Woke up with a heavy head
And I thought about leavin town
I could have died if I wanted to-
Slipped over the edge and drowned
But, oh no baby, I won’t give up so easy.
The opening words of the Don Henley’s 1989 song “I will not go quiety” have a particularly resonance with me, and I’m certain with many others as well. Although a love song about a lover who’ll fight to regain his place, it can also be a rallying cry for the disenfranchised of the nation as we watch the Republican criminal cabal in our congress slowly dismantle the country we love so much.
Henley’s song, from the album “The End of Innocence” (appropo, no?), has a strong beat and simple, straightforward lyrics — lyrics from the heart.
Just grabbing a few of the lyrics, we could come up with a strong reaffirmation of the feelings that much of the reality-based community is feeling:
I think it’s time to make some changes ’round here
Yeah, I think it’s time to make some changed ’round here. Our nation has sat complacent, with the average citizen growing “fat, dumb and happy” for far too long.
We’ve not seen the death of our nation, but our leadership is taking us by the banana boat express straight to intensive care. The latest shenanigans of the Congress with regard to torture and habeas corpus — amid the crisis of a failed war in Afghanistan, an illegal war of aggression in Iraq, and a ramp-up to an illegal bombing campaign against Iran — have sent our senses reeling. What is happening to our nation? What has happened to possess the people who have supported all this, to think that any of it is a sign of a nation where all is well and good with the world?
I’m brave enough to be crazy
I’m strong enough to be weak
I see all these heroes with feet of clay
Whose mighty ships have sprung a leak
And I want you to tell me darlin’
Just what do you believe in now?
Sometimes, I feel like I don’t know what to believe. It doesn’t last long. I know what I believe. And I believe in the nation of the people, by the people and for the people that our forefathers brought into being.
Well, don’t you ever get lonely?
Don’t you ever get down?
Don’t you ever get tired
Of all the wicked tongues in this town?
Oh baby, I just wanna take you away from here
I want my family to be safe. My immediate family, my extended family, their families, our friends.
I can’t move ’em all.
I’m left with only one choice — stay, and fight.
I ain’t no tiger
I ain’t no little lamb
Suppose you tell me mama
Who do you think I think I am?
And oooh baby, don’t you give a damn?
Maybe others don’t see, yet, the potential dangers that these intricate erasures and kabuki theatres are attempting to set up. Maybe they think it’s not going to happen, that “it can’t happen here” and that someone is waiting in the wings to rush out and bring down the curtain on this horrid little play.
Maybe.
I’m not waiting.
Yeah I’m gonna tear it up
Gonna trash it up
Gonna round it up
Gonna shake it up
Oh baby I will not lie down
Turn this thing around
I will not go quietly
I will do everything I can to get the word out. To help people communicate, to help keep the record straight. These outrages against our national spirit, our principles, have continued unabated. They’ve been propagated by determined, myopic, selfish, arrogant little people with small hearts, twisted minds and gawd-awful determination to make the world their own personalized fetid litter box.
The best way to fight the rot, to shore up the defenses, and to revive those who are failing victim to the incessant chirping of this unholy chorus of extreme right-wing-wrong-head-no-heart neopundits is to expose as much of the rotting carcass to the sun, filling the cavities that this cancer has eaten with as much truth and common sense as we can muster.
I’ve made a few stabs at this over the past few months. I’ve referenced history, literature and music in various diaries, seeking to help rekindle the spirits of my comrades. I’ve made random music requests via the internet to radio stations for songs such as “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” by Styx (dedicated to George, Dick, Condi, Carl, Arlen, Steven etc.) and “Dirty Laundry” (another by Henley, dedicated to Bill O’Reilly, Anne Coulter, Sean Hannity, Tony Snow, etc.).
I plan to continue. I invite you to help. And I recommend this song — the one I’ve written about here, “I will not go quietly” — to all of you. All of us.
Dylan Thomas wrote a poem, once — “Do not go gentle into that good night” — which I’d also diaried not too long ago on DailyKos. Same idea. Dylan urges us not to go gently — to rage, against the dying of the light (in this case, the light of liberty). Henley gives us the support to stand and say, individually, that we won’t go quietly.
United we stand. Divided we fall.
Let us all, now, promise to hold the line and stick with this fight until the last neoRepublican is out of office, until the last war criminal has been tried, and until the bleating sycophants who have siezed control of our traditional media outlets are once again forced into the obscurity they deserve by confronting them with the truth.
I will no lie down. I will not go quietly.