The Role of Song in Advancing Health Care Reform

A physician-activist, Dr. Rick Lippin, knowing my deeply held belief that songs that touch peoples' hearts can bring them together to advance causes such as social justice and societal equity, posed a question to me about which songs might appropriately be applied to advance the health care reform movement in America. Dr. Lippin, a leader of national, significant, dialogue correctly cited "We Shall Overcome " as the signature song of the Civil Rights Movement. Peter, Paul & Mary and many others sang this song on behalf of that historic effort during the 1960s, a movement that culminated in landmark legislation and a sea change in what Americans came to realize might be accomplished through grassroots activism which, in those days, was inevitably accompanied by song.

Here was my response to Dr. Lippin just a few days ago.

Dear Rick,

First, congratulations on leading the most important kind of discussion that one can have in a democracy, one that we have seen falter in recent years, only to be resurrected by the "miracle" of the last presidential election. It was proved, then, that the hearts of Americans have, on balance, lost neither their essential decency nor their ability to think. ("On balance" is the active qualifier here.)

The question you pose as to what songs we might sing at this point as we address the reform of medical care in our country, is an important one. In my opinion, corresponding to your own, we are at a point at which the arc of history might be bent -- but only if we do not falter now and if we seize this most propitious moment. To my mind, the most important focus that we, those of long determination and commitment to a just and equitable society, need to maintain in song and in spirit, is an observance of our gratitude for what is good and is so exciting that is re-emerging in our country. Pete Seeger's choice of song in the context of President Obama's inauguration, "This Land Is Your Land", was exactly right, in my opinion.

Equally so, was the choice of the songs that spontaneously arose from the throats of hundreds of congressional staff people who were honoring the passing of a great, great, American, Senator Ted Kennedy, a champion of all that is decent and good in our country and society. Songs from the mouths and hearts of the long "loyal opposition" such as "My Country Tis of Thee" and "America the Beautiful" might resonate most powerfully now, in these times.

They proclaim us to be patriots, as indeed we are, we who believe that patriotism is embodied in the ceaseless asking of questions and engaging in the dialogue of ideas and differing perspectives, both of which are essential to the successful functioning of a democracy.

These songs of gratitude to our country and democracy proclaim us to be joyous our nation's choices support the common good, as opposed to the "good" of the haves over the good of the powerless and those in need. Conversely, singing these songs affirms our commitment to justice and equity, and to our belief that it is our patriotic duty to challenge the policies of our country and rightness of our national path when they do not reflect justice, fairness and equity.

In song and in our hearts, we can now celebrate a time which promises at least the beginning of our country's capacity to engage in self-reflection upon, not only the things of which of we can be proud, but upon what we need to view as our long-unexamined failures to ourselves and our promise to guarantee "liberty and justice for all" and also peoples of other lands with whom we engage, in friendship or, alas, with hostilities.

Therefore, this is the time to sing songs together that affirm our gratitude for what has recently occurred in our country with the election of a person of color to the presidency, one who in former times might well have been the target of segregationist fury, or even a lynch mob, rather than the leader of our nation.

In song and in spirit, in these times, we who hold the above perspective need to identify ourselves to each other and to others with whom we may not agree, as the citizens of America that are carrying the banner of faithfulness to the spirit of our nation that is once again, on balance, making us proud. Let us sing together so that we can begin to heal our nation's bruised heart by choosing a course that affirms the dignities and rights of all our citizens to enjoy the basic human right of affordable, good, medical treatment, regardless of their good fortune to have or, conversely, to not have, the means to pay for it.

When we are sick we are most vulnerable and, in truth, a nation's decency is most truthfully revealed in the ways it treats its most vulnerable and needy. We are the only nation that fought in the second World War (WWII) that does not yet have universal health care (except for the elderly through Medicare). Now is the time for America to join with other nations in this humane and just perspective, not only for our good citizens, but also to show the world that we are not so mean-spirited as to withhold treatment from those who cannot afford it. Through Medicare we who are older get the care we need, no matter what. Should we not extend this fundamental right to all? To children, to the poor, and to all who need it? Let us sing "This Land" and other such songs that express our gratitude for our country, not to confront or protest the absence of an equitable health care system, rather to affirm our commitment to allowing all Americans the right of affordable medical care.

"This Land Is Your Land"- by Woody Guthrie
Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking down freedom's highway
Nobody living, can make me turn back
This land was made for you and me

Let us keep the faith and move forward, my friends, and let your songs reveal the strength of your gratitude for the opportunity to reveal your heart's determination.

