Part of that oath was "... to support and defend the Constitution of the United States..."
I am no longer in the U.S. Air Force, but my commitment "... to support and defend the Constitution of the United States..." is no less passionate.
I get angry when I hear of any sort of suppression in American culture or society. What part of individual freedom do people NOT understand? I feel similarly when I hear about it in other countries, but I don't live or vote there, so I'll stick with what I know and can change.
I am reminded of a couple of examples from "The Ed Sullivan Show" I won't look up links, you can find them via Google if you wish. I'm going to ad-lib, so forgive me if I get details or quotes wrong.
When The Rolling Stones appeared, it was requested that they change the lyrics of "Let's Spend the Night Together" to "Let's Spend Some Time Together." Now, we're not talking about just lyrics... that is changing the name of the song! The Stones sold their souls. Forget Sympathy for the Devil. They sold their souls to Ed Sullivan and whoever was sponsoring the show that night.
Then there was the single time "The Doors" appeared. It was requested that their song "Light My Fire" be altered from "Girl we couldn't get much higher" to something else. I don't even know what tripe was supposed to be inserted, but they agreed. But when Jim Morrison sang the lyrics... he sang them as he wrote them.
Afterward, some big-wig came back stage and said "You'll never be on the Ed Sullivan show again!" And Morrison said "We just DID the Sullivan show..." Or words to that effect.
Who do you think I respect most? It wasn't government censorship, so it wasn't unconstitutional. But it was wrong. Thank you, Jim Morrison.
I find that I'm suddenly on a John Denver kick. And yes, this ties in with the First Amendment.
Some of you maybe didn't care, some of you may have had your head in the sand. But in 1985 there was a censorship movement. (Rock music was evil and if you played your albums backward, you'd either commit suicide or go to hell.) Never mind the groups which wrote lyrics FORWARD to achieve the same result. Al Gore's wife "Tipper" was leading a group called the PMRC. (Parents Music Resource Center) There were hearings before the U.S. Senate (Al Gore was a Senator at the time, so why not?)
Anyway... it was one of the most bizarre things I've had the privilege to witness. (Thank you C-SPAN!) Who could imagine? It brought together Dee Snider of "Twisted Sister," Frank Zappa, and John Denver!
Dee & Frank were a little more crass in their presentations, but who cares? (I *am* talking about freedom of speech here, right?) John Denver's, in my opinion, was respectful and got the overall message across more successfully. (Frank Zappa was a genius, ...not nearly enough credit is given to his music or thoughts.)
So I will post a couple of links for John Denver. You can also find Frank & Dee's testimony on YouTube.
This atheist says "God Bless America!" (Perhaps insincere... but old habits die hard!)
And a song which still sends chills down my spine. Unless you've been atop a mountain at midnight... it's hard to fully understand what he's singing about:
On a side note, I don't really give a rat's hairy ass if every one of his friends was Bogarting a joint. I believe him when he says that's not what the song was about. Music is wonderfully open to interpretation.
(The version I've posted is not visually captivating... but so many versions leave out one of my favorite lines "Talk to God and listen to the casual reply")
How about that... an atheist saying that leaving God out of a song is wrong?
Can things get any stranger?
Stay tuned.
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