“From the towns of the nation, we’d like to do a song for you about the larger picture. There’s only one season lately. There used to be an agreement between the seasons that they would all come and stay for three months, and then go the way the seasons go when they’re not where we are.
Lately there has been no spring, no summer, and no fall.
Politically, and philosophically, and psychologically there has only been the season of ice.
It a season of frozen dreams and frozen nightmares,
A scene of frozen progress, and frozen ideas,
frozen aspirations and inspirations.
They call the season winter; we call the song Winter in America.”
From the Indians
Who welcomed the Pilgrims
And to the buffalos
Who once ruled the plain
Like the vultures
Circling beneath the Dark Clouds
Looking for the Rain
Looking for the Rain
Just like the cities that
Stagger on the coastline
In a nation
That just can’t stand much more
Like the forests
Buried beneath the highway
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow
And now it’s Winter
Winter in America
Yes, and all of the healers
Have been killed
Or sent away
But the people know
The people know
It’s winter
Winter in America
And aint nobody fighting cause
Nobody knows what to save
Save your soul
Lord knows, from Winter in America
The Constitution
A nobel piece of a paper
With free society
They struggled but they died in vain
And now democracy
Is rag time on the corner
Hoping for some rain
It looks like its hoping for some rain
And I see the robins
Perched on distant tree tops
They’re watching last-ditch races
March across the floor
But just like the peace sign
That vanished in our dreams
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow.
And now its winter
Winter in America
And all of the healers
Have been killed
Our betrayed
But the people know
The people know
It’s winter
Lord knows, its Winter in America
And aint’ nobody fighting, cause,
Nobody knows what to save
Save your soul,
From winter in America.
-Gil Scott Heron
A song written in 1974 seems just as relevant today as it must have back then. Couldn't have said that two years ago. Catching a glimpse of the evening news assualted me with threats of a missle strike on the Bay Area from Korea, terrorist attacks from Osama Bin Laden, a growing hatred of the US government amongst our allies, and the deployment of hundreds of troops to fight a war in Iraq. All in two or three minutes.
Sorta strange now to look back at New Years Eve 1999. On that night, it seemed the entire world was celebrating and hoping for peace. Images of celebrations around the globe, of doves being released in Jerusalem are still clear in my mind. The economy was booming. The problems and conflicts of the world seemed distant and irrelevant to our lives as upper middle class high schoolers in America.
Then we left for college...and that September our rosy view of the world came tumbling down with those two towers. Whether you call it innocence or ignorance, it was taken away from our generation and we entered a new era. The coming years may prove to be defining for our nation in this century. The world has changed and we are becoming adults as it changes further. I wonder how such a shift will utimately affect us and define us. How will our generation handle the mess that we are destined to inherit. Can we begin to turn a new leaf, or will we travel down the same path that got us to where we are today?
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