Bob Dylan Time Shift From Second Gear To Overdrive

 

 

Like so many today, I also feel change in the wind, and like any baby boomer worthy of the tag, I consult the only text reliable enough to lay it all out in understandable language.

 

No, not the Bible, or any religious narratives.

 

I turn to Bob Dylan, and so should you.

 

Here’s why:

 

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?

 

If the first two lines don’t reflect the LGBTQ community as part of the community, what does? It’s like Dylan saw into the future.

 

The middle two lines ask how long a war must last in Afghanistan. Let that white dove rest.

 

The final two lines point to the recent budget request and check written to the Pentagon. Those cannonballs won’t be banned too soon, neither will drones and missiles.

 

How did Bob Dylan get a look behind the curtain in the Sixties and see 2018?

 

Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretending that he just doesn’t see?

 

Doesn’t see what?

 

I posted a pro-Obama thing on twitter talking about my Obama lawn sign, Obama Christmas picture, and Obama letter from the era. My idea was to remind my followers of a different time.

 

And they dumped me. Now I know, right? Was Bob Dylan an Obama guy?

 

Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows
That too many people have died?

 

Two men whose opinions I seek addressed the question how many deaths will it take.

 

They used the Rwanda genocide as reference, where one side felt superior to the other and when given the chance went mass murder on a crazy scale. What else is genocide?

 

How many deaths did it take then? How many deaths when England left India and fifteen million people moved for the Hindu / Muslim partition?

 

The answer isn’t blowing in the wind any more than it’s written in law or sung in choir.

 

The only answer is your answer. How many ears? How many eyes? If things don’t look right, or sound right, make a change.

 

Start by voting.

 

If you don’t want to vote every candidate or measure, pick one of each. Spend ten minutes you’d spend on facebook and google the person and issue you chose.

 

Then vote.

 

Chances are good if you do a little search you’ll do more. If you vote two things, you’ll vote four. Do the small things and then you won’t be blowing in the wind.

 

 

With thanks to Bob Dylan.