Shed A Little Light - James Taylor composer/arranger

This song is exquisitely presented in the 2004 video featuring James Taylor and 4 additional voices. The 5 voice blend is awesome. He wisely repeats the first refrain at the end of the piece.

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Lyrics

SOLO
Oh, let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us

CHORUS
All men and women living on the Earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood
That we are bound together
In our desire to see the world
Become a place in which our children
Can grow free and strong
We are bound together by the task
That stands before us
And the road that lies ahead
We are bound, and we are bound

SOLO
There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps
The heart will never rest

CHORUS and SOLO interweave
Shed a little light, oh Lord (shed a little light, oh Lord)
So that we can see, oh yeah
Just a little light, oh Lord. (just a little light, oh Lord)
Want to stand it on up
Stand it on up, oh Lord (stand it on up, Lord)
Want to walk it on down
Gonna shed a little light, oh Lord (shed a little light, oh Lord)
Can't get no light from a dollar bill
(Don't see me no light from a dollar bill)
Don't give me no light from a TV screen, oh no, no
When I open my eyes, I want to drink my fill
From the well on the hill

SOLO
I know you know what I mean

CHORAL RESPONSE interweave
Shed a little light, oh Lord (shed a little light, oh Lord)
So that we can see, oh yeah
Just a little light, oh Lord (just a little light, oh Lord)
Want to stand it on up
Stand it on up, oh Lord (stand it on up, oh Lord)
Stand on up, Lord
Want to walk it on down
Gonna shed a little light, oh Lord (shed a little light, oh Lord)

SOLO
Shed a little light, Lord
There's a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest, oh yes
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps
The heart will never rest

CHORUS
Oh, Let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us
All men and women living on the Earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: James Taylor

I hope all of you within the sound of my voice and the sight of my face have had and are having a most rejuvenating Sabbath weekend. I confess last night I had some trouble getting to sleep. I could not put the spectacle of hundreds ot thousands of LAUSD, UTLA, CTA, and AFSCME administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, therapy professionals, and students returning to campuses tomorrow and Tuesday, January 11, 2022. Especially when most of the colleges and universities these children might someday attend have wisely decided to reconvene virtually until we have mitigated the exponential rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations, a rise in deaths of children and adults from COVID, and a strain on the healthcare system-- still NOT A Nationwide free healthcare system-- because it is required by most large employers that employees and students present evidence of testing negative-for COVID-19. I like too many others, already have had to deal with at least a one-week delay due to 1.) Waiting to receive in-home test kits ordered last week, 2.) Potential sheltering-in-place if those results are positive, and 3.) the logistical and economic impact of social distancing for at least another 7 to 10 days.

Spring Semester should be a time when schools get back to routines established in the Fall Semester. Instead, LAUSD has chosen to recreate the chaos of the second start of a school year with a different set of auxiliary stressors. The commitment of 4000, District office staff to classrooms means their work may be left undone for some indeterminate period of time. Failure is the handmaiden of the decision to return to in-person learning my literally and figuratively robbing Peter to pay Paul.

What everyone should be asking themselves is one baseline question to assess the quality of all logistics and operational planning while we learn how to co-exist with COVID-19 : Who profits the most from confusion, chaos, tension, and terror? Perhaps there is at least one other question that needs to now always be considered: Who profits from peace, non-violence, strong family supports, households where quality universal healthcare ( including dental, vision, hearing, and physical health), quality childcare, housing fit for human habitation, nutritious food, potable water, and breathable oxygen-rich air needs are always met.

Who benefits from funding the original Build Back Better and passage of National Voting Rights legislation? Finally, who benefits from maintaining the status quo or devolution into anarchy, fascism, and a race war with MAD ( mutually assured destruction)?

What can happen when we engage in a practice of S.A.F.E.:
STOP suboptimal/harmful behaviors,
ASSESS the situation for causes and solutions, dialoging as needed with stakeholders,
FACILITATing possible solutions, and
EDUCATing to prevent repeating mistakes committed repeatedly over millennia?

https://dailybruin.com/2022/01/09/opinion-disabled-students-at-ucla-deserve-comprehensive-accessible-resources

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/01/07/health/us-coronavirus-friday/index.html
"For our youngest children, those who are not yet eligible for vaccination, it's critically important that we surround them with people who are vaccinated to provide them protection," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Friday.

Well, why hasn't anyone from an employer and or union told Dr. Walensky that all bets are off in schools where anyone has been granted a religious exemption from vaccination and or cannot be vaccinated for health reasons?

We need to surrender the performative farce of "stopping the spread". Between :

1.)other nations the world has decided will continue to wait to receive first and second doses,
2.) a shortage of rapid testing kits, labs backed up with tests to assay,
3.) anti-vaxxers and and anti maskers-- and
4.) folks lying about their status,

CDC, NIH, and WHO need to put their energies into what we can expect in a world with all of the aforementioned four groups and group 5.) Those who are double vaxxed, boostered, protocol compliant and are now having to wait on lines with the other four groups OR are waiting to receive home testing kits with fingers crossed that our test results allow us to work amongst groups 1 through 4. Finally, please do not forget about students for whom FAPE and LRE must be restricted to virtual instruction. #30

08:37:00 pm Pacific Standard Time , Sunday, January 9, 2022. My final outreach to those refusing to wear masks, get vaccinated, amd boostered because no one can tell them what to do. Bullies and punks/ thugs are no longer worth my time and energy. They are not worthy of consideration.They are the ultimate in the uncaring people of the cold dark north. I wish they had stayed there in the first place.
#30