"Freedom, you ain't no freedom, you want your freedom
Your freedom is killing you man, freedom
You can't handle your freedom, hey
And now you're dying for it"
Hopefully we all had teachers that challenged you a
little more than most, stayed current, and made learning an inclusive experience.
That teacher for me was my high school senior year government teacher, Mr. Stableford. He'd been teaching for a while and didn’t seem worried about pushing the envelope since he wasn’t concerned about losing his gig. Plus, he was teaching
high school seniors so were all 17 and 18 year old’s and I appreciated being treated
like an adult. “Duke” (his first name) stood well over 6 feet tall and drove an
old school pick up truck with a personalized license plate that said
Grtfl Ded. He was passionate about the political system, current events, and a huge
music buff. He’d always be blasting music between classes till the bell went
off. One of the projects he had students do each year was to pick a song that
dealt with some type of social issue and then have each student play their song,
give a little history of the artist , and then talk about the issue. As an example,
he played us Rage Against the Machine’s “Take the Power Back” Every time
there was a curse word he would act like he was going to turn it down but instead
made it louder. What a jokester. I immediately riffled through my case logic cd
book trying to figure out what song I would like to share. I was a huge Rollins
Band/Henry Rollins/Black Flag fan back then (and now) so I decided to go with
the attached song.
Henry and his roommate were robbed at gunpoint and his best
friend ended up getting shot and killed while he was able to escape.(There’s actually
an Unsolved Mysteries episode about the events, wild that show is back) I can’t
imagine what that would do to someone but can see why this tune was composed.
This version is from Woodstock 1994. I remember my girlfriend at the time
ordered the whole weekend on pay per view and I recorded this concert, Nine
Inch Nails, Porno for Pyros, Green Day, and Cypress Hill. I believe I still
have these performances someone on VHS. It would be another year before I would
attend my first Lollapoloza so I was a wee bit young to head to New York and
see this spectacle in person.
I bought the book pictured back in 1997 at a bookstore in
Boston Massachusetts. Pre amazon days it was difficult to find some of the alternative
books and CD’s in my town so I had to take advantage whenever I was in the big
city (fortunately for me I grew up an hour away from Washington DC) I bought
many Rollins books back then. The first one was Get in the Van which
chronicles Henry’s beginnings with Black Flag. Henry doesn’t sing with a band
anymore but he does travel the world doing his spoken word shows. I’ve been fortunate to see him
5 or 6 times. In the shows he gives his take on current events, traveling the
world, and experiences from his many years in a rock band. Check it out when we can do that again.
I thought of this song after my town held a rally entitled “GunStock
Rally 2.0” (cute play on Woodstock) over the 4th of July weekend. The
press put out the usually pictures of the typical "gun rally action figure"…Bulletproof
Vest, Assault rifle in hand, beer belly, and some type of camo. (confederate paraphernalia
and Make America Great items sold separately) The organizers boosted 15,000 people would show
up to fight the new laws that let you buy only one gun per month, give up their
guns if they represent a danger to themselves or others and have a background check before purchasing a firearm.(about
250 people showed up) Wait, those weren’t already laws?
This song came out in 1994, 5 years before Columbine. I
managed to make it out of my schooling experience without ever having an active
shooter drill or even fearing something like that would happen. I don’t know
that these measures will cut down on all mass shootings but as someone wiser
than me once said,” The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and
over again and expecting a different result.” Seems like a good time to change some of the
variables. Oh yeah as a shout out to Mr. Stableford here’s a little two for Wednesday.
Is the Rage song written back in 1992 still relevant? Uh yeah.
