Kathy Moser: Music
If Freedom's Gonna Ring
I wrote this song for a program I did at the Somerset Hills UU on the Bill of Rights. I couldn't find anything on the topic. The images in the song came from my participation in the WTO protests in DC and NJ and from some of the anti-war demonstrations I was part of around this time.
The chorus is a purposeful quilt of references to powerful songs of the 60's including "Imagine,", "The Times the Are a Changing" "Blowin in the Wind", and "If I Had a Hammer". I wanted to write something in that vein but for our time.
If Freedom’s Gonna Ring
We hold these truths to be self evident
Every Citizen is equal on election day
We hold these truths to be self evident
The right to vote is the heart of the American way
Without obfuscation, confiscation, segregation, campaign donation
Without a wall of money silencing our say
The ballot box is our cathedral, sacred voice of the people
No one has the right to take that away.
Freedom of the press
Essential to liberty and the pursuit of happiness
Freedom to speak your mind
And bring truth to the light no matter what the truth is that you find
Without governmental censorship
Corporate dictatorship
Without the Time/Warner Disney Puppet show
If the people are going to have the power
You can’t buy and sell the news hour
The people have the right to know
If freedom’s gonna ring, then the hammer’s gotta fall
Land of the brave, where are you all?
The times are changing fast and the wind is blowing hard
If we can’t imagine something different we’ll be stuck just where we are
Freedom of assembly
The right of the people to take to the streets
Freedom of privacy
What you say, what you read, who you meet
Without barricades and helicopters
Tanks and riot gear,
Without teargas, plastic handcuffs and fear
Without wiretaps, and cellphone traces
e-mail intercept erases,
unreasonable search, seizure and fear
If you think it can’t be you, held without charges, without bail
remember the 600 who, lie awake nameless tonight in our jails
And if you think it can’t be true, in this kinder, gentler age
remember the hundreds who, lie awake tonight in Guantanamo’s cage
People of democracy, stand up and say you see
Freedom carries responsibility
Meet each other in the street
Don’t concede silent defeat
Find out what it means to be free
If freedom’s gonna ring, then the hammer’s gotta fall
Land of the brave, where are you all
The times are changing fast and the wind is blowing hard
If we can’t imagine something different we are stuck just where we are
I’ll meet you in the street, meet me in the street.