Hello Patriot Act

[quesarah]

High school students pose threat to President with Dylan lyrics

There's nothing like sparking a hysterical visit by the Secret Service to your high school to confirm every worst suspicion that a teenager could have about the idiocy of adults.

The members of "Coalition of the Willing," a band of students from Boulder High School, plan to sing Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" at the school talent show tonight. But when rumors surfaced on local talk radio that the band had changed the lyrics of the song during a rehearsal to threaten to kill the President, the feds were called in, according to multiple local and national news reports.

The lyrics of the anti-war anthem include: You might say that I'm young / You might say I'm unlearned / But there's one thing I know / Though I'm younger than you / Even Jesus would never / Forgive what you do

And the song ends:

And I hope that you die / And your death'll come soon / I will follow your casket / In the pale afternoon / And I'll watch while you're lowered / Down to your deathbed / And I'll stand o'er your grave / 'Til I'm sure that you're dead.

The students maintain they just rehearsed the song as its written. The Secret Service reportedly stayed at the school about 20 minutes on Thursday, and took a copy of the song's lyrics with them when they left, satisfied that President Bush was not in danger from them.

Paging Bob Dylan! He should offer to give a free concert at the school to thank the "Coalition of the Willing." The students could play back-up. In any case, the clever members of the band will have good fodder for their college application essays.

-- Katharine Mieszkowski

Comments

[virginmartyr1.livejournal.com]

those high school students exercising their freedom of speech (and song) are definitely pretty darn threatening.

you know that things aren't good when the secret service is after everybody that even thinks about giving an evil look to shrub. they've got to be running scared.

but hey, who needs inalienable rights?

i love those little boulder high kids. rock on. power to the people. *raised fist*

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, somebody's lookin' at lj at work! *shock* *gasp*

you know that things aren't good when the secret service is after everybody that even thinks about giving an evil look to shrub.

True. And all the more reason to work diligently to get him and his ilk out of office. 'Cause as much as we'd like to think the inalienable rights aren't a big deal, really they're pretty nifty. And I'd like to keep my inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness, which in the state of california also means I get to have the gay sex with my wife. It's the little things, really.

Power to the kids in Boulder!

[blankbadge.livejournal.com]

I think that situations like this show a certain mindset among extreme right wing people.
The only reason that the secret service turned up was because some people who had seen them rehersing were threatened by some percieved threat against their views by these kids. Rather than talk about it with anyone involved they called up a talkshow?
Their worldview is so fragile that they overreact to any percieved threat.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Instead of reacting appropriately to a conflicting opinion, they chose to notify some media outlet. They're unwilling to discuss, debate, or defend themselves. Instead they sound the alarm of "threat!"

That's a really sad state of affairs.

[wafflelips.livejournal.com]

Um, what year is it? I could swear we're in some sort of fucking timewarp.

[wafflelips.livejournal.com]

Oh, and look at the nimwits they are hiring to be in the secret service. Idiots.

[zazuomgwtf.livejournal.com]

it is 1950, duh!

[wafflelips.livejournal.com]

Lots and lots and lots of gay sex! Gay gay gay! Bob Dylan! Burn the flag! Fight the power! Down with Jesus!!

[wafflelips.livejournal.com]

Thanks for clearing that up. I'll go get my dress on and make sure the place is all prettied up for when my husband arrives home from his hard day at the office. Better put on some lipstick.

[zazuomgwtf.livejournal.com]

Yes, certainly. And make sure the atomic bomb shelter is spic and span, you never know when the commie menace will drop the a-bomb on us.

The names have changed, only the paranoia has stayed the same.
*headdesk*

[wafflelips.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Looks like I'm out of lipstick. I'll have to run up to the store and get some more.

While I'm at it, I'll pick up some more valium so that I don't have to be in a completly aware state of mind while my country's values are flushed down the toilet.

[blankbadge.livejournal.com]

I think it points to a very basic insecurity on their part. They know that if they get into a proper debate they will lose. Hell, with all the talk of how terrorists hate freedom all they are trying to do is curtail others freedom.

If someone criticises you and you are sure of your stance then it doesn't matter, it is only when you know your views don't make sense that you get pissed off about being questioned.

[distraction77.livejournal.com]

Again with the evil Wafflelips? Did you ever notice that 'Wafflelips' has the same number of letters as 'Helps Satan'? You dirty dirty Lesbian.

[wafflelips.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're just jealous.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

I read something very funny and very scary abotu this recently. The people they were having to hire to be in the Homeland Protection division.

Mostly, y'know, far-right evangelical christian types.

[wafflelips.livejournal.com]

Cuz they are so sensible and level-headed.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

My freak-ass psycho cousin is one of them. *shudder*

[kensson.livejournal.com]

I was placing it 34 years later, on a bright cold day in April.

Anyway, a far more disturbing Dylan lyric is: "Sometimes even the President of the United States must have to stand naked." I need to have a shower to wash the image out of my mind.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

But then. It's alla botu installing their own people in the positions necessary to utterly secure their power. They've got the White House, they'll soon have the courts. They've got the Senate and the Congress. They've got the mechanism of the Republican Party. They've got the FBI, the Department of Homeland Defence. They've pretty much got it all now.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

And of course, just about the only sector of the population who has any great interest on policing everybody else for thought crimes.

Bloody curtain-twitchers.

[woe2you.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing. *shudder*