Just look around, things are startin' to slip
You're outta control, and you're losin' your grip
No way to stop it, that river's spillin' over for good
We don't have the answer; we know what it's not
'Cause the people will keep pushin' 'til they get a shot
Your money's no good there; we wouldn't cash you a check if we could
~ Bonnie Raitt
Yesterday's Women's March on Washington spilled over . . . into history. There were sister marches in 650 places around the world. Millions of women and men peacefully protested by gathering and marching while untold millions more cheered them on from home. I claim representation by my daughters with their participation in Washington DC and New York City. I was absolutely giddy with joy when I read the newspapers and online accounts of the event this morning. We do have a voice. And it's a peaceful voice. By the end of the day, there was not one single arrest reported.
Reading the lyrics above, one might assume that Bonnie Raitt wrote this song about our new administration. That would be wrong. She penned the song in February 2016, months before the candidates were selected and the election was held. The song was more a reaction, born of frustration, to Citizens United and the uneven distribution of wealth in this country. "I wanted to write a song about how pissed off I was about money being in politics and how much lying and puffing up and no accounting for the truth goes on in our political process," Raitt stated in an interview.
And since that interview, things have only become more imbalanced. The 17 new Cabinet picks have a combined income of $9.5 billion. That amount is greater than that of the 43 million least wealthy households. There's something very wrong with this picture.
While the Women's March was not primarily focused on wealth or lack thereof, many of the issues that motivated the protest were wallet issues: affordable health care, the discrepancy between average pay for men and average pay for women, and tax fairness, among others. And clearly, these are issues that affect us all, liberal and conservative, black and white, religious and secular, young and old, male and female. In regard to the song being an out and out rocker, Raitt said, "I deliberately framed it so that it could be anybody's political spectrum -- whether they're progressive or Tea Party, they're still mad that the system is broken."
This would only be Raitt's second protest song. Her 1994 release, Hell to Pay, also references the theme of "what goes around comes around." Raitt sings about politicians who stack up bad karma against themselves, for which they will eventually pay.
Only so long can you keep this charade
Until they wake up and see they've been played
Too many people with their livin' at stake
Ain't gonna take it
Comin' round is going through
You tell 'em, Bonnie.
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