They started work this morning down at city square
They're pulling down the statues of our great grandfather's hero
The new books said he wasn't such a great man after all
And anyway remember that the times they are a-changing That song "Drag It Down" is from 1985. That's 35 years ago. What's odd is that here in America we are living these lyrics right now.
There has been a cleansing of all things "not right" from the past here in the USA. Kate Smith, a singer from looong ago, just last week had her statue removed from a Philadelphia stadium and her version of "God Bless America" is no longer played at Yankee Stadium because Miss Smith sang a song called "That's Why Darkies Are Born" back in 1931. Now I am not here to argue in her favor for singing such a song (everybody did back then, by the way; there was a genre of music back then called "Coon Songs"), but I am here to talk about how Mr. Sullivan sure got things right...even though he wrote "Drag It Down" 35 years ago.
Why bring this up? Well, today a college mascot named Prospector Pete was pulled down (statue was removed and the cartoon character also removed from all college paperwork) because in California when prospectors were around "indigenous people of California endured subjugation, violence and threats of genocide.” Goodbye Prospector Pete.
Look, we have a bunch of yahoos down South who want to keep up statues of Southern Civil War soldiers and generals -- actual traitors, slave holders, murderers of American troops. I am all for pulling down those statues (I am sure in Germany no one would really want statues of Hitler, Goebbels, or Goering.) But New Model Army did hit on the idea that pulling down statues might go to far. Prospector Pete? This guy is now banned?
