Over The Rainbow

Thanks to my satellite dish and my DirecTV subscription, I get a nice little channel called LINK (Channel 375 in the Seattle area). There's an excellent, though very low-budget, daily newscast called DemocracyNow! hosted by syndicated columnist Amy Goodman. Today, July 4th, 2007, the news reporting portion of the program was minimized to spend more time with Pete Seeger, the legendary folk singer. Pete is 87 now, and sings with reluctance as the formerly clear, crisp voice now wavers with age. It was a wonderful show, particularly if Pete is as much of your past as he was mine. You can watch it today at http://www.democracynow.org, if you like.

There aren't many points of difference between my own views and those expressed by Pete in that broadcast -- or most anything he's said over the years, for that matter -- but there was one thing. He told a little story near the end of the show about The Wizard of Oz, and the discussions over whether or not to include the song Over The Rainbow. There is something a little seditious, I suppose, about wishing for a better place, but you know the rest of the story.

Pete loves the song, of course, but complained that the last line, rather than the words "Why, oh why can't I?" should instead be "Why can't you and I?". I appreciate the wish to include us all in this lovely lament, but I would never find the change acceptable. And I think it's emblematic of something uniquely American, something we can add to Zen, something we have added to the social equation, something I think that's still worth defending. It's "I". Had the song been changed, it would have become some sort of Socialist manifesto, and been lost to time. It lives on because it expresses something at a uniquely personal level, and it's the uniquely personal quality of American culture that's at the heart of much of what's been right about this country.

We do need to work together, and we do need to plan for better health care, stronger unions, sensible regulations that discourage and punish systemic abuse, we do need to join hands and work for a better future. But I think we also need plenty of elbow room. That's why it's so important to take a breath when things happen that make us angry, and move carefully with the instruments of change.

I'm going to go now, and sing Over The Rainbow to myself. I love singing it, and wouldn't change a word. But give a listen to the songs Pete Seeger has sung and popularized over the years, songs of the people, Howard Zinn's People's History set to music. I love those songs. And I love Pete Seeger.