Waiting on the World to Change

Listen while you read:  . . . for a long, long time.

Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing
And there's no way we ever could

Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and ask those who lead it
We just feel we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change
It's hard to beat the system when we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change

Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door

And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Because when they own the information
Oh, they can bend it all they want

So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change
It's not that we don't care; we just know that the fight isn't fair
So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change

And we're still waiting, waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change
One day our generation is going to rule the population
So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change

~  John Mayer

Although I like his work, I am only marginally informed on John Mayer. If I remember correctly, he went through a rather obnoxious phase, but it seems that he has gotten his shit together since then. His participation in Dead & Company is evidence. I was able to watch the live stream of the Dead & Company performances over 4th of July weekend at Soldier Field in Chicago in 2015. Mayer was damn good and fit right in. However, I do have to admit that I was surprised to learn today that "Waiting on the World to Change," which I hear often on my chosen radio stations, dates back to 2006 and the release of Continuum. I mean, seriously, I thought he wrote it, like maybe a year ago? (Hmmmm . . . and what happened a year ago that might have prompted the song?)

In reading listeners' comments on the song, there seemed to be some disagreement over whether or not Mayer was advocating for people to just wait, as opposed to actually doing something. I do not think that is his message. I think he is acknowledging that there are powers at work whose sole mission is to thwart any attempts by grass roots to have an impact on the way they think the world should be. (Names like Koch and Mercer and Adelson come to mind.) There is logic in the RESIST and PERSIST movements, but our patience is required, as hard as that is.

And when you trust your television, what you get is what you got. True dat. And therein lies much of the problem. I will not argue that there is no "fake news." But I will posit that the finger is being pointed in the wrong direction.

The most disturbing thing, at least today, is that the House passed the Republican tax plan, which comes complete with many ways to keep young people standing at a distance. One of the most despicable components of the tax plan is to consider graduate student grants and scholarships and fellowships as income, subject to tax. So a poor grad student who gets a grant for a $60,000 masters program at Duke University will be required to pay taxes on that $60,000 "income." The fact that the "income" is in the form of a tuition waiver and the student has no money doesn't seem to matter. So think about this: a young person seeking education to be able to more fully contribute to society in a meaningful way will be unfairly taxed in order to provide tax breaks to the uber-wealthy. Fair?

It gets worse. There is only one reason to make education a target here. By keeping citizens uneducated, those in power can better control them and their votes. This is a tactic that has been used throughout history to great success. Did you know that it was illegal for slaves to learn to read during that dark time in our history?

Call your Senator.