The Daily Times

In these dark times, when many of us are hanging on to money with the tightest of clinched fists, working more than one job and wondering what kind of America our children will grow up in, we need a hero.

We’ve had many of them over the years, from John Wayne standing tall on the walls of the Alamo to Dirty Harry keeping the streets safe from the darker elements who dwell there. But those were simpler times, when things seemed much more black and white. These days, our problems are much more complex and, even more troubling, run that much deeper beneath the fabric of the flag that binds us.

Politically, we’re a house divided, and as we head deeper into an election year, the common ground between us seems to shrink smaller and smaller. The economic gulf between the haves and have-nots grows wider, the social issues over which we disagreed in years past have become flashpoints for heated, bitter feuds.

We are, I believe, a nation in peril. And we need a hero now more than ever.

I’m not talking about a political savior; politicians, I’m afraid, certainly aren’t the answer. We need someone on the outside of that process, and thankfully, one such man might very well rise to the occasion when he releases his new album, “Wrecking Ball,” on March 6.

Bruce Springsteen has risen to the occasion in troubled times past, and if the first single off that record — “We Take Care of Our Own” — is any indication, he’s doing what he does best. Now if only his underlying belief in the better angels of our nature will prove to be true, we might be OK.

I admit — I’m a sucker for big rock anthems. Maybe it’s a byproduct of growing up in the 1980s, when rock bands aspired to write the kind of song that would inspire a stadium full of fans to raise up flicked lighters as one. And “We Take Care of Our Own” is just such a song — big, loud, urgent and sounding vaguely reminiscent of great Springsteen songs from the past, hits like “Hungry Heart” and “Dancing in the Dark.”

But like most things The Boss does, there’s more to it than just sounding good. As he did on “The River” and “Nebraska” and “Born in the USA” and “The Ghost of Tom Joad” and “The Rising” and all of those other phenomenal records, he seems to have made an album of these times. It’s classic Springsteen — filled with troubled observations but anchored to a bedrock of hope that we, as people and as a nation, can be better.

It’s a poignant observation born out of hard times. Driving to work the other morning, blasting it as loud as I could with the morning sun telling fibs about what season it actually is, I realized something. Bruce helped me articulate my own political leanings. Take that for what you will, but it comes down to this — yes, the economy troubles me, but the mood of this country troubles me more.

I’m far from a wealthy man, but my family and I get by. And while I hope that the next president, be it Obama or one of his potential opponents, can do something to help us all breathe a little easier, I firmly believe that little will ever change.

Big corporations have their claws sunk deep into our political process. Those with more money than me dictate how much — or rather, how little — politicians can really do to change anything. Regardless of a politician’s political stripes, I dare say there won’t be much done in the next four years that will transform the economic climate of this nation into anything that different from what it is today. Sure, the airwaves are filled with Chicken Littles who scream of “socialism,” but the fact is that whomever is elected will inherit a mess and probably do good to keep it from getting any bigger.

What very much concerns me, however, is the climate of ugliness that’s so pervasive right now. I find it troubling and disheartening, and The Boss’s chorus — “Wherever this flag’s flown / we take care of our own” — reinforces what I believe so fervently.

I do not want to live in a nation that is anti- anything. I do not want to be part of a society that trades in fear of different religions, sexual orientations, skin colors or political opinions. I do not want to live in a country that views Christian charity — taking care of the poor, the downtrodden, the sick — as something to be avoided because it sounds like an economic system with which I disagree. I do not want to live in a place where we loathe anyone who does not think like us.

As Bruce asks in his new song, “Where are the eyes, the eyes with the will to see / where are the hearts that run over with mercy / where’s the love that has not forsaken me ...” In asking these question, he positions himself as a modern-day Pete Seeger or Woody Guthrie. It may not be something he wants, and his detractors may sneer at such comparison, but right now, he’s all we’ve got.

And he’s saying the things that I feel, trumpeting the things that I believe. He’s expressing his disillusion and his hope in one package, and if this song is a sign of what else is on the album, it may just be the perfect soundtrack to 2012.

Bring it to us, Bruce. Tell us how it is. We need a hero right now, buddy, and you in those faded workingman’s jeans and your ear for what makes suits and factory stiffs alike pump their fists in agreement and support, you’re the closest thing we’ve got.

Steve Wildsmith is the Weekend editor for The Daily Times. Contact him at (stevew@thedailytimes.com) or at 981-1144.

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