Kansas City Playlist: Activist Justice Horn Leads EPIC Plaza Protest

Right now we wanted to offer another glimpse at unrest on Kansas City streets and more local resistance against the White House storming through the Country Club Plaza.

Today . . . Metro activist Justice Horn was at the forefront of the the anti-Trump march that garnered HUNDREDS of protesters who took over the the entertainment district early Saturday evening. 

Here's the word from local leader . . .

"We filled the Plaza with hundreds of folks to remind local do nothing democrats and bigoted republicans at the state and federal level that people power will always be more powerful than political power! 💪🏽"

A few more speakers offered their remarks to the crowd that was even greater than last week's gathering.

Thankfully, in stark contrast to the "mostly peaceful" protest of the BLM-era . . . This crowd was orderly yet emphatic as they marched through the entertainment district that has been struggling to add tenants with more than 40 stores closed since 2020 riots.

Nevertheless . . . 

Today's gathering reveals that Kansas City progressives and a great many allies are already mobilizing and garnering increasingly larger protests against President Trump's White House.

Accordingly . . .

All of this inspires our www.TonysKansasCity.com playlist on the topic of dissent at the outset of this season of protest . . .

Classic rock is always a good place to start and this 60s-era Anti-Vietnam War anthem speaks to American frustrations with worsening class divisions. In many interviews, Credence front-man John Fogerty revealed that he wrote "Fortunate Son" as a message to the elites. On the top of his mind was David Eisenhower — grandson of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower and husband of President Richard Nixon’s daughter Julie — who never made it near the battlefield even though he was of prime draft age.

American Idiot from Green Day is often confused as an indictment of the President George W. Bush BUT it's actually a scathing rebuke of the American media industrial complex . . . Here's an apt quote from a story we recently stumbled upon . . . 

The track was written under the presidency of George W. Bush, who led America into the Iraq War after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong had long expressed his distaste for cable TV’s coverage of the war and has been quoted as saying, “They had all these Geraldo-like journalists in the tanks with the soldiers, getting the play-by-play.”

Despite the song taking place during Bush’s administration, Armstrong says the track isn’t totally about the 43rd President, telling The Spin of the song’s meaning: “I would never think of American Idiot as being about the Bush administration specifically. It’s about the confusion of where we’re at right now.”

There are lots of LGBT anthems but most of them either aren't very dance-able . . . In that sense, like it or not, Lady Gaga penned the definitive contemporary LGBT fight song . . . Here's just a bit of worthwhile backstory: 

Even Elton John hailed "Born this Way" as "the new gay anthem" when it first came out. But there was also a backlash against it. Some accused Gaga of directly imitating Madonna's hit "Express Yourself." Others said she was exploiting her gay fanbase.

On the latter point, music writer John Savage disagrees. "Obviously Lady Gaga wanted to say something about her gay audience, and what she thought about the position of gay people," he says. "She wanted to do something that was affirmative. I don't think that was cynical."

For the bridge . . . In 1962 Bob Dylan wrote the ultimate protest song for boomers on both sides of the equation. In classic Dylan fashion . . . He quickly denied the prophesy and greatness of his words. Here's a telling passage worth a read: 

“This here ain’t no protest song or anything like that, ’cause I don’t write no protest songs.” That was how Bob Dylan introduced one of the most eloquent protest songs ever written when he first performed it publicly. It was the spring of his first full year in New York City, and he was onstage at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village, talking about “Blowin’ In The Wind,” a song he claims to have written in just 10 minutes.

In conclusion . . . We leave the most loyal TKC readers with the signature song from one of our favorite authors & performers. Gil Scott-Heron suffered a tumultuous youth and adulthood struggling with addiction and the criminal justice system. 

He rarely gets credit for it, but from our vantage he was a forefather of rap music and, penned in 1970, his classic track "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" still garners street cred to this day. Jazz flute and a rhythmic back-beat demonstrate that culturally relevant criticism is by far the most powerful mode of political communication. More than that, the author's words offer a perspective that even political opponents can appreciate . . . 

Put simply and according to our research, for many, this song "is what it felt like" to live in the United States at the outset of President Nixon's doomed second term.

And so, we conclude our playlist with this track because Gil Scott-Heron offered listeners a window into his world along with a rare opportunity to share a human experience they wouldn't have garnered without the help of his talent that was never truly appreciated.

As always, thanks for reading this week and have a safe & fun Saturday night.