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12 Mar 03 - 07:18 AM (#908084) Subject: Reclaiming US Patriotism through Ballads From: InOBU Dear Mudcat Friends... I am passing this on to you all, but remember I live in New York, so I can travel between Maine and Florida and out to Chicago, (with help) but Tasmania, though it may be fun, would be difficult... Reclaiming American Patriotism through Ballads: If you may have a venue for Lorcan Otway's one man, audience interactive ballad evening, on the origin and present state of American rights, request a demo ... email inOBU@aol.com, here is a sample of the ballads... (Lorcan Otway is a political scientist working with Native Americans, Minorities in Bangladesh, Roma Travellers and Rominichals in the US and overseas, and other marginalized cultural isolates. I have a JD from NYU and grew up in the Irish ballad tradition) Cheers Larry The Times that Try the Soul Words Lorcan Otway (with the help of Thomas Paine) Tune... Farewell My Love and Remember Me, from the singing of Sarah Makem. Come listen my children, and you shall hear of a land which once held rights so dear that her people tempted death's cold, grim hand for a dream of rights for their infant land Chorus: These are the times, that try the soul As you shrink from duty, the death knell tolls And our rights are stripped for expediency we prepare a cold grave for our liberty What contempt for all, we once called fair which was dragged from madness and despair servile slavish fear, that Tories enthroned by the acts of the free were once overthrown Avon's Bard once warned, in days long ago remove the lawyers, the tyrants foe and the warlord's might, unchecked will be Blind justice becomes, a poor refugee Strangers to virtue claim the Patriot's cause while their coward servants pen unjust laws and precious truths are entombed 'neath lies and the dream of our liberty swiftly flies. Ghosts of our nation word, Lorcan Otway all rights reserved Tune The Shamrock Shore. Farewell to the land, of Jefferson and Franklin Farewell to the dreams of the good Thomas Paine We have sacrificed our freedom, on the altar of security and I fear we may not soon see the likes of both again, For this land was more than a flag or a slogan this land was more than its rocks or its clay This land was a gift given us by great thinkers a dream which lesser men have now cast away The rule of law is hobbled and no rights are now held sacred except the right to steal and plunder in the name of corporate greed While bible thumping patriots, in the guise of elder statesmen rob for the wealth of few from the people in most need Now our prisons are full of the men of no property and back alleys are filled with the hopeless and insane but still we are told, that this is the land of liberty and told to ignore those whom our country causes pain Who can hold up their head, and proud proclaim their homeland while leaders whet the assassins knife by stealth upon the road this is not the act of a land of law and of justice no mater who the target, we must live by legal code What light of hope now shines in the halls of Philadelphia what words of bravery speak out from the senate floor what black thoughts now taint with blood, the hopes of a nation when politician pimps make sweet liberty their whore But I cast my gaze, to the hills of our history, while I stake my few hopes on the words of our past For while a spark shines on, in the ashes of these ruins the light of freedom's fires may dispel the shadows cast And each one of you, who remembers where we came from proclaim your love liberty and reject the cynics sneer cast fear upon the pyre of the promises of tyrants turn away from craven cowards, and true hearts now draw near. Words Lorcan Otway - Tune Mandella by Danny Hannon Walking with King I walked with King in Selma, so I'm getting on in years But I still recall the hopes we had in spite of all our fears I still can hear the barking dogs and often in the night I recall how we gently walked when justified to fight We walked for voting rights and so that others would be free While some were kept from basic rights, who could live peaceably We faced the southern sheriffs and the banal Ku Klux Klan to carry the light of human right to each corner of the land Then the Viet Nam war began and we were walking as before While tens of thousand lives were lost we'd walk to end a war And many vets walked with us and were welcomed home again while the government who sent them off ignored their cries of pain And now the government is marching us off again to war and people they are gathering to walk just as before but Bloomberg and Judge Barbara Jones conspired in this night To stop Americans walking and deny this sacred right General Nathan Bedford Forrest gave the world the Ku Klux Klan Sheriff Clark and Governor Maddox would keep slave chains in this land And now to this list of shame two more names must appear Mayor Bloomberg and Judge Jones who've sold their nation out to fear No judge can use fear to stop a people who'd be free The people have the right to walk in the face of tyranny In Selma Alabama or in Tiananmen Square The steps of many people will drown out a judge's fear |