Saturday, November 26, 2011

The Workers' Song



Come all of you workers who toil night and day
By hand and by brain to earn your pay
Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread
Have bled for your countries and counted your dead
CHORUS:
We're the first ones to starve the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat's about

In the factories and mills, in the shipyards and mines
We've often been told to keep up with the times
For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job
And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed

But when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
When we've never owned one handful of earth?

All of these things the worker has done
From tilling the fields to carrying the gun
We've been yoked to the plough since time first began
And always expected to carry the can

Tom Paine's Bones


As I dreamed out one evening
By a river of discontent
I bumped straight into old Tom Paine
As running down the road he went
He said, "I can't stop right now, child,
King George is after me
He'd have a rope around my throat
And hang me on the Liberty Tree"

But I will dance to Tom Paine's bones
Dance to Tom Paine's bones
Dance in the oldest boots I own
To the rhythm of Tom Paine's bones
I will dance to Tom Paine's bones
Dance to Tom Paine's bones
Dance in the oldest boots I own
To the rhythm of Tom Paine's bones

"I only talked about freedom
And justice for everyone
But since the very first word I spoke
I've been looking down the barrel of a gun
They say I preached revolution
Let me say in my defence
That all I did wherever I went
Was to talk a lot of common sense"

Old Tom Paine he ran so fast
He left me standing still
And there I was, a piece of paper in my hand
Standing at the top of the hill
It said, "This is the Age Of Reason
These are The Rights Of Man
Kick off religion and monarchy"
It was written there in Tom Paine's plan

Old Tom Paine, there he lies
Nobody laughs and nobody cries
Where he's gone or how he fares
Nobody knows and nobody cares

But I will dance to Tom Paine's bones
Dance to Tom Paine's bones
Dance in the oldest boots I own
To the rhythm of Tom Paine's bones
I will dance to Tom Paine's bones
Dance to Tom Paine's bones
Dance in the oldest boots I own
To the rhythm of Tom Paine's bones


Words and lyrics by Graham Moore

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Like it or not, you ARE the 99%

I keep seeing conservatives saying, "Don't include me in your 99%!"
It shows that they just don't get what it means or what the whole problem really is.
I just wrote this to a business owner who posted a similar comment on a friend's wall. Feel free to use it to respond to others with that misunderstanding.

The 99% are not people who hold a political viewpoint they are the 99% who pay taxes, whohave almost no say in the corridors of power, who pay for the follies of their government.
It is the middle class, small business owners like yourself or the people you work for and with, that have built the United States into one of the world's greatest economic powers.
The middle class creates over 80% of new jobs and opportunities in this country
It is the working class, the people who repair the roads, pick the vegetables, work in shops, teach our children, and nurse the sick that keep this country going.

The 1% moves their assets off shore to avoid taxes and when then doesn't work gets the laws re-written. Speculators who buy profitable companies, strip out what is of value, sells it and closes the rest, putting more people out of work.
They buy politicians so that they can pay less taxes than you did or I did last year. They subvert the Constitution to serve their greed and are willing to destroy our children's future if necessary to have more money.

Unless you are worth at least $19,100,000 and earn over $400,000 a year I'm sorry but you're still part of the 99%.