GAVEL GAMUT

by

Judge Jim Redwine

♫ WHERE DID YOU GO BOB DYLAN? ♫

Paul Simon’s song “Mrs. Robinson” asks, ♫Where did you go Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.♫

Joltin΄ Joe did not understand that Simon meant this as a plea for better times and purer motives. Joe said, “I didn’t go anywhere.” Icons often do not see themselves as icons.

Peg and I attended a Bob Dylan concert last Saturday. We went to hear the man that Joan Baez called “The Voice of Our Generation”, i.e., the generation that fought and ended the Vietnamese War, the generation that demanded and guaranteed Civil Rights, the generation of most of our current leaders, and my generation.

Dylan wrote and sang the songs that helped America see the error of its ways and gave a voice to what most of us were thinking but did not say as well. He helped ensure that the older generation that started the War and that had not ensured Civil Rights heard our voices.

Dylan now declines the mantel of the Jester that he so proudly wore in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He was nicknamed the Jester because he was much like the old court jester who could and would tell the King he was being foolish, thus saving the country from disaster.

Dylan told CBS newsman, Ed Bradley, in a 2005 60 Minutes interview that, “If you examine the songs, I don’t believe you’re going to find anything in there that says that I’m a spokesman for anybody or anything really.” Dylan told Bradley that if anyone thought of him as a spokesman, “They must not have heard the songs.”

Bob, do you mean songs like “The Times They are a- Changin΄” or “Blowin΄ in the Wind”? or “Forever Young”, where you wrote lyrics that had meaning and sang them intelligibly? You caught the ears of the powerful and the prideful and helped them turn away from their arrogant ways.

But when the scrawny old man in the light grey suit and the insipid white cowboy hat shuffled out on the stage and mumbled into the microphone, I realized he was serious, i.e., he was no longer a voice for any generation.

In Dylan’s defense, he’s done enough. It’s a heavy burden to be a Jeremiah, always wearing sackcloth and ashes and predicting doom. After all, saviors are not always appreciated.

Bob was born Robert Zimmerman in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1941. His family was Jewish but he converted to Christianity in the 1970’s. He took the name Dylan from the Irish poet Dylan Thomas. For thousands of years our poets such as Dylan Thomas and our minstrels such as the young Bob Dylan have helped our leaders examine their decisions.

And those wise ancient Greeks knew 2,500 years ago that those who have the power to lead a country need to hear voices that they cannot control. In the plays of the great Greek dramatists such as Sophocles and Aeschylus the Chorus was that voice. From the Prologue through the Epilogue, the Chorus would give words of warning to the protagonists. The greatest danger to a country was seen as the sin of hubris among its leaders, or more simply, arrogating themselves to the position of the gods. Such blind pride always brought disaster to the leaders and the country.

But with the written word and the lyrics of songs being an inconvenience, we are left with Pat Robertson, Bill O’Reilly and Paul Wolfowitz as the Voices whispering in the ears of our leaders and our citizens. Perhaps that is why so many Americans believe Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people had some connection to 9-1-1.

So our generation has become all that we thought needed to be changed. The Greek Chorus no longer cautions against arrogance. The jingoists have won the battle of conscious.

We can blame our stars such as Bob Dylan for no longer providing light to our leaders. But, in reality, “the problem is not in our stars.”

Perhaps the rock group, The Eagles, asked the right question: “Did we get tired or did we just get lazy?”

But one thing is surely and sadly true. Just at a time we are considering some very prideful actions, one of our most significant voices has grown silent.

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