It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes we can.
We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --
Yes. We. Can.
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New Celeb-Filled Music Video for Obama
Song from Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am Inspired by Obama Speech
Feb. 2, 2008 —
Celebrity-filled music videos have been used to support many social movements, from famine relief for Africa, to support for American farmers, to opposition to apartheid in South Africa.
But rarely have celebrities and musicians banded together to create new music in the heat of a presidential campaign.
The Black Eyed Peas' frontman, songwriter and producer known as will.i.am, along with director and filmmaker Jesse Dylan, son of another socially active musician, Bob Dylan, released a new song Friday that attempts to do just that.
The music video "Yes We Can" premiered on ABCNewsNow's "What's the Buzz" on Friday. It was inspired, will.i.am told ABC's Alisha Davis, by Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign and in particular by the speech he gave after the New Hampshire primary.
"It made me reflect on the freedoms I have, going to school where I went to school, and the people that came before Obama like Martin Luther King, presidents like Abraham Lincoln that paved the way for me to be sitting here on ABCNews and making a song from Obama's speech," will.i.am said.
"The speech was inspiring about making change in America and I believe what it says and I hope everybody votes," Dylan said.
The music video includes excerpts from the Obama speech and appearances from a range of celebrities including: Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Amber Valetta and Nick Cannon. [Edit: The complete credits are now listed at the site of the "original" video:
When word got out about the song, will.i.am and Dylan said people were eager to participate.
"I'm blown away by how many people wanted to come and be a part of it in a short amount of time. It was all out of love and hope for change and really representing America and looking at the world," will.i.am said.
Dylan and will.i.am say they did not coordinate the production or release of this video with the Obama campaign and the filmmakers say they don't even know if Obama is aware of the video. [The Obama campaign sure is now.]
"We didn't talk to anybody there... We just came together because it was an inspirational song about change coming out of his speech," Dylan said.
And what change do will.i.am and Dylan say they hope to see?
"Education, America's finance, getting our dollar back to where it should be, stopping the war, health and international policies," they said.
Last edited by bluenoter; February-12th-2008 at 11:10 AM.
fix the health care system, fix the dollar, make ourselves less of a debtor nation, etc, etc. I tend to think we can't get him elected either, but I'm optimistic on that at least until Tuesday.
Obama is definitely surging. It's almost a dead tie now nationally.
At least he doesn't have to face all those "winner take all" primaries like the Republicans. A much better situation for someone who's got the momentum but maybe not quite there yet.
From the nothern side of your border, all I can say is WOW!!
Not very much makes me tear up any more.
This did.
As Obama said, "There has never been anything false about hope."
__________________
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
Last edited by patricia; February-4th-2008 at 02:24 PM.
I am optimistic. We *will* do it. Obama for me is among all of them running the one that makes me most comfortable to feel optimistic for the years ahead of us.
Last edited by Uli; February-4th-2008 at 10:41 AM.
don't get me wrong, I think he's the most inspiring Presidential candidate who has an actual chance since I've been eligible to vote, and I'll be voting for him tomorrow and rooting hard for him. I just think our problems are too deeply entrenched to be fixed at this point, but hopefully I'm wrong.
I'm with Jon, though I have more hope that he could actually be elected or at least win the nomination.
Like Jon, I don't believe any pol or party can fix the healthcare system, do much if anything about the dollar, and certainly not about the US's extreme debtor nation status. I don't know that I'd trust any of them to even try, really. The healthcare problems can't even rationally be dealt with if reducing cost isn't the primary factor. "Access" to health insurance will do nothing about that and likely will contribute to further increases in cost. I don't know how many times I've been told in a medical situtation not to worry about the cost because "your insurance will pay for it." Well, ignoring that I don't have insurance, just passing along absurd costs to insurance companies does nothing but raise the cost of both, in the end. As for debt and the dollar, both problems would require wholesale changes in the way Americans live and the way governments spend. I don't see those on any horizon, though spending will hopefully decrease some when compared to the fiscal insanity of the Bushwits.
I'm supporting Obama primarily because he impresses me as a man with a brain who's not afraid to exercise it, and he also appears to me to be sane. Those are big improvements, right there.
I'd also just like to see some new *and younger* faces for a change, see some fresh talent get a shot at governing.
It's time for boomers of both parties to start their fade.
__________________
Away from the delusionary forces that turn music into a step to fame and fortune it becomes a reason to live." (David Morris)
Last edited by Gary Sisco; February-4th-2008 at 11:08 AM.
Do you think will.i.am knows that Allen Toussaint already wrote a tune of virtually the same name, popularly recorded by the Pointer Sisters?