In Solidarity with all peoples of our country and the world,
Peter

Dr. Lippin especially resonated to my suggestion about focusing on Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" (a song I have also sung publicly on many occasions) and wrote back saying:

Singing now together Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" as a means to express our gratitude for history being made last November and the story continuing to unfold to include health care is a good one. You and Pete Seeger and others leading us in "This Land.." would be a remarkable event if a venue should arise on the health care issue either before or after a passage of health care bill.

Dr. Lippin correctly pointed out that a healthy land, after all, in a very literal sense and "land" as comprised of our fellow citizens and the ideals upon which our great nation was founded provides us very literally with sustenance and health.

So let up use the power song and singing together to help our new young president bring health care to all of our fellow citizens.

Comments

[jswazey]

I'm probably too late reading this to be part of the discussion but, at a recent MoveOn rally for Health Care, I mentioned the need for a rally song. After reading these posts, here is my feeble attempt at an added verse for health care reform:

Health care’s a human right, for all the people
No one should die from a lack of health care,
From little children to the elderly,
Health care’s a right for everyone.

[xs10shl1]

Well, I'm certainly glad to read your essay and all the fascinating responses. Here's my 2 cents:
What if you got together any willing musicians to do a "We Are The World"-type video: Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Patti Austin, Jeffrey Osborne, Lionel Richie, Keith Urban, James Taylor, Joan Baez, Willie Nelson, Michael McDonald, Norah Jones, Leonard Cohen, Alicia Keys, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Warnes, Bill Medley, k.d. lang, Lyle Lovett, et. al. Add some Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Earth, Wind & Fire, Chicago and the Doobie Brothers! Just thinking about such a happening cheers me up! ha! Surely it would get some air time, doncha' think?
Also, from decades ago, I am still charmed by your PP&M song "Messiers Que Noms est Grandes" (please excuse my battered francais!). "Men whose names are great, I am writing you a letter, that you will read perhaps, s'il vous avez les temps, if you have the time....." So touching, so lovely. That song gets my vote.

[LegalCat]

Remember the war against Franco,
That's the kind where each of us belongs.
He may have won all the battles,
But we had all the good songs.

So, join in the Folk Song Army!
Guitars are the weapons we bring.
To the fight against poverty, war, and injustice,
Ready . . .
Aim . . .
Sing!

I'm not sure Tom Lehrer got it wrong. I don't know if singing songs really accomplishes anything other than making the choir you're preaching to clap their hands in unison. And I'm really, really sure that we on the left wouldn't be fighting off the "you guys don't support the troops" meme nearly has hard if it weren't for Buffy Sainte-Marie and "Universal Soldier." I think Buffy has a lot to answer for, much as I loved to groove along with her in the 60's.

[michael429]

Witness to a Tea Party

I past by a rally the other day
Most of the people were pale, white and grey
they want their country back I heard them say
From the Socialists, Liberals and Gays
So I stopped and I listened

“We love America,
we love our cheesburgers
We love our right to smoke
We love our ignorance
A form of innocence
That Obama is taking away”

“We like things just the way they were
Eight long months ago
Before Obama got here
And started in with Health Care
And other stuff that makes our numbers grow”

I scratched my head in silence
As I listened to them chant
Seemed to me they didn’t love much at all
Seemed to me they were afraid
And that at the heart of their parade
Is a wish to see any progress fall

Healthcare’s too expensive
It isn’t like a war
It’s not something
We should be forced to do

No regulated system
Could possibly be good
Instead we need to revoke
Our right to sue

"If the Founding Fathers wished it
They would have insisted
That it be written right into our laws
The idea things are changing
That they are re-arranging
Means that we will settle this score"

I shrugged and walked away
Thinking that I can afford to pay
For what a great many of them
never had from the start
And how fear and greed
can blunt a generous deed
blinding the mind and heart

[GrumpyOldGeek]

Thanks Peter,
Your message lifted my spirits. Yes, music really does empower social change. When you got together for a school benefit concert soon after Sept 11, you chose to sing "This Land..", "If I Had A Hammer", and "Leaving On A Jet Plane" among other appropriate songs. This concert touched everyone deeply, yet strengthened each of us. The timing couldn't have been better.

Now, the timing is right for health care reform. Music might make it happen this time. Music strengthened our resolve to end the Vietnam War and music guided us through the Civil Rights struggle.

I happen to be a look-alike for Noel and still get an occasional "Are you, uh...?". I kind of enjoy these moments. My wife was employed at the school until a year or so after Betty and Noel left. Now we are both unemployed. Our health insurance went from about $100/mo co-pay to about $700/mo COBRA, to about $1800/mo private insurance. Unemployment benefits ran out and savings are gone. Medicare in four years. I dipped into my retirement funds today. Yet millions of people are not as fortunate.

Your message really did lift my spirits.

Maybe Johnny Cash's 'Dirty Old Egg Sucking Dog' or 'Flushed Down The Bathroom of Your Heart' or one of my favorite C/W titles, 'She Ripped Out My Heart And Stomped That Sucker Flat'.

Maybe inspiration from a classic Woody Guthrie song or an old slave spritual.

God bless...

[jimpager]

I love the circular songs like "Where have all the Flowers Gone." How about a circular song, perhaps called, "Right to Life," that talks of preaching "right to life"...

a) but voting against universal healh care,
b) but voting against stopping war(s),
c) but voting against VA hospital funding,
d) but voting against Stem cell research,
e) but voting against any program that would enable aging with dignity.


and perhaps another circular song that speaks of...

a) Hitler whipping up the mobs of the 1930s (Brown Shirts) that enabled him to take power,
b) Corporations whipping up on union strikers to intimidate union formation,
c) The Klan, Birch Society, Minitemen, and George Wallace/Lester Maddox whipping up the south so
the climate was created within which JFK, MLK, and RFK could be killed without tough questions.
d) "The T-Baggers," "The Berthers," "The Deathers," and the "Successionists, being whipped up today towards what end?

Time for a progressive cultural renaissance so we don't live through the horrors of our past.

[MaryRW]

It is for exactly this reason that I wrote new lyrics to the Florence Reece classic "Which Side Are You On?" http://worleydervish.blogspot.com/2009/09/which-side-are-you-on-video.html

[MaryinSeattle]

I saw a Senator, up for re-election
He feared the healthcare bill, might cost him everything
But he did the moral thing. The public option.
Because this land was made for you and me.

[BloginSong]

I am so excited to read this post. I recently started a site called http://bloginsong.com And this week, of course, I am trying to write a song about health care. I don't usually do the kind of "rally cry" songs that we need to be singing in groups to unify the movement, but I do examine these issues in song, in hopes that music will encourage people to get more involved. As we know, this works. Sometimes a tune and an idea together are better at reaching people.

The references to other NEW writers above is what excites me the most. I am exploring the links provided here. I love many of the classic songs mentioned - those work too. But for me its even more powerful to get the new, younger generations involved in a robust way - and SONG is just about as good as it gets.

The last song I posted is called GUN GUN GUN. I think this weeks song will be called PATRIOT, since that is what we are...those of us fighting to care for the sick in our great nation! GREAT POST!

[Crowned]

Yes. song, but more than song is needed. Remember the "hippies" who stuck flowers into the gun barrels of Guardsmen? We need some of them to go to the Town Halls where fearmongers gather with their guns today. That this country could be so fearsomely angry at such a humane thing as taking care of their brother is a sad testament to America today. Not a word from them on the mass murder we inflicted on innocents in Iraq, yet for this they bear arms.

[tnkeating]

most of us old hippies ARE the gun toting fearmongers gathering around the flag, because we learned something from putting flowers in the barrels of guns..... We learned we can't leach off our parents and relatives the rest of our lives, eventually we have to go to work. We learned don't look to the government for help because they only help themselves. We never stopped loving America or knowing what a beautiful country we all live in. We all worked hard and raised our families and we refuse to put our childrens, children in debt to take care of your brother. We will always take care of our own brothers as we all should, but I am not my brothers keeper, for if I were he would not be free. Hippies has always been about freedom and trying to live your life like Jesus Christ, we can help when we can, but we can't turn water into wine.

[CaveatMagnusFrater]

Hi Peter,

I imiagine that if you contact some other movement song writers, you can influence the change. Perhaps, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen and Bono and you could write the song. John Mellecamp's Scarecrow is still a haunting tale of the loss of a life style to the corporate profit machine.
"
Grandpa stopped taking his pills so he'd still have a house to leave his grandkids" one possible subject matter for a verse..

Good luck,
What can I do to help?
mike

[SDistaso]

My favorite is "Sweet Survivor". Very powerful this week. Thanks Peter Yarrow. For everything that matters, carry on!

[Pragmo]

Perfect. If we can't bring change and health care reform with solid arguments and political force, let's try a catchy song. How about "Pop Goes The Weasel". No wonder health care is dying on the vine.

[matttman]

I know, I'm a jerk, I never was a fan of Bob Dylan, his voice was like sand and glue. I did see a documentary about him about a year ago, and even though his music isn't my style, I've come to realize, that he is one of our most important songwriters.His lyrics will pick you up and shake you. I'm making no attempt to be Bob Dylan, but I did write a song that I'd love to give to the world. I hope someday I can approach Dylan's eloquence, but this is where I'm at now. Perhaps it can have even a small role in advancing health care reform. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone who might appreciate it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y08uJ42X48

[joedera]

Peter my old friend....I say "Fools Rush In" covers a variety of sins here.