Loading ...Do You Hear the People Sing
Everybody knows I’m a big musical fan. So combine that with a wicked sense of humor and a fascination with government and politics and I decided there should be a theme song for the taxpayers’ revolt that’s coming as the property tax bills hit the mailboxes starting today. The song of the revolution will be “Do You Hear the People Sing” from Les Miserables. Here are the lyrics so you can sing along on your way to burn down the City-County building.
ENJOLRAS
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
COMBEFERRE
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Courfeyrac:
Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free!
ALL
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
FEUILLY
Will you give all you can give
So that our banner may advance
Some will fall and some will live
Will you stand up and take your chance?
The blood of the martyrs
Will water the meadows of France!
ALL
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
Here’s a You Tube clip to help you along with the melody! Happy Revolting.
June 30th, 2007 at 5:40 am
Abdul you’re having way too much fun with this!
June 30th, 2007 at 7:41 am
Be careful - George W Bush may be watching you! A dark-skinned man named Abdul exhorting Hoosiers to revolt might be pushing some “Patriot Act” buttons in shadowy and murky Federal bureaucracies … after all, it was another Illinois carpetbagger named Jose Padilla who was locked up and held without habeas corpus for years.
June 30th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Thanks Wilson, but I already have an FBI file.
June 30th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Wilson, the only reason the Patriot Act even needed to be passed was because of the years of criminal justice sabotage at the hands of liberalism. If I was a terrorist anywhere in the world I’d want to be in the U.S. just because our system is so weak. If you live in 46201 I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s a sad day when the residents are the prisoners and the criminals run the neighborhood. Then again, maybe you like it that way?
June 30th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
I have lived here for over 30 years - criminals dont run this neighborhood. Only outside nervous nellies conjure up such fantasies and fears…such folk are usually Big Government Conservatives who want to give up basic American values and liberties for a frenzied defense against overhyped enemies! Our military is being broken to defend East 10th Street against Saddam Hussein. Pitiful!
June 30th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
People who live within Marion County are not ‘nervous nellies’. The people are finally waking up and saying that they have had enough. Bart has lied, time and time again, and now it is time to pay the piper.
I look forward to seeing my fellow Revolutionaries.
June 30th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Great piece from Advance Indiana based on Tully piece. It is worth repeating here:
Matt Tully reminds us that Mayor Bart Peterson had an entirely different view on raising taxes to support public safety and meet the city’s long-term pension obligations when he gave his state of the city address back in 2000. Peterson said then:
“Unfortunately, the part of the city budget that goes to cover police and firefighter pensions is the same part of the budget that pays for ongoing police and fire operations, including additional resources needed for public safety. We will meet our pension obligations, and we will also find a way to pay for the additional public safety resources we need. And it is important to do both without raising taxes. Raising taxes may sound like an easy answer, but if we want to avoid the urban death spiral that so many other American cities have experienced, we cannot give individuals and businesses an incentive to leave our city.”
After reading the Mayor’s words, think about all the taxes he’s raised during the past 4 years and the taxes he still wants to raise to meet obligations he told us we could meet 7 years ago without a tax increase. And then ask yourself what has changed. Why will raising taxes not lead to the”urban death spiral” that will give “individuals and businesses and incentive to leave our city.” Who do you believe? The Bart Peterson of 2000 or the Bart Peterson of 2007?
Tully thinks Peterson’s 2000 words will haunt him this year, and they should. Greg Ballard and the Marion Co. GOP can’t let Peterson off the hook. People are fed up with the rising taxes and crime in our city. It presents a golden opportunity for the GOP. Marion Co. GOP Chairman Tom John seems to grasp this. He has come out against Mayor Peterson’s latest tax increase. John had this to say in a recent press release:
“It is unconscionable that Mayor Peterson would propose a $90 million income tax increase at the same time homeowners face huge double digit property tax increases,” John declared this week. “Mayor Peterson talks a good game, and always has someone else to blame for the problems, but his own record shows he has done nothing to reduce local government spending,” said John. “Time and time again the Mayor has stood silently on the sidelines while local government spending has exploded.” “Peterson needs to ‘walk the walk’ if he is going to ‘talk the talk.’ Instead of pointing fingers, Peterson should immediately conduct his own thorough and public review of all local budgets,” John said. “It’s time for the Mayor to sharpen his own pencil and find ways to cut local government spending with the exception of public safety.”
