On MLK Day my sister has a gathering of folks to watch films and share stories and art around the issues of the day.   I was trying to think of what I wanted to share that day and I thought of Richie Havens at Woodstock.   So I looked up the lyric.   It primarily adapts Motherless Child, but he adds this line, “I’ve got a telephone in my bosom and I can call him from my heart.”   (Maybe he got it from this record here.)

I got to thinking if I had a similar capacity, who I’d like to call and let know about what was happening the next day in Washington.

So here it is.   A few anyway.   Who would you call?

Happy New America
I hope you will agree
We can build upon this dream….

With a telephone in your bosom you can call straight from your heart
With a telephone in your bosom you can call straight from your heart
She was only seventeen
Cleaning the house her mother used to clean

Stripped of the name of bondage
Now it was just a job
He called her “Pretty Something”
Said, “We could get along.”
She was only seventeen
Cleaning the house her mother used to clean

Grandfather called him ‘Mister’
He was just a boy
Disowned and rejected
For justice, he raised his voice
They buried him in Pine Street
With the brown brothers who claimed him

Hank stood behind the library
They handed him his books
It made it to the papers
“The Little Boy Who Read…”
Doctor loathed to recall
His moment in history

Lee married across the boundary
In 1961
Kennedy was inaugurated
Dylan sang Oxford Town
“It could’ve been me,” he said.
He left us in his sleep

Mine eyes have seen the glory
I won’t live in fear
Mine eyes have seen the glory
I won’t live in fear
A victory is upon us
Freedom is near

With a telephone in your bosom you can call straight from your heart
With a telephone in your bosom you can call straight from your heart
Tell them freedom is closer than ever
Freedom is here!