Universal Soldier

In scrolling through my playlists the other day I came across a title that is probably the most socially unacceptable song of the budding 21st century, and one at the same time that is still relevant and true. It is Buffy Ste. Marie's "Universal Soldier" a song that unabashedly puts the blame for continued warfare on the steady supply of raw recruits. In an age of support your troops it is unthinkable and yet in the 60's it was considered to be an act of supporting the humanity within us to counsel soldiers to defect and draft aged men to take off for Canada.

Like Masters of War (anyone thinking Dick Cheney?) these songs saw the conflict of nations as the story of people and their responsibility to others instead of in the finger pointing and blame mode of today. Yes, Dylan blamed the profit makers but he was really attacking their reliance on the bottom line. Theirs, the soldiers and profiteers, was a fault finding, but one which could be reconciled through personal change. One cannot change others, but one can change themselves.

I gladly offer the Universal Soldier as a necessary voice in our wilderness. A John the Baptist crying for repentance and a fundamental reordering of our lives. It is time to support the humans, stop the carnage and come home.