John reminds us of another one of Mayor Peterson’s broken promies. Peterson created a Fiscal Policy Council four years ago by executive order to help coordinate spending and taxing priorities among Marion County’s dozen’s of political subdivisions. John asks if the council has even bothered to meet and do anything during the four years of its existence. John asks, “Well, Mr. Mayor, can we now see some follow through and you show some leadership by using this policy panel effect a real reduction in local spending?” I think the game is up for Mayor Peterson. It’s time for change.
June 30th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
That unfortunate new GOP County Chair is really ignorant of the structure of Hoosier government if he dreams that a Mayor has any power over the many little separate and independent taxing entities county-wide. He has NO power over library boards or school boards for example yet schools take about half your property taxes.
June 30th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Tom John knows more than the Democrats who put us in this mess!
July 1st, 2007 at 12:58 am
Abdul - stop posting after hours at Nicky Blaines!
July 1st, 2007 at 2:06 am
To Wilson, the Voice for spend and tax democraps. Reality check. You need your own blog. You are like an alcoholic stumbling around in dark places in denial that you have a problem.
In this case, the elected Democraps in Marion County have no idea how to fix the financial problems of this city. It is easier to blame UniGov and past administrations, rather than to accept responsibility for the poor management of resources for the past 7.5 years. Do they have a plan that makes sense? If so, put it out here before November.
The democrat majority city-county council needs to do its job once and for all or be defeated in the fall.
It doesn’t seem to matter to them that they have damaged lives. They have ruined lives.
July 1st, 2007 at 8:19 am
I just got our new tax bill. I am now payiing FIVE times what I paid in 2002. My wife’s entire post-tax income is now needed to pay our property taxes. Mr Peterson’s seemingly desperate attempt to shirk responsibility for this fiasco is disgusting. We plan to vote against Mr Peterson, Monroe Gray, and the other city/state “representatives” who got us into this mess.
July 1st, 2007 at 10:42 am
“Fed Up” : unless you actually live in District #8, you cannot vote against Monroe Gray. But who knopws where you live? You hide your identity so who knows if you even pay taxes, if your taxes actually increased or if you are even married. With your anonymity you can make whatever claims you want with no verifiability whatsoever. Very slick political trick!
July 1st, 2007 at 10:48 am
Ignore Wilson
July 1st, 2007 at 11:27 am
Ignore anonymous
July 1st, 2007 at 11:46 am
Mr Wilson:
So your response is to deny reality? Attack the victim? Do you now work for or intend to work for Mr Peterson? You’ve the qualifications, for sure.
Unfortunately, we indeed live in Mr Grays district. Our only excuse is that we moved here in 1985 from Baltimore, after a similar attack on the middle class by incompetent Baltimore politicos.
July 1st, 2007 at 7:07 pm
How about following the lead of California citizens also being fleeced by stupid politicians?
Proposition 13, officially titled the “People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation,” was a ballot initiative to amend the constitution of the state of California. The initiative was enacted by the voters of California on June 6, 1978. It would eventually be upheld as constitutional by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Nordlinger v. Hahn, 505 U.S. 1 (1992). Proposition 13 is embodied in Article 13A of the California Constitution.
The most significant portion of the act is the first paragraph, which capped real estate taxes:
“ SECTION 1. (a) The maximum amount of any ad valorem tax on real property shall not exceed One percent (1%) of the full cash value of such property. The one percent (1%) tax to be collected by the counties and apportioned according to law to the districts within the counties. ”
Its passage resulted in a cap on property tax rates in the state, reducing them by an average of 57%. In addition to lowering property taxes, the initiative also contained language requiring a two-thirds majority in both legislative houses for future increases in all state tax rates or amounts of revenue collected, including income tax rates. Proposition 13 received an enormous amount of publicity, not only in California, but throughout the United States. Passage of the initiative presaged a “taxpayer revolt” throughout the country that is thought to have contributed to the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980.