SongGate Continues

by Gregg Chadwick

K'NAAN

Photo by Erin Baiano
        CourtesyThe New York Times

         

SongGate continues. The New York Times and other websites and publications have now picked up the story of K'NAAN's extreme displeasure over the Romney campaign's misuse of his rousing anthem of freedom Wavin' Flag. Earlier this week, I posted about the controversy. I am heartened that the national media continues to dig into the issues involved.

What is amazing to me is the utter lack of critical listening by Mitt Romney and his campaign. Did anyone involved listen to K'NAAN's powerful lyrics? The following verses don't sound like Romneyspeak to me:

Born to a throne, stronger than Rome

A violent prone, poor people zone

But it's my home, all I have known

Where I got grown, streets we would roam

Out of the darkness, I came the farthest

Among the hardest survival

Learn from these streets, it can be bleak

Accept no defeat, surrender, retreat

So we struggling, fighting to eat. 

So many wars, settling scores

Bringing us promises, leaving us poor

I heard them say 'love is the way'

'Love is the answer,' that's what they say 

But look how they treat us, make us believers

We fight their battles, then they deceive us

Try to control us, they couldn't hold us

'Cause we just move forward like Buffalo Soldiers

The image of Mitt Romney and his followers moving forward like Buffalo Soldiers is deeply surreal.
I wonder if Mitt is a closeted Bob Marley fan?

Cabinet card portrait of an African American Buffalo Soldier
 Probably a member of the Ninth U. S. Cavalry band, about 1890.
Courtesy Nebraska Library Archives