We Won't Get Fooled Again
Yeah, Right ...
Sing it with me, Boomers.
We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song
Pete Townsend wrote this song. The Who released it in 1971. I was 13. The world was different - but also the same. The United States was deep in the Vietnam War. Protests were the rule. So, too, was violence.
Here we are, 50 years later, and the song still resonates.
Have we learned nothing in 50 years? The answer is no - and yes.
We are still fighting in the streets. Gun violence is at epidemic levels. School shootings in 2021 are at their highest level since 1999. Since Columbine, more than 278,000 children have been exposed to school-based gun violence.
Yet simple statutory and regulatory changes seem to evade us. Universal background checks, red flag laws, storage requirements, assault-style weapon and high-capacity ammunition bans - many of which have been tried successfully in varied jurisdictions - are repeatedly crushed. And they are crushed by people who fail to see how the world has changed, and how those changes require concommitant changes in gun laws.
Our children may be at our feet, but they remain at risk. It’s not like we don’t know what to do. The Child Tax Credit passed in 2020 as part of the American Rescue Plan has lifted some 40 percent of American children out of poverty. But it expires on December 31.
President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill will fund an enormous array of programs designed to support children and families. Yet the bill remains mired in Senate nonsense. The filibuster looms as a huge potential obstacle, but no more than the indecision, stinginess, caprice, and outright greed of Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. (I was going to put a “D” after each of their names - but why?)
When it comes to morals - well, as far as Republicans are concerned, Donald Trump pretty much trampled all over them. His four years in the White House did, however, teach us how much of our democracy relies on the innate morality of our leaders.
The line about the shotgun makes my blood run cold.
Different song - sorry.
The number of people of color - particularly Black men - killed by police, absent anything resembling due process, has become another defining characteristic of these times. Violence of another kind, in the form of Republican efforts in nearly 40 states to dilute or outright block the votes of African Americans, Latinx people, indigenous people, poor people, older folks, members of the LGBTQ community, has the potential for massive destruction of democracy in its own way.
I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again …
[Fun fact: Pussy Riot recorded this song in 2015.]
Unfortunately, we WILL get fooled again.
If we fail to pay close attention, to identify misinformation and disinformation and holler and scream about it, we will get fooled. So will millions of others. Each one of us must take responsibility for correcting falsehoods when we encounter them. That means correcting racist spew from relatives over holiday dinners, as well as providing correct information on social media.
Not that this will be easy …
But we have to do this. Otherwise, the Republicans will twist and pervert laws and lie and cheat to hold on to power. We saw this on January 6 and will see it again.
Don’t get fooled again! Our democracy depends on that!
Otherwise …
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss