Mary Travers, of the Sixties singing trio Peter, Paul and Mary, died Sept. 16 of leukemia at the age of 72 — my condolences to her family and loved ones.
I hesitated about posting this yesterday because of the “hammer of justice” line — now that I understand why the Left does not make good on its promises of “social justice,” which is why I could not get the Leftist lesbians at the tippy-top of the disability rights movement to choose wheelchair-accessible venues for the annual meetings of Passages in the 1990’s — although the venues were always advertised as wheelchair-accessible. I’ll be writing more soon on Dr. Jamie Glazov’s book, United in Hate, which updates the insights of Eric Hoffer and explains why the Left is all about saying one thing and doing another.
But when I decided to check on the lyrics, I found them posted at Arlo Guthrie’s Web site — and thanks to Roger Simon, I learned recently that Arlo has been a Republican for several years now. I believe it’s because he had the integrity to join the party that truly has the values he espoused in his youth and says what it means and does what it says, liberty- and social-justice-wise. So — since we mean it when we sing it, and we could use more songs to sing at our Tea Parties — I am appropriating “If I had a hammer” from the Left for the Right, since we will use it in the spirit in which it was written.
Thank you, Mary, for lifting our hearts.
What a great article…..wonderful to hear that Arlo’s seen the light! My friends and I use to drag our guitars to every “hootenanny” we could find back in the 60’s. Good times…..good times……
I was only young when this song was a hit. I remember it well and sang along without knowing the meaning and intent of the song. I lived in a bush mining town although my parents were not miners but part of the capitalist establishment. They were not political activists so there was no discussion around songs such as these. The funny thing is if I had a hammer now I would still hammer out the same things; freedom, justice, equality. All these years later we still have brave men and women fighting to ensure we retain our right to each of these. Life’s a circle, all the world over.
YouTube – Joni Mitchell Live At The Carnegie Hall 1972 the circle game