Subterranean Homesick Liberals

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Bob Dylan put it best. Although it is now cliché to quote Dylan in any context — and particularly offensive to quote from the tune transcribed above — there's a reason Dylanites have been condemned so. Writing in 1963, Bobby painted a stirring picture that frames almost any political or social conundrum: the problem of change, and resistance; the infaliability of truth, and denial; and the danger of rot and decay. Dylan is so prescient because — this plain truth tells us — 'times' will always be changing, whether we realize this or not, whether we want this or not, and whether we act on this or not.

Likewise, Bob Dylan's message will always be an appropriate anthem not only for both young and old, but for reawakenings, for change, and for that very important realization that, as Edmund Burke is rumoured to have put it, "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Perhaps more aptly:

"The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts."

The acumen of Dylan and Burke was certainly on hand yesterday when my friend Riley Hennessey quit the Liberal Party of Canada. After a decade of membership, volunteerism, dedication, and sweat (and Lord knows does Riley like to sweat), Mr. Hennessey has put down his banner, cleared out his shelves, and taken up with yours truly in the great chasm of non-alignment, of non-partisanship, and of those who see a future in party politics but, alas, no party for the future. It's quite a sight.

再见。