“They sell us the President the same way they sell us our clothes and our cars. They sell us every thing from youth to religion the same time they sell us our wars.” This song, written by Jackson Browne, first came out during Ronald Reagan’s 2nd term of secret wars in South America and open wars in Libya and Lebanon (Operation El Dorado Canyon, etc). Personal friends were killed. Administration officials were found guilty, but pardoned. El Salvador, Columbia, Panama, Nicaragua and Grenada were devastated by US troops, as were the young men who came back having perpetrated the horrors they were ordered to perform. “And there's a shadow on the faces of the men who send the guns to the wars that are fought in places where their business interest runs.” The biggest difference is that these men are no longer in the shadows, but are smiling for the whole world. Big, profit filled smiling faces, the Bushes and Cheneys. At least some folks, like Johnson, had the dignity to look bad for the young lives they were throwing away for oil. Ah, but that’s the old paradigm. Now we can smile because no one sees the caskets coming home. Anyway, I’m ignoring the immediate, sorry. This new performance by Richie Havens is perfect, beautiful, and lovingly brings forth my anger and tears. Of course, hearing his voice and guitar playing brings backs many other images, but I love the images and cling to them. Images of when we were able to speak out our pain in the streets with hundreds, even thousands of others without fear. Until Kent State happened. Freedom forever ruined for that generation and all future generations. “You hear one thing again and again, how the U.S.A. stands for freedom”. Shoutouts for the deep, severe, ugly truthful irony of Won’t Get Fooled Again ("and history ain't changed 'cause the banners, they were all flown in the last war") and the tenderness of One More Day. Richie Havens