Quote:
Now's the time for all good men
to get together with one another.
We got to iron out our problems
and iron out our quarrels
and try to live as brothers.
And try to find a piece of land
without stepping on one another.
And do respect the women of the world.
Remember you all have mothers.
We got to make this land a better land
than the world in which we live.
And we got to help each man be a better man
with the kindness that we give.
I know we can make it.
I know darn well we can work it out.
Oh yes we can, I know we can can
Yes we can can, why can't we?
If we wanna get together we can work it out.
And we gotta take care of all the children,
the little children of the world.
'cause they're our strongest hope for the future,
the little bitty boys and girls.
We got to make this land a better land
than the world in which we live.
And we got to help each man be a better man
with the kindness that we give.
I know we can make it.
I know darn well we can work it out.
Oh yes we can, I know we can can
yes we can can, why can't we?
If we wanna, yes we can can.
Last edited by groover; February-4th-2008 at 04:53 PM.
I only wish Deval Patrick (who's turned out to be a corporate shill) hadn't run on exactly the same mantra here in Mass.
I just have to keep remembering that, after Harvard, while Patrick went for the cash at Coke and Exxon, Obama went back to the South side of Chicago....
We've fallen into a deep, deep hole; we've become a country where torture is debatable, where the rule of law goes out the window in the name of fear, where the unspeakably wealthy appeal to our basest instincts and we go right along with the program.
Is Barack Hussein Obama the cure for this? Certainly not. But at least he holds out the possibility, however slight, that we might take the first halting steps upward toward daylight.
Don't get me wrong: I think Hillary Clinton would make a very acceptable President (as long as she sends her husband on a fact-finding mission to Patagonia and makes sure he stays there), but while I still have a choice, I'm putting my money (yes, literally) on Obama.
Yes. We've gotta start somewhere.
__________________
“What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.”
Is Barack Hussein Obama the cure for this? Certainly not. But at least he holds out the possibility, however slight, that we might take the first halting steps upward toward daylight.
Yes. We've gotta start somewhere.
You're right, Dr Dave. Barack Hussein Obama is not the cure for the last eight years.
There is no cure for stupid.
It will be a long, long road back.
Trying to put lipstick on the pig of the last eight years by attempting to make George W Bush look good and the Bush years acceptable isn't going to do it.
Making excuses for not stepping up and saying "Just a second..." to the Bush Administration when they put forward their destructive policies, whether the politician is Republican OR Democrat, isn't either.
I think that if Hillary Clinton won't admit that she was wrong about Iraq, she is no different than George W Bush, who won't admit he was wrong either.
__________________
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
Last edited by patricia; February-12th-2008 at 10:55 AM.
There's a subtle but important difference between Obama's "Yes We Can" and Clintstone's "Yes She Can" that sums things up for me. One is about a we, the other about a she. Says it all.
__________________
Away from the delusionary forces that turn music into a step to fame and fortune it becomes a reason to live." (David Morris)
I think that if Hillary Clinton won't admit that she was wrong about Iraq, she is no different than George W Bush, who won't admit he was wrong either.
Amazing!!
You know all those Presidential powers Bush has simply granted himself since he's been in office? How much do you want to bet Obama won't give many of them up. I'd say at best he gives up a little under 5%.
You know all those Presidential powers Bush has simply granted himself since he's been in office? How much do you want to bet Obama won't give many of them up. I'd say at best he gives up a little under 5%.
Which is a scary thought, not just for the Presidency coming up, but for future Presidencies.
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Do you think John McCain will give that new power up either, should he be elected?
Do you think that John McCain will actually remember the Geneva Conventions, considering his own history, and repeal the nit-picking torture revisions of them?
I can't believe that there wasn't more resistance to the additional powers Bush gave himself, not just by politicians, but by the public in general.
That's the biggest future danger , IMO, although it's certainly plenty dangerous now.
__________________
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
Last edited by patricia; February-12th-2008 at 11:33 AM.
It's one thing not to grab for more power, and quite another to give up power you inherit. I agree--whoever the next President is is unlikely to turn back that particular clock. Instead, he or she will say, "You can trust me to use this power wisely and responsibly."
Which is why I watched in alarm as all those policies were put into effect, supposedly to protect the American public from...................??????
New powers seem to be awfully easy to grant, but not so easy to repeal.
However, governments always have the ability to turn into a kind of gestapo, should they choose to do so.
Your only defence has been the court system, should you find yourself a victim, which worked quite well, if not perfectly.
Now that habeus corpus and the right to a lawyer seem to be optional, it's truly frightening the direction that your government has chosen to travel.
__________________
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
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