Don't it always seem to go
You don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
"Big Yellow Taxi" is the song I am featuring in this blog posting. Click that link for the words. Probably, you already know the words. At least, I am betting that you have probably heard the words to the refrain, which I have set out above. Joni Mitchell sings that song, and if you want to listen to her sing it, you should click right here. If you want to think about some implications of what that song is telling us, keep on reading.
According to information found on Joni Mitchell's website, "Big Yellow Taxi" was written in 1970. In the 1970s, I was a County Supervisor in Santa Cruz County, California, and "development" issues were being fiercely debated. Paving over paradise, to put up a parking lot, was an all too realistic possibility. Generally speaking, those voters who voted for me were not at all interested in putting up a few more parking lots. They were interested in preserving various aspects of the paradise they found in Santa Cruz County, the smallest county in the state of California. To list a very few: The county's North Coast; Pogonip; Prime farmland; Lighthouse Field; Our beaches and our forests, and everything else, too. People who voted for me knew the refrain of that Joni Mitchell song by heart.
Joni Mitchell's song, of course, is non-specific in its claim that "you don't know what you've got till it's gone." Hers is an "equal opportunity" observation. It's not just about protecting the natural environment. It's about protecting whatever you have:
- Pristine rivers? Check.
- Crystalline air quality? Check.
- Prime farmland? Check.
- A thriving downtown shopping area? Check.
- Affordable housing, without 7-floor apartment towers? Check.
- Quaint, family-friendly neighborhoods? Check.
- A really great teacher? Check.
- Your wonderful best friend? Check.
- That job you love? Check.
- Good health? Check.
- Your parents? Check.
- Your husband, or wife, or lover? Check.
- Democratic self-government? That, too!
Anything on that list, and anything you might want to add yourself, to reflect your own experience, or your own fears, or your own hopes, can definitely be included. Things we take for granted can be lost in a moment - and oftentimes we "don't know what we've got (what we had) till it's gone."
As you probably know, many believe that a "coup" is underway, and that democratic self-government is being stolen away from us, here in the U.S.A.
Our system of democratic self-government is not totally gone yet, of course, but maybe it's going.....
In another couple of months, by the end of the year at the outside, I am betting that we are going to be told by many people that democratic self-government is another one of those things that is, in fact, "gone."
If we are told that, or if we think that all on our own, the reason is likely to be that our current president, and his affiliates, are going to continue to act as though the president gets to do anything he wants, and that's what being a president is all about. Of course, that is not true. Therefore, I have come to think that what a college English professor might call a "close reading" is what we should do as we consider that song, "Big Yellow Taxi."
The refrain says, and rather importantly, that the losses it is talking about always seem to come AFTER you realize that you've lost whatever it is. Remember the lyrics say, "you don't know what you've got till it's GONE."
When it's gone, then you appreciate what you've lost, but "not knowing what you've got" comes before the loss. It may be, if you DO know "what you've got," you won't actually lose it. The reason that it "always seems to go" the way the song says it does, is because we DON'T, in fact, know what it is that we've got.
Robert Reich, in a Facebook posting on February 15th, said this:
Remember: If we allow ourselves to fall into fatalism, or wallow in disappointment, or become resigned to what is rather than what should be, we will lose the long game. The greatest enemy of positive social change is cynicism about what can be changed.
If we tell ourselves, or let anyone else tell us, that our system of self-government is "gone," then we have, effectively, "given up," because if something is truly "gone," then it's too late to do anything about it. With respect to our system of democratic self-government, let's not allow ourselves, or anyone else, to forget what it really is. "Self-government" means that WE, the people, are in charge of the government. Our president may tell us that HE is in charge, but that will only be true to the extent that we accept what he's telling us and follow orders that we ought to be denying and defying.
"Resist" is one way of saying it. That word is much deployed, and it's a good word. HOW to "resist," though, is the question most often posed when "resist" is the action being suggested. Click the "Resist" link for one set of suggestions. However, when it gets right down to it, I think we are all going to have to improvise both strategies and actions of resistance.
The most important and key thing is to remember, and not forget, is this: WE really are in charge. That's what the Constitution says, and we need to keep this top of mind, always. That we're in charge, and that this is what our system of self-government insures, and "operationalizes," is what we've "got." If we don't forget that, then we're not going to lose it, because we will then act accordingly, and do whatever it takes to make self-government actually work.
We can't allow ourselves to stipulate to claims that we have "lost" our system of self-government, because once we do that, then it really is gone.
Have we lost self-government? Is it gone? Well, it's not gone if we don't give up.
Just keep that in mind!
Image Credits:
(1) - https://youtu.be/2595abcvh2M?si=WgvpVzfcyPbhvB3W
(2) - https://youtu.be/bQqoiHqD48g?si=Cn0b_Ll-Eee4ipjf
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