If I Had A Hammer

Remembering a melody so reminiscent of a time long ago where the sun shown brightly and the storm clouds of despair were always off in the distance keeps replaying in the memories that I hold dear. It was Peter, Paul and Mary's rendition of this song that stills stands the test of time. If I actually had the hammer of justice I'd really start hammering out all the injustices that has befallen all over this country. But, it would take an awfully big hammer though. It is the connotation that resonates the true meaning of these lyrics.


For the past 40 years or so this great nation of ours has some how managed to stray away from the ideologies and the principals of Liberty, Justice, Education and Morality. When Peter, Paul and Mary first recorded this song the trade winds of unrest were already blowing across our land. The United States had already started down a path where the deterioration of those hallowed principals was just beginning.

When Pete Seeger and Lee Hays first wrote this song as a way to remind us that turbulent times of even back in the sixties they didn't realize things haven't changed that much at all. Different set of circumstances though, but turbulent and chaotic events still play a very dominant role in our society today. It took the folk group of Peter, Paul and Marry to fully express and emphasize what the meaning behind not only this song but others as well that play into the lives of all of us. Another such ballad "Blowing In The Wind" again portrays that our society still is being swept up into the chaos that continues to this very day.
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When we take into account what really is being said when this song was first performed and had we as a nation actually understood what was really happening even back 50 years ago just maybe the United States could have avoided the current mess this nation faces today. But, no we didn't heed those words. Instead leaders of industry and government officials continued their onslaught against the rational of peace, harmony, and good will toward all. Maybe not a conscious effort but very subtle in a posturing of policies shifting ideologies to where influences of social change kept occurring.


Of all the great folk songs that came out of the 60's these two probably were the most influential in shaping a whole generation. It was these two songs that describe just how far we as a society has strayed off the course that was set by our founding fathers. Even back in the 60's the beginning of the social unrest of the Vietnam era our society was becoming a cataclysm for moral decay. With increasing resentment in the involvement in Vietnam was the one factor that triggered a whole generation to rise up and protest against what our corporate world and even our own government has and still is doing to the majority of Americans. It is through these songs portray the injustices and inequality that was and still is so rampant.


We always have to remind ourselves that the social unrest of the 1960's gave way to the great ballads that emphasize just how the nations priorities have become so corrupted. Timeless lyrics that continue to showcase how each generation where the events of each respective time are almost identical. When will we ever learn. .