money.
Today's high school students are saving for iPods. Scamming to get into a good college. Hell, WHY SHOULD THEY WORRY ABOUT SOMEBODY ELSE when even the PRESIDENT doesn't care about the downtrodden?
You see all those homeless people on the street? Is there a program to help THEM?
And, MOST of them are MENTALLY HANDICAPPED! They used to be institutions, helped by society, but the recently deceased revered gentleman known as Ronald Reagan put them out on the STREET! Hell, HE picked himself up by his bootstraps...they should fend for THEMSELVES!
And how about our PRESIDENT! One of the worst businessmen of all time. But HE was lucky enough to be born into a rich family.
And then there's our VICE PRESIDENT, who used his government connections to further the interests of Halliburton, all the while enriching himself GREATLY!
THIS HAS GOT TO STOP! THIS IS NOT WHAT AMERICA IS ABOUT!! WE'VE GOT TO SAVE THE COUNTRY!
After learning of the disaster in Mississippi on "Now", I watched part of a John Lennon documentary on cable.
John Lennon STOOD for something. Watching the post death vigil in Central Park's Strawberry Fields one wants to weep along with the mourners. You see he was a HERO! Someone who pointed us in the right direction, who we BELIEVED IN!
I wish we had such a hero today, but we don't. Certainly not a MUSICIAN!
The closest thing we've got to a hero is Michael Moore. He too is polarizing like John Lennon, but ALL he does is focus on the issues. He's got no base. He's achieved nothing else that we can respect such that we know he's not in it for self-interest, but only because it's RIGHT!
The Dixie Chicks stood up.
Actually, that's not even true. Natalie Maines made an offhand remark, that wasn't noticed for twenty four hours, until a transcript reached Republican hands.
And then these Republicans went on to retaliate against the Dixie Chicks' career, all for exercising their First Amendment rights. NO WONDER no other musicians will speak up.
But there comes a point where what's RIGHT is more important than your career. When you can no longer put your head in the sand, but must STAND for something or LOSE everything.
I'm lying on my bed, freaking out, thinking how BAD things are, wondering what I can do, and that's when I realize we must SAVE THE COUNTRY!
Yes, it's our duty. We cannot leave it to others. We must take action.
Now activists like Michael Moore always precede musicians in the fight against injustice. They were protesting in San Francisco LONG before Barry McGuire sang "Eve Of Destruction", never mind John Lennon speaking out against the war in Vietnam.
But in the Internet age, everything moves much faster. It doesn't take YEARS for a movement to form, but WEEKS! Gadflies like Michael Moore and Robert Greenwald have laid the groundwork, now it's time for the musicians to get INVOLVED!
And how can this be done? THROUGH MUSIC!!!
"Come on people, come on children
There's a king at the glory river
And the precious king loved the people to sing
Babies in the blinkin' sun sang
'We Shall Overcome'"
One of the best songwriters of all time was Laura Nyro.
Although revered in her era, she died in 1997 and has been almost completely forgotten.
Laura Nyro was Tori Amos with a social conscience. No, a Tori Amos who could write COMPREHENSIBLE LYRICS!
Sure, Laura Nyro sang of a "Stoned Soul Picnic", but she also emoted about the "Poverty Train". And on her third album, she implored us to SAVE THE COUNTRY!
"Come on people, sons and mothers
Keep the dream of the two young brothers
Gonna take that dream and ride that dove
We could build the dream with love, I know
We could build the dream with love, I know
We could build a dream with love, children
We could build the dream with love, oh people
We could build the dream with love, I know
We could build the dream with love"
It's truly not partisan politics. It's about PEOPLE! Joining together to ensure a better future.
That's something EVERYBODY can believe in.
And that's why we need a NEW version of "Save The Country".
The Fifth Dimension's cover of "Save The Country" went to number 27 in July of 1970. It might have gone even higher if Thelma Houston hadn't covered the same song earlier in the year.
This is a HIT!
And MTV and radio can truly MAKE it a hit.
I implore SOME label executive, SOME manager, to have his artist cut "Save The Country".
Jason...you've got Toby Lightman. She's got the right voice, she's perfect.
Not that the singer needs to be white. Hell, "Save The Country" is better than ANYTHING Beyonce has ever done.
Or maybe it's about a COMEBACK! Maybe "Save The Country" is for Melissa Etheridge.
Britney hasn't got the pipes, but I'm fine with Christina doing it.
No, maybe this is a song for Alicia Keys. She DESERVES better material. And Clive Davis ran Columbia Records when Laura Nyro's career was in its heyday.
SOMEBODY!
And in the video you can show all the GREAT things about America, and all the bad things too. Laughing at the ballpark, and desolation in the ghetto. "Fahrenheit 9/11" showed us the power of images. Can't we utilize MTV for something other than showing BOOTY??
And the great thing is EVERYBODY believes in this message. "Save The Country" represents basic human values. I mean who believes in WAR?
But it would be a stealth campaign. Because, when confronted with the TRUTH, through a brilliant song, closed minds would awaken.
Now John Fogerty has issued a record "Deja Vu (All Over Again)". Although his heart is in the right place, it's not a hit. But the MESSAGE IS RIGHT! How have we found ourselves in the same place AGAIN? At war in a foreign country under suspicious circumstances. It's shocking. I thought bellicosity was put into the chest, only to be removed when absolutely necessary.
Well, it wasn't absolutely necessary for us to go to war in Iraq. And the people who made the decision to go had never even fought in a war before. THIS is fucked up. THIS is why the people have to stand up, unite and SAVE THE COUNTRY!
P.S. Laura Nyro's manager and publisher, the man who broke her, was none other than David Geffen. It was via Laura that Geffen made his first million, his first stake. I'm sure he would view the covering of one of Laura's signature songs as a fitting tribute, one that she would wholeheartedly approve of. I'm sure he would want to give back both to Laura's memory and the cause. Get him involved. He can pull the levers to INSURE exposure. When motivated, there's no one more tenacious than he.
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