“It’s the hammer of justice
It’s the bell of freedom
It’s the song about love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land”

The quintessential protest song of the ‘60s had to have been If I Had a Hammer, written by Lee Hays and Pete Seeger. Although the song was recorded by a number of artists, the preeminent version was performed by Peter, Paul and Mary. Mary’s piercing lead vocal and the group’s driving delivery gave the song a life and urgency I’ve not heard in any other performance.

Coming together at the dawn of John F. Kennedy’s presidency, when the tight lid of repression was about to blow off of the American sociopolitical pressure cooker, PP&M appeared on the scene as the nation emerged from the shadows of the McCarthy era and began coming to grips with long-deferred issues of social and political justice.

The trio placed themselves on the front lines of both the civil rights and anti-war movements of the ‘60s. They performed If I Had a Hammer in multiple protest venues, including the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 Selma-Montgomery March. These appearances were more than mere performances; they were courageous gestures, made under threat of violence. In Paul Stookey’s words, “You have to put your body on the line from time to time in order to make a statement or change a law.”

The progress we made in Civil Rights during this period was embodied in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This landmark legislation outlawed racial segregation in schools, public places and employment. Initially conceived to help African Americans, the bill was amended prior to passage to protect women, and explicitly included white people for the first time. It also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Once the Act was implemented, its effects were far reaching and had tremendous long-term impacts on the whole country. It prohibited discrimination in public facilities, in government, and in employment, invalidating the Jim Crow laws in the South. It became illegal to compel segregation of the races in schools, housing or hiring.

But change did not come overnight. While George Wallace’s infamous stand at the entrance to the University of Alabama in an attempt to prevent two black students from enrolling occurred in 1963, prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Wallace’s actions are representative of others that transpired throughout The South in the wake of the Act’s passage. It would be well more than a decade before the nation responded to both the letter and the spirit of the Act. Even today, we still see all too regular occurrences of violations of the Act.

But the progress made from the time Hays and Seeger penned If I Had a Hammer through the end of the 20th century suffered a catastrophic setback when George W. Bush became President in 2003. With the attacks on individual liberties, shredding of The Constitution and general disregard for international law that defined the reign of King George, the Bush administration made a decided turn in the direction of the good ol’ white boy days that preceded the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Barack Obama has the opportunity to right the nation’s course, to return our course toward the land of Martin Luther King’s Dream. Thus far, he has disappointed many who thought he could change the course of the nation overnight. At the same time, his repudiation of much of Bush’s imperialistic presidency philosophy has angered the right-wing racists and fear merchants

Personally, I wish he would take a harder stand against the policies of the Bush administration. I wish he would investigate and hold accountable those who implemented and tried to legitimize torture. I wish he would revoke the retroactive immunity given to the individuals and corporations that aided, abetted and perpetrated the illegal surveillance of American citizens.

On the other hand, I realize that to be effective a president must needs adopt a centrist view, tempered only by small deviations to the Right or to the Left. For, despite the over-abundant airtime given to the Rush Limbaugh’s, Sean Hannity’s and Keith Olbermann’s of the country, we are at heart a centrist nation. No president could ever be successful governing from either the extreme Left or the extreme Right, no matter how vocal his or her supporters. The 2006 and 2008 repudiation of George W. Bush’s right-wing radicalism should serve as ample evidence of this fact.

What President Obama has brought us, though, is “The Audacity of Hope” -

• Hope that the Hammer of Justice will once again be wielded according to the Rule of Law
• Hope that the Bell of Freedom will once again peal loudly and clearly for every American
• Hope that the Song About Love will once again unite a nation divided by policies of hate and violence

All over this land.

Read the lyrics
Listen to If I Had A Hammer