i hadn't written much music in a good handful of months.
i had, amongst other things, been keeping up on the Democratic party race between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. i, like many other americans, have grown weary of  US politics both internal and foreign. i've always been politically active and vocal and take a great interest in knowing what is going on, who is saying what and why. sometimes, we get caught up in our cynicism and i'm guiltier than most so there's no denial here...
however, i am not privy to conspiracy theories and i am not one of those who will sit here and tell you that the system is corrupt or that america doesn't work. i'm a proud american and far more patriotic than many who would appear otherwise. i think there are two types of political "whiners"... the ones that want their country to do something for them and the ones that want their country to do something right. there is nothing wrong with complaining for the latter.
this song, however, is very pro-america and should not be seen otherwise. i know how assumptive people are when they hear politically charged music (certainly harder rock) - as a line from the song states: "that's not saying america ain't great, man, sure it is - just keep your tie straight" which i think many of us, republican and democrat and otherwise can agree on. any naivete at this point as to the nature of the american system both in terms of its capitalist promise to us that those who hustle harder than others will reap the rewards of freedom across the board.
i think a republican senator said it recently (i forget who) that the difference between republicans and democrats is that republicans value freedom while democrats value equality. while there is certainly far more differences than that, there is truth to the statement if you think about it. i think, to be fair, most americans fall somewhere in between the republican and democratic parties and the dilemma we have as a nation is being forced to pick one.
duh, you say. i don't think it's so duh at all or we would have done something about it by now... sure we tend to gravitate towards more conservative democrats and reasonable republicans (except this most recent spell, of course.. he is far from reasonable) but i'm afraid many americans see our nation as a polarized battle of wills.
right wing, left wing... front and center. change is really what we need in this nation more than anything else.
sure i support obama. my mother was pissed because she is in her 60's and wished to see a woman as president in her lifetime. she still believes there is a glass ceiling and i don't disagree with her. she doesn't support obama, she's sort of mad at him for beating hilary ahaha but i know that deep inside, she understands that there are different kinds of ceilings and not all of them can come crashing down at once... let there at least be this one. i support obama because i think we need to break the line of white male presidents. perhaps the majority of america is still white but the rest of the population is still significant and i don't think those americans can relate to a bush or a cheney or even mccain again for sometime.
is it a race matter? surely. let's kick the bullshit aside and be real with ourselves. that is why i sampled obama's race speech on the track. i think that was possibly one of the most moving speeches given in a presidential campaign in some time. this is not a country that is truly over the black/white divide... i have seen it at every stage of my life... people can deny it all they want and say that they do not see the color of his skin. i am far too observant to believe that.
still, we need to come together and tackle the issue of race as a nation and not as parties or as races. we are one race and always have been. i'm a fullblooded african yet i have reasonably light skin for one. i do not consider myself caucasian and i despise ethnicity queries on applications that force north africans into the caucasian group... has any north african ever been treated as a white man? i surely haven't.
no, my friends, this song is an american song. a song about the very core of what america stands for. i am a patriot and this is my way of expressing it.
dig it.