Obama Nation: A Long Walk Home

Springsteen might have a different story in mind when he wrote his lyrics to A Long Walk Home, but this morning as I was running on the bikepath in a path of fall foliage, blowing across my feet, orange, red, mostly yellow and somber, listening to his music, I decided he's talking about what we all can do to make this a better USA. This is a beautiful, wonderful, hopeful country where a person can be treated fairly, where a guy can get a break, remember?

So watch the video first. Then come back and read the rest of this.

It's gonna be a long walk HOME. It's going to take some time to restore this country to the wonderful unafraid brave bold prosperous country they call the Good Ole USA in song lyrics.

And we can all find that NEW OLE USA in songs -- rock and country and blues and jazz and rap and hiphop and reggaeton -- that wonderful New Ole USA is tall and proud standing there behind the musicians in all those song. We just need to revisit it and rebuild it. We need to build out a new infrastructure -- an emotional infrastructure of hope and tolerance. You know, like the dad in the song says "flag flyin' over the courthouse, means certain things are set in stone. Who we are, what we'll do and what we won't." We all need to take that long walk home to THAT America.

When he's talking about that flag flying over the courthouse, If he's not talking about the Constitution being tortured for the last 8 years, I'm going to let myself think so, and feel glad that we've all got a chance to restore the rule of law, constitutional rights for all people, the Geneva Convention and all other moral and ethical laws that seem to have been debased.

A Long Walk Home -- Bruce Springsteen

Last night I stood at your doorstep
Trying to figure out what went wrong
You just slipped something into my palm and you were gone

I could smell the same deep green of summer
'Bove me the same night sky was glowin'
In the distance I could see the town where I was born

It's gonna be a long walk home
Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me
Gonna be a long walk home
A long walk home

In town I pass Sal's grocery
Barber shop on South Street
I looked in their faces*
They're all rank strangers to me*
Well Veteran's Hall high upon the hill
Stood silent and alone
The diner was shuttered and boarded
With a sign that just said "gone"

It's gonna be a long walk home
Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me
Gonna be a long walk home
Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me
Gonna be a long walk home
It's gonna be a long walk home

Here everybody has a neighbor
Everybody has a friend
Everybody has a reason to begin again

My father said "Son, we're lucky in this town,
It's a beautiful place to be born.
It just wraps its arms around you,
Nobody crowds you and nobody goes it alone"

"Your flag flyin' over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone.
Who we are, what we'll do and what we won't"

It's gonna be a long walk home
Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me
Gonna be a long walk home
Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me
Gonna be a long walk home
It's gonna be a long walk home
It's gonna be a long walk home
Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me
Gonna be a long walk home
Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me
Gonna be a long walk home
It's gonna be a long walk home
It's gonna be a long walk home