The Spirit of Freedom Embodied In Rhyme

The images used to make this piece are screenshots taken from a scene in the 1945 film "Anchors Aweigh" where actor Gene Kelly dances with Jerry Mouse. This part of the film is where Gene Kelly's character tells a story to a group of school children. In this story, he enters a magical kingdom where the inhabitants are forbidden to sing and dance by their king (played by Jerry Mouse), who feels insecure about the fact that he himself can't sing and dance. Gene Kelly's character brings joy back to the land by teaching the king how to sing and dance, and thus convincing him to lift the ban on singing and dancing.

What does this segment from an incredibly old movie have to do with the Spirit of Freedom, you ask? There is one line in this sequence which struck deep into my soul. After the inhabitants of the kingdom tell Kelly's character that the law forbids them to sing and dance he proclaims that it's a terrible law and sings, "I'll sing and dance whenever I will, no law on Earth can keep me still." It was there in that simple little rhyme I heard and felt the very spirit of righteous defiance that signifies the very essence of what freedom and liberty is. I heard the powerful conviction of free will upon which this country was originally founded, and that Americans today seem to have strayed so very far from. We've gone from a country of hardy freedom-fighters who rebelled against the British Empire over a tax increase on tea to a wimpy bunch of complacent pansies who allow the government to rob us, lie to us, and spy on us without it immediately sparking a second revolution. We've gone from "No taxation without representation" to "The government knows best". PATHETIC!!

There is too much wimpy complacency plaguing this country! What we need now more than ever is to return to the root of our nation's birth and once again seize that spirit of outraged defiance in the face of corruption and oppression! There is far too much civil obedience! What we need is civil DISOBEDIENCE! There was a time in this country that any talk of passing laws which violate the inalienable rights would have been met with vicious lynch mobs crying for blood. Now we have fools so quick to vote away their natural-born rights because of lies and propaganda that cause them to give into weak-spirited fears and the false promises of two-faced bureaucrats. How far this country has fallen. We are a country of naive children being led by retarded old fools and liars too incompetent to even be left alone with a box of matches.

The defiance embodied in this simple rhyme from an old film from the 40's is the very same defiance we as a people need to re-adopt. In fact, this quote has inspired me to come up with a few rhymes of my own; which anybody reading this is free to use and adapt for their own purposes...

"I'll keep my guns, FUCK you all, against all enemies great or small, threaten my liberty and you will fall."

"I'll love who I love, my heart does not yield to your complaint, no law of man can force it to show restraint."

"I'll speak my mind all night and day, your laws cannot censor what I say."

"If the law is wrong, I won't obey, truth and liberty is the only way."

Defiance, not obedience, is the soil in which the Tree of Liberty is grown, and only through this defiance, guided by truth and reason, will the tree continue to stand tall and proud. Let us once again become a rebellious people and chase corruption and tyranny back to the pits where such things belong!

You can see the original clip from that movie here... www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUIhu7… (such a pity all political and social injustices can't be remedied with a choreographed song and dance number. ^^)