[From an email to a friend, Dec 5, 2012, the day after the tumultuous public meeting of the Boulder County Commissioners in Dec 4, 2012, which was delayed for 30 minutes of citizen protest against fracking:
When I got home after last night’s events, I was playing my guitar just to relax….but had the urge to say something about what I’d seen that night…which was pretty special….and this is what I wrote down.
It’s been well received on Facebook, particularly by the mother of the young Earth Guardian it mentions….she wanted to share it, which I was glad to do.
I kind of had the tempo of Dylan’s song Tempest going through my head at the time, to get the rhythm right..a 4/4 waltz,…]
When The Children Broke The Law
(by Rick Casey, after observing the Boulder County Commissioners meeting, 4 Dec 2012)
Well the town it was assembled
And the commissioners all filed in
To take their seats at the high table
And have the meeting begin.
But before the meeting got started
Before it had really begun,
A “mic check!” rang out loudly,
And the chorus line was sung.
The commissioners were silenced,
There was nothing they could do,
As Occupiers spoke out
And kept speaking until they were through.
They expressed their opposition
To hydraulic fracturing
In so many ways they spoke out
How it would be so damaging.
But then the youngest one among them,
An Earth Guardian I believe,
Started a long rap that spoke what
All the crowd believed.
That fracking should never happen,
That fracking should be banned
And forever kept from coming
And practiced in our land.
And then the children acted
With cheers the crowd applaused
When the young Earth Guardians
Stood up and broke the law.
The commissioners had crept out
Unnoticed and ignored
And left their chairs unguarded
Which the children now took hold.
They all marched up to the high table
As natural as could be
And acted like our leaders
Though it was a fantasy.
They shouted out of impulse
Out of temporary glee,
Who was against this fracking?
All hands went up joyously.
A policeman gently crept up
Who meekly asked them please,
To step down from this table
And end this fantasy.
The young Earth Guardians hesitated
Not sure if they should go
But one by one they stood up
And stopped their little show.
But it was a magic moment
As everyone there saw
It was a magic moment
When the children broke the law…