Just heard on AA Kerry's new slogan. I thought it was great, but ........

I think I'm getting senile - for the life of me, I can't remember what it said - just that I thought it was great - HELP!

http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=1473
by Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

it to keep.

Isn't that just the greatest slogan for these troubled times!

explode on the tip
of your tongue
like the revolution
always in the
ideals of dreams we
must dare to embrace.

I like it.

It means something and it reflects the mad-as-hell voter out there, of which there will be plenty by Election Day if gas keeps going up and Iraq keeps going down.

LET AMERICA BE AMERICA!

Don't you think it needs the "again"? I heard him use it in Portland, and in the context of that speech, the "again" was the inspirational part. Regaining what we lost. Maybe I just need to roll it around in my head to hear what you're hearing since I already heard it the other way.

because it acknowledges that america is great but has been held back by those in power now and that we have to go back to what it was "again". this can appeal to those who are biased in favor of america and are turned off by anti american talk. and it appeals to those who want change from what we currently have.

:P

"Let" is so passive. Like just sit back and "let" it happen.
What previous incarnation of "America" is Kerry exactly refering to?
I suppose it's whatever the listener wants to believe, right? Because there is no definition of what "America" used to be, people will infer whatever idealized notion of America they believe in...whatever they dream America was.

That's lame. Because it seems to imply that at some unspecified time in the past, America was ideal. This is simply not true. America has always had poverty, unemployment, and starving people (to name a couple).

Why doesn't Kerry use an active verb? Why can't the slogan refer to something specific? Why can't it state a concrete objective? It's just so vague and blah. But whatever, I think that's John Kerry for you. (Note: this is not Kerry-bashing, this is me whining about the level of political discourse in this country)

This slogan sounds very passive, which is the opposite of what Democrats are going to have to be if we ever want to have power in this country again.

The way we got into this mess is because so many of our elected leaders are lazy cowards who just "let America" become Bush's plaything.

How about something a little more forceful and active than "let"?

People want strong leadership!