Brett Dennen's "Ain't No Reason"

If you haven’t heard Brett Dennen’s new song “Ain’t No Reason” you need to…much like Kid Rock’s “Amen,” it illustrates so much of what’s wrong in America, but offers hope of how perhaps to fix it. We can turn a blind eye, we can claim not to be able to change any of the problems spiraling out of control, but if we all felt that way, where would that leave us?

We have voices…blogs…websites…what kind of revolution could we incite? A revolution of hope, of promise, and what could be and not what once was. I look up at a horizon and not down at the mud puddles; I blink into the sun, but use an umbrella to shield myself from the rain. If we can teach that, embrace possibilities and not moan the roadblocks, then the promise of a new generation can open doors, eliminate barriers, and build new bridges. Brett Dennen and John Lennon (a parallel in names?) expose the wires, but it’s up to us to coat them, to re-connect, to reroute the current. My money is on a visionary who plans to seize the moment of our world and have a dream, someone who will guide us to ask not what our country can do for us, someone who has a hand up and not a hand out. If there is more than one, if we have the luxury of embracing change and challenges, then it’s just a matter of keeping our eyes open. Better to need sunglasses than umbrellas.