Monthly Archives: January 2018

American flag at the Intrepid, as seen from my kayak

By Johna Till Johnson

July 4, 1976. The Bicentennial.

I remember it vividly. Earlier that year with the rest of my sixth grade class I’d prepared a multimedia report, with photos and artwork and carefully crafted text. That night as the fireworks lit up the sky, and the grownups chatted over drinks and hors d’oeuvres, I thought to myself, “Pretty cool! I need to catch the next one!”

Then I realized that meant I’d have to live to be… 111 years old.

Not impossible. But definitely a stretch. It would take luck, work, and considerable scientific and technological advancement. (My interest in life extension stems from that moment, because I really do want to be around.)

And then something else occurred to me: What if we didn’t make it? What if I lived to be 111, but there was no longer a U.S.A.?

By then I’d learned something about the Greeks and Romans, and that democracy was an inherently unstable form of government. Like many children, I couldn’t truly believe that anything bad would really happen. So I tried to shut down the thought. But it remained: What if…?

In the decades since, I’ve become increasingly pessimistic, while still clinging to my native idealism. I’m an American not because I was born here, but because I believe in the principles on which this country was founded, however imperfectly we’ve managed to adhere to them over our history:  Every person is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Every citizen gets a vote. And most importantly, government is here to serve us, not the other way around.

Over the years, I’ve thrown citizenship parties for more than a few friends who have chosen to throw their lots in with the U.S.

And I’ve shared with them the hope that we can defy the odds, remain a democratic republic, and continue to adhere as closely as possible to those cherished ideals.

Sometimes, that hope feels faint and flickering.

So it’s no small irony that it’s the Canadian Leonard Cohen who helps fan that flickering flame.  His song “Democracy” was written shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

It’s apolitical (neither right nor left, as he says in the song). And as he said in an interview: “It’s not an ironic song. It’s a song of deep intimacy and affirmation of the experiment of democracy in this country…This is really where the experiment is unfolding…This is the real laboratory of democracy.”

That’s as true today as when he wrote the words below. Every day, every hour, democracy is being tested. Sometimes it fails the test. And sometimes, against the odds, it succeeds.

If you haven’t heard the song,  it’s worth a listen.

Lyrics ©Leonard Cohen 1992

It’s coming through a hole in the air
From those nights in Tiananmen Square
It’s coming from the feel
That this ain’t exactly real
Or it’s real, but it ain’t exactly there
From the wars against disorder
From the sirens night and day
From the fires of the homeless
From the ashes of the gay
Democracy is coming to the USA
It’s coming through a crack in the wall
On a visionary flood of alcohol
From the staggering account
Of the Sermon on the Mount
Which I don’t pretend to understand at all
It’s coming from the silence
On the dock of the bay,
From the brave, the bold, the battered
Heart of Chevrolet
Democracy is coming to the USA

It’s coming from the sorrow in the street
The holy places where the races meet
From the homicidal bitchin’
That goes down in every kitchen
To determine who will serve and who will eat
From the wells of disappointment
Where the women kneel to pray
For the grace of God in the desert here
And the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the USA

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on

It’s coming to America first
The cradle of the best and of the worst
It’s here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And it’s here they got the spiritual thirst
It’s here the family’s broken
And it’s here the lonely say
That the heart has got to open
In a fundamental way
Democracy is coming to the USA

It’s coming from the women and the men
O baby, we’ll be making love again
We’ll be going down so deep
The river’s going to weep,
And the mountain’s going to shout Amen
It’s coming like the tidal flood
Beneath the lunar sway
Imperial, mysterious
In amorous array
Democracy is coming to the USA

Sail on, sail on…

I’m sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can’t stand the scene
And I’m neither left or right
I’m just staying home tonight
Getting lost in that hopeless little screen
But I’m stubborn as those garbage bags
That time cannot decay
I’m junk but I’m still holding up
This little wild bouquet
Democracy is coming to the USA

Note: Astute observers may note the British Airways logo on the airplane in the photo. That’s the British supersonic airplane the Concorde, which was donated to the Intrepid museum upon its retirement in 2003. As in so many things, the U.S. remains indebted to Britain.