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The Youth are Getting Restless

Damon Root | 1.2.2009 3:37 PM

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A stirring call to action from the Facebook group 300 million strong to get Bad Brains to play Obama's inauguration:

We want - no, we DEMAND that - every single person in the U.S., whether they're here legally or not, and even if they're way too young to vote or frankly not cool enough to appreciate buck-wild hardcore rasta-punk, support our call to have Bad Brains play President-elect Obama's inaugural bash.

Bad Brains, the baddest of badasses, were famously "Banned in DC" almost 30 years ago! So, it's high time (if you'll pardon the expression) that the most DC of all the DC bands was not only officially unbanned, but received the honor that President Clinton saw fit to bestow on Fleetwood Mac. (No offense.)

I don't see why not. If President-elect Obama is willing to break the hearts of his LGBT supporters by inviting anti-gay Pastor Rick Warren onstage, why not get the famously homophobic Bad Brains' frontman HR to hype the crowd up between speakers? Maybe Obama's old foe Alan Keyes will show up and get in the pit.

In case all you Obama staffers out there need further convincing, here are the boys playing "Banned in D.C." at CBGB's in 1982:

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NEXT: Why 2009 Will be Worse than 2008

Damon Root is a senior editor at Reason and the author of A Glorious Liberty: Frederick Douglass and the Fight for an Antislavery Constitution (Potomac Books).

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