Parents and students say they are outraged and offended by a proposed band name and song scheduled for a high school talent show in Boulder this evening, but members of the band, named Coalition of the Willing, said the whole thing is being blown out of proportion. The students told ABC News affiliate KMGH-TV in Denver they are performing Bob Dylan’s song “Masters of War” during the Boulder High School Talent Expose because they are Dylan fans. They said they want to express their views and show off their musical abilities.
But some students and adults who heard the band rehearse called a radio talk show Thursday morning, saying the song the band sang ended with a call for President Bush to die. Threatening the president is a federal crime, so the Secret Service was called to the school to investigate. Students in the band said they’re just singing the lyrics and not inciting anyone to do anything.
The 1963 song ends with the lyrics: “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 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.”
— abc.com
You gotta love that the principle stood behind the students. The students went on to perform the song anyway. Fuck the stepford wives who wanted otherwise.
This is the same school where students held a sit-in demanding to meet with representatives from the state political parties after the Shrub won the election.
Side note to head Stepford Wife James Lemons: You don’t live in a democracy. Your taxes do not give you a vote in everything that happens. You live in a republic, where your represented by someone who makes decisions in your place. There’s no promise that those are the decisions you would make. Civil rights have never been wanted by the voting majority. War is never wanted by the voting majority. The most inspiring and monumental art in history has never been representative of the majority.
So bite me.
Emilie
As a student at Boulder High, Thank YOU. The reporters have been all over my friends, some people are stalking one of my friends (brian, you may have heard of him) for a dumb documentary, all this rucus over a student worker based band. They cut out our mics too, and that just pissed us off to no extent. Two teachers might lose their jobs, and we have secret service agents in our school. You can’t trust anything. Thank god, reporters dont like me.
monkeyboy
I was pretty impressed by the whole thing really. The school administrators and students seemed to be thinking everything through very intelligently and reasonably. It’s some of the residents that were being irrational, egged on by the media, of course. The students just need to be sure not to be goaded into acting like those people that are stirring the whole thing up.
I’d love to hear how it turns out.