Beautiful article about today's Sing Along

[Lefta Dissenter]

Songs In the Key of Resistance: Dueling Sing Alongs, Guns, Trombones, and American Resilience.

I sit on the hard marble floor of the elegant Wisconsin State Capitol building, listening to America The Beautiful, God Bless America and other "patriotic" songs being sung by about 50 rightwing Walker supporters, the newly formed "We've Got A Permit Singers." They want to teach the Lefties a lesson. The Solidarity Sing Along, as they always do, has moved outside due to the other group's permit to use the rotunda space. Everyone should be happy: the day is lovely, sunny, with an edge of autumnal coolness bringing a subtle melancholy. The quantitative differences of the dueling singing groups are simple to determine, but the qualitative differences are what fascinate me.

read the rest at:

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/29/1227614/-Songs-In-the-Key-of-Resistance-Dueling-Sing-Alongs-Guns-Trombones-and-American-Resilience

[midnight]

1. Love the lyrics:

This land is my land, it is not your land
I got a shotgun, and you ain't got none.
If you don't get out, I'll let my dogs out
This land is private proper-TEE!

[Scuba]

2. Thanks Lefta, and thanks to all the Solidarity Singers ...

The peace has a sharp edge of tension due to the anxiety about possible antagonism between Walker supporters and Walker protestors. That's life in Walker's "divide and conquer" Wisconsin, where agonistic teams are locked in binary tension, singing similar songs with very different lyrics. Conflict brings the media like fish-guts bring seagulls, and there are more cameras, microphones and media nametags than I have witnessed in a long time. Clusters of Capitol Police dot the rotunda, black wasps on walls, waiting to buzz. The "We've Got A Permit Singers" have retrofitted some of their songs to talk about lazy unionists and whiney liberals. Last night, there was a lot of Facebook chatter about Conceal Carry and packing heat. They want the Lefties to know that they are armed and ready, though I am not sure what they hope for or fear. It is curious to me how the 1st and 2nd Amendments are now used as oppositional rhetorical signifiers, with each Amendment representing a different polarizing force as well as fierce cohesive formations. Guns play mightily in the Patriots' America. Trombones play mightily outside in the Progressives'.

[ewagner]

3. This is why I love Wisconsin!

Great article...beautifully written..shared on my FB site..

Joy and celebration contrasted with bitterness, divisiveness and hate....