When will we ever learn (with apologies to Pete Seger)

[northofdenali]

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?


Gone to young girls, everyone

Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?


Gone to young men everyone

Where have all the young men gone, long time passing?


Gone for soldiers everyone

Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?


Gone to graveyards everyone

Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?


Gone to flowers, everyone

When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?

[northofdenali]

1. Damn! I'm kicking my own topic again!

Oh well, someone will see it!

[MrSlayer]

2. That's very clever.

I enjoyed it and may steal it.

[northofdenali]

3. Just something I had been thinking about. I love anti-war lyrics.

This came to me, and made me sad, then pissed me off.

Steal away, all public domain!

[Jacobin]

5. In the same vein, I'll kick it with my favorite Dylan war tune

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.

[northofdenali]

7. I do love that song. Is God "on our side"?

I think so. But mankind evidently isn't. And that goes double for the * misAdministration.

[Virginian]

4. Some people who don't learn history are destined to repeat it.

I remember singing that song in the early/mid sixties when most of those names on that black wall were still attached to living people.

[northofdenali]

6. My ex's best friend was one of them.

When will we learn?

[countmyvote4real]

9. Same here, but I was too chicken to cut school and protest.

Not anymore. Some of us do learn.

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. Remember the Weavers?

Great stuff. :-)

[OneBlueSky]

10. Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman . . .

the seminal folk group of the 50s . . . the ones who started the folk revival . . . they were blacklisted during the McCarthy era, and when Pete testified before HUAC, he invoked not the Fifth Amendment, but the First Amendment, citing its protection of freedom of speech . . . one of my heroes for sure (and a friend of some 35 years) . . .

[Elwood P Dowd]

11. Get yourself a copy of the 1963 Carnegie Hall Reunion concert.

The music, the performance, and the quality of the recording make it a classic. Remastered audiophile LPs of this sell for $50.00, and gold CDs for $30.00.