Blues for America - Vonnegut

[RoyGBiv]

Vonnegut's Blues For America

By Kurt Vonnegut
2-6-6


No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious and charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful.

If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC

...

What is radically new today is that my daughter, Lily, who has just turned 21, finds herself, as do your children, as does George W Bush, himself a kid, and Saddam Hussein and on and on, heir to a shockingly recent history of human slavery, to an Aids epidemic, and to nuclear submarines slumbering on the floors of fjords in Iceland and elsewhere, crews prepared at a moment's notice to turn industrial quantities of men, women, and children into radioactive soot and bone meal by means of rockets and H-bomb warheads. Our children have inherited technologies whose by-products, whether in war or peace, are rapidly destroying the whole planet as a breathable, drinkable system for supporting life of any kind.

Anyone who has studied science and talks to scientists notices that we are in terrible danger now. Human beings, past and present, have trashed the joint.

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[Cetacea]

1. K+R. Thank you for posting the link. eom.

[Swamp Rat]

2. I'll play a minor chord for you tonight Kurt.

Bon voyage! :hi:

[RoyGBiv]

3. Excellent sentiment ...

I've been pretty torn up about his passing, as has my daughter. She just discovered him a year or so ago.

In response I've been reading a lot of his stuff again. It was all so good the first time around, but now it seems even more relevant.

I hope he's listening to some good blues about now. I know I am.

[Kiouni]

4. K & R, I loved that man. n/t

[Raksha]

5. K & R - Thank you for posting that link. What an amazing piece,

and what an amazing man he was. He will be sorely missed.

[RoyGBiv]

6. Final Kick

Just want to offer it again.