Come gather 'round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You'll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you Is worth savin' Then you better start swimmin' Or you'll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance won't come again And don't speak too soon For the wheel's still in spin And there's no tellin' who That it's namin'. For the loser now Will be later to win For the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmen Please heed the call Don't stand in the doorway Don't block up the hall For he that gets hurt Will be he who has stalled There's a battle outside And it is ragin'. It'll soon shake your windows And rattle your walls For the times they are a-changin'.
Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land And don't criticize What you can't understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is Rapidly agin'. Please get out of the new one If you can't lend your hand For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn The curse it is cast The slow one now Will later be fast As the present now Will later be past The order is Rapidly fadin'. And the first one now Will later be last For the times they are a-changin.'
-- Bob Dylan, 1964
The poet laureate of my generation, home-grown native Minnesotan (born in Duluth, raised in Hibbing) wrote these words in 1964 as a generic protest song. They still have relevance to a new generation.
And this is definitely a relevant post for embedding this photo:
I can't help but think of the opening credits to 'Watchmen'. When did our dystopian future fiction turn into reality? And why did we let it? Heed these words from a time not unlike the present; clearly, we failed to let the lesson take hold the first time. May we do better this time, so we don't have to repeat this same thing again in seventy years.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that gives me hope: unlike my previous experience with unrest based on racist violence in the US (the Rodney King responses), I'm seeing a lot of white folks joining in, acting in supportive ways. And it's not just young folks, either. I've seen a fair number of white folks with gray hair out there. For all the jokes about Boomers, I'm seeing them supporting the BLM movement in ways I wouldn't have imagined 30 years ago. (I'm either a tail end Boomer or the next group down, and I've been out, and I wasn't the only white person with graying hair, either.)
ReplyDeleteIf it weren't for coronavirus concerns, I'm sure you'd see more of my age group joining the crowds.
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