I campaigned on the promise of change –- change we can believe in, the slogan went. And right now, I know there are many Americans who aren’t sure if they still believe we can change –- or that I can deliver it.
But remember this –- I never suggested that change would be easy, or that I could do it alone. Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be noisy and messy and complicated. And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy. That’s just how it is.
That’s a quotation from what I thought was a pretty impressive State of the Union speech tonight.
State of the Union Address - January 27, 2010
This post is all about quotations, specifically quotations from songs, but in relation to the hopeful spirit of the Obama campaign.
Recently I bought the soundtrack for a film called “By the People: for the People.” It’s a great collection of songs and I’m eager to see the documentary. I don’t have HBO.
But one of the songs on it is “Waiting on the World to Change” by John Mayer. That song has been put forward as one of the anthems of a generation, expressing some essential truth about of our time. I like John Mayer , but that song has always bothered me because I’ve never liked the notion of simply “waiting for the world to change.” There’s a powerlessness in the lyrics that doesn’t sit well with me. The message seems to be that we can fix everything, but we’re just waiting for you to let us. Every generation has claimed that things would change when it came into power, and every generation has had those in it who sought to thwart that change. It is that resistance to change that has to be overcome. You don’t wait to have power handed to you; you claim it. You don’t wait for the world to change, you change it!
My songs favorite contemporary songs about change are calls to action. Ryan Bingham’s latest album contains several such songs. Dylan’s Hard Rain is one of the best songs I’ve heard in a long time, and the point there is that we need to help ourselves.
So can we save us, from today,
The hands of the wretched are the ones getting paid,
Everything stays the same, if you don’t change it.
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Another example might be John Legend’s “If You’re Out There.”
I was looking for a song to sing
I searched for a leader
But the leader was me
We were looking for the world to change
We can be heroesJust go on and say…
Tomorrow’s starting now…
If you’re ready we can shake the world
Believe again
It starts within
We don’t have to wait for destiny
We should be the change that we want to see
The President and Democrats in Government will always be vulnerable unless they can prove there is a public demand for the things they can propose, and it is up to the electorate to demonstrate that. Write, call, fax or email your representatives and tell them what your expectations are. Do you want them to move to the center, or stick with a progressive agenda? What issues really matter? Make them known. Write an op-ed. Call you representative. Explain your position to others. That last one is especially important since there is so much bad information going around around on every issue of substance.