[FM] Re: folkmusic Digest, Vol 2, Issue 5

[ScAlarik at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/11/04 1:10:31 PM, folkmusic-request at folkserv.net writes:

<< In a message dated 8/9/2004 4:14:39 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
the.musicboy at verizon.net writes:
When I signed up for this list, I thought it was about music. It's a 
shame it's being tainted with partisan politics. >>

The replies to this posting about politics being an organic part of folk 
music's personality are very well taken. It's not so much that folk is innately 
political, I don't think, but that it is innately about people's real lives - 
and politics is part of that.
    I think what disappoints me the most about this posting, though, is the 
inference that there is something "tainted" about partisan politics. We live in 
a democracy. Paying attention to politics is not some shameful, tainted 
thing; it's our responsibility - and privelege - as citizens of that democracy. It 
only becomes a shameful, tainted thing when ordinary folks like us decide 
we're above the political process, and leave it to those lobbyists and special 
interests who know how true it is that government serves those who participate. 
Scott Alarik