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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Darlings, Just Whom Does Tomorrow Belong To??????



"The sun on the meadow is summery warm.
The stag in the forest runs free.
But gathered together to greet the storm,
Tomorrow belongs to me.

The branch of the linden is leafy and green.
The Rhine gives its gold to the sea. (Gold to the sea.)
But somewhere a glory awaits unseen,
Tomorrow belongs to me.

Now, Fatherland, Fatherland, show us the sign
Your children have waited to see.
The morning will come when the world is mine.

Tomorrow belongs to me.
Tomorrow belongs to me.
Tomorrow belongs to me.
Tomorrow belongs to me."

--"Cabaret" (John Kander, Fred Ebb)

No need to tell my girls what show that is from. So, what on earth prompted me to dig this up now??? I am well into Erik Larson's "In The Garden Of Beasts", detailing one family's experience living in Berlin just at the time of the upheaval, and it is an eye opener. So, I had to revisit what is still the most chilling sequence in the entire film version of "Cabaret." The beauty of the tenor voice contrasted with his political garb, the robotic quality of his rendition, and, worse, the fervid way the people, especially the young, join in so spiritedly. Except for the old man, who seems to know what is coming, as he has seen it all before. He seems to speak for we the audience, who know too what is coming, and shudder collectively at this moment in the show/movie.

But Larson's book and the song beg the question--how could the German people be taken in so???? Was it smug complacency????? Because, if it was, then we are in trouble. There are all kinds of extremists afoot in our society and those who would seek to do harm to it, and until people get out of their confounded smug complacency--which in spite of economic upheaval still is present, and seems to be given wide birth in the guise of such extremists as Rick Santorum and his ilk, who clearly feel tomorrow belongs to them and the rest be damned!!!!!! Is this forward thinking? No, it is dangerous thinking, the kind that allowed people to be taken in before, or seduced by a pretty song. Tomorrow belongs to all of us, not just a select few deemed by a bunch of what at bottom line are White supremacists.

By the time the German people woke up, it was too late. And look what resulted!!!! Could it happen again? Yes; maybe not the same way, but with equally devastating effects. If tomorrow belongs to anyone it belongs to the freedom of individuals everywhere, not just those who would dole out that freedom to their friends whom they consider most deserving.

Screw you, Santorum and your ilk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"And as for me, as for me,
I made my mind up, back in Chelsea,
When I go, I'm goin' like Elsie!!!!!!"
--Sally Bowles ("Cabaret")

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