The Roots of a Progressive

Samuel Usem
3 min readNov 10, 2016

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Feelings are not hard to come by this week, unraveling and putting words to their meaning is. While there are so many pieces of social media that divide us, I want to let my family and friends know that to see and hear how everyone is handling our current political climate really does make a difference. So here are my thoughts on the week.

This is the first Presidential election in which I am a parent. 8 years ago I hopped in a car on a whim, and headed to Chicago to be in the midst of the American community when Obama was announced President. At the time, casting that vote and simply being there in Grant Park when history was occurred, was the largest political statement I had made.

After it became clear on Tuesday night that Trump would be the eventual winner, I was nothing short of physically ill. Our two little ones, 2 yrs. and 5 months old, were sleeping soundly, blissfully unaware of what was transpiring and how their future was being shaped.

I really didn’t know the next morning what would bring me out of the depths of sadness that I was feeling. Then this morning on the way to daycare, Emma asked to listen to the “Hammer song”. Her way of asking for, “If I Had a Hammer”. This is her favorite song, at the moment.

I never intended to teach her this song with any political agenda in mind. I had simply hit my maximum limit of times I could sing ‘twinkle twinkle’ or ‘row row row your boat’ and for some reason my sub-conscience told me this was the only other song I knew all the lyrics too. And so I started singing it once at bedtime, she asked for it again, and again and again. So now I sing it to her every night. She asks to listen to it on the radio all the time, and asks to watch it being played on YouTube by any and all artists, from the boss to Dylan and Arlo to Aretha Franklin. She’ll watch and listen to any version, but Peter, Paul and Mary sing it best if you ask her.

The reason that I know it, is that my parents had an awesome vinyl collection, (before it was a cool hipster thing) and no matter how much we berated them for it, they made us listen to good music. Classic music, important music, their music. And so their music, with its message of justice and freedom for all, became near and dear to my heart and without even knowing it, it’s becoming near and dear to my children’s heart.

The other night at Shabbas dinner at my parents, “If I had a Hammer” was played which promptly turned into a Grandma and Grandpa dance party.

And so it seems, that singing “If I had a Hammer” on a whim, as an exhausted last resort of a parent, has become the largest and maybe most important political stand I’ve ever made.

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Samuel Usem

biz tech Evangelist | startup thinker | addicted to all good gear | husband | father | beer, MN, @KatieUsem lover, not in that order | squirrel