hand me down my music

A long long time ago when I was young, And the world seemed a lot simpler, I was one of the many folks singers who showed up at civil rights and peace demonstrations. We played, sang and worked out songs about the repression of African Americans, the lunacy of sending our young people to die in Viet Nam and other such topics. We were, I think we were told, subverting Americanism.

This is m'lady my first and most loved dulcimer. M'lady and Thunder my bodhran just came home. They were in the hands of my friend Harpmaker Dave for some needed repairs. Gabriel my younger grand baby had stepped on the drum head after he dropped it and dropped m'lady. The head of the drum and the back of the dulcimer were broken. Dave did a masterful job and both now are in full voice. It seems that the repairs are just in time.

We are confronted by most amazing stupidity today. An Islamic center in Manhattan which is NOT at ground zero, and does NOT overlook it and is NOT a symbol of Islamic dominance is none-the-less attacked by the Neanderthal lobby (led by troglodyte in chief Palin) who simply lie about it. They fit the model of a recent Futurama piece "loud as they are ignorant" (HT to my son for noting that line) and this is terrifying, these idiots vote. Proof of which can be found by checking Illinois, Colorado and Georgia's recent primaries.

I have done a program for some folk music festivals presenting the old freedom songs. I do that because they are not sung much anymore. Between the unwillingness of America's blacks to acknowledge the part white folks including folk singers played in the civil rights movement and the aging of the singers, the songs have been dying out.

The society seems to have a virus. The virus is bigotry. Bigots who want to use violence and discrimination to 'solve' the illegal immigration issue, bigots who want to outlaw Islam, bigots who want to get women back in the kitchen, pregnant and subservient of course. Yup, time to start singing again.

FWIW
jimB