Skip A Rope

This is a parable of Henson  Cargill’s 1968 hit Skip A Rope.” Listen to your children while they play. Isn’t it kinda funny what the children say. Moma hates dady, dady hates mom, you should have heard the fight they had. Last night we all woke up to a terrible scream. Gave little sister another bad dream. Don’t pay your taxes, don’t be a fool. What ever happened to the golden rule? Hate you neighbor for the color of their skin.” Oh! what a mess we got ourselves in. Can’t seem to get it together to make things right. All we do is fuss and fight. We haven’t paid attention to what the children say. We have only made things worse with each passing day. No longer can we stay this way. We will only end up pale and gray. When you think about it it really isn’t funny what the children say. Today, the world has become pale and gray. What the children have long since said their days are filled with nothing but dread. 

When the song “Skip A Rope” first appeared in 1968 should have been a wake up call for our society to realize the pitfalls that have begun to ravage the fellowship of humanity. Since then we really haven’t listened to the actual meaning behind the lyrics of what the song “Skip A Rope” actually conveys. Generation after generation since has only succumbed to the fate that our children have long since endured. As a consequence our society has deteriorated to a point where as a nation we have become so accustomed and desensitized to the violent tremors that keep reverberating through-out the nation. 

It was over 50 years ago that song writers turned their attention to the shortcomings and violent confrontations that were erupting in an era of injustices amidst social upheavals. These upheavals  brought about the dismantlement of the basic family unit that we had stabilizing much of America’s landscape. As we have entered a new decade in the 21st century after more than a half century later the lyrics behind “Skip A Rope” ring a perspective about our society that has long since been ignore, maybe deemed old fashioned even outdated by the standards of society we have today. It would be so refreshing to adhere to what those lyrics says and realize just how far we still have to go to make things right.