Rockin' in the Free World

Note: I was traveling for business last week and could not post do to a crap internet connection at the downtown Marriott in Kansas City. Booo-urns. This should have been posted on Wed., Nov. 5.

"I didn't vote for him, but I wish him well."
- Overheard at Kansas City International Airport

Neil Young - Rockin' in the Free World (live acoustic).mp3
Buy: Freedom (1989)

It was a great day to be an American on Nov. 5, 2008. As I cruised through the Toronto airport, the election was all everyone was talking about, especially the Canadians. And most of the people that I met, such as the gentleman in the above quote, were, for the first time in a long time, genuinely hopeful about the future. Even my father's distant cousins in Germany e-mailed him to congratulate him on the president-elect.

"Rockin' in the Free World" is one of my favorite Neil Young songs. It was written in the context of the 1980's Regan/Bush I American, but I think it still rings pretty true today. The song is very incendiary, but with a hint of hopefulness. The US has lots of problems, and those problems are not going to go away with a new president. There is a ton of work to be done.

Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive,
Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive.
Keep on rockin' in the Free World!