Courageous right wingers sic secret service on HS kids for singing Dylan song

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Fri, 12 Nov 2004 08:13:15 -0800

Subject:Courageous right wingers sic secret service on HS kids for

singing Dylan song

 

 

 

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3323602,00.

html

 

Secret Service pays visit to Boulder High

By Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News

November 12, 2004

 

Bob Dylan's Masters of War is a hard-hitting, anti-war song produced

more than 20 years before any current Boulder High School student was

born.

 

More than 40 years after its release, the song has been resurrected at

Boulder High with huge and confusing repercussions that prompted

Secret Service agents to pay the campus a visit Thursday.

 

Some students and parents apparently let the Secret Service and

talk-radio stations know they were unhappy with the plan of a trio of

students to do a poetry reading of the song, accompanied by background

music, according to Ron Cabrera, the school's principal.

 

Rumors were rampant that during an audition and rehearsal for today's

talent show, the students changed Dylan's powerful last verse at the

end of the song to say that they hoped that President Bush was going

to die.

 

The last verse begins: " And I hope that you die; And your death'll

come soon. "

 

Secret Service agents interviewed Cabrera on Thursday to determine

what all the uproar was about and whether any threats were being made

against the president's life.

 

" They were following up and doing their due diligence, " Cabrera said

of the agents' visit. " They had been receiving calls from the

community and, in the course of the talk show, felt like they had

heard (the students) inciting physical harm to the president. "

 

Cabrera said he talked to the students and teachers who have been

working with them, and he was told the group, which calls itself the

Coalition of the Willing, made no reference to Bush.

 

" I don't know why it surfaced, " Cabrera said of the complaints. " I

think they're surprised by all the allegations. "

 

Cabrera said he also showed the agents the lyrics of the entire song.

The agents appeared to have left satisfied that no bona-fide threat

was being directed at the president, he said.

 

The principal said the students' performance of the song at the talent

show upholds their right to express themselves, and he did not think

it was inappropriate in a campus setting.

 

A Secret Service spokesman could not be reached for comment.

 

Cabrera acknowledged that the group did consider at one time naming

itself the " Tali-banned. " A teacher persuaded the teens to drop the

title because it was offensive, he said.

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It's remarkable that this 40 year old anti-war song is so easily

interpreted

as anti-Bush....................

 

 

Come you masters of war

You that build all the guns

You that build the death planes

You that build the big bombs

You that hide behind walls

You that hide behind desks

I just want you to know

I can see through your masks

 

You that never done nothin'

But build to destroy

You play with my world

Like it's your little toy

You put a gun in my hand

And you hide from my eyes

And you turn and run farther

When the fast bullets fly

 

Like Judas of old

You lie and deceive

A world war can be won

You want me to believe

But I see through your eyes

And I see through your brain

Like I see through the water

That runs down my drain

 

You fasten the triggers

For the others to fire

Then you set back and watch

When the death count gets higher

You hide in your mansion

As young people's blood

Flows out of their bodies

And is buried in the mud

 

You've thrown the worst fear

That can ever be hurled

Fear to bring children

Into the world

For threatening my baby

Unborn and unnamed

You ain't worth the blood

That runs in your veins

 

How much do I know

To talk out of turn

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

 

Let me ask you one question

Is your money that good

Will it buy you forgiveness

Do you think that it could

I think you will find

When your death takes its toll

All the money you made

Will never buy back your soul

 

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

 

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