1. Because Taylor Swift isn't going to start a revolution.
  2. Because "a literal knight of the Kingdom of Norway" who can buy "a six-pack of Rolexes" would like to tell you how Occupy is like the Nazis.
  3. Because people still die because they can't afford to pay for preventive and lifesaving care.
  4. Because war is not over.
  5. Because of the National Rifle Association.
  6. Because people still get pissed about musicians staging a gay marry-in.
  7. Because of the NSA.
  8. Because people still dump toxic shit into rivers.
  9. Because of 2.2 million American prisoners.
  10. Because we not only still kill prisoners, we're actually looking for more draconian ways to do it.
  11. Because Trayvon Martin is dead and George Zimmerman is free.
  12. Because the minimum wage sucks.
  13. Because women's wages suck.
  14. Because women still have it so hard.
  15. Because minorities still have it so hard.
  16. Because there are places in Inner America that treat 11-year-old Thai Buddhist kids like this.
  17. Because music changes lives.
  18. Because there is still a neo-Nazi music scene.
  19. Because fences don't always make good neighbors.
  20. Because of "Uncle Sugar."
  21. Because Erick Erickson exists.
  22. Because some cops neither serve nor protect.
  23. Because you don't always recognize your own privilege, and neither do I.
  24. Because you risk your life going to the movies sometimes.
  25. Because Downton Abbey, aka "Landed Gentry Have Problems," is what passes for highbrow entertainment.
  26. Because rich-as-hell flim-flam men drive our political discourse.
  27. Because millions of people, voting people, still get their news from Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck every week.
  28. Because we need unions.
  29. Because strikes work.
  30. Because unions need a comeback.
  31. Because education is education, not job training. Its appropriate aim is to make you a better person, not a better middle-manager and consumer.
  32. Because the invisible hand keeps flipping you off.
  33. Because there ever was a government "Un-American Activities Committee," and there can be again, if you don't pay attention.
  34. Because you don't help people ground down by the hard realities of market economics by musing about the secret to a fast-food franchise's success.
  35. Because a certain kind of person still jokes about cleaning his guns with the tears of liberals.
  36. Because you need more Leadbelly in your life.
  37. Because you've seen the word "thug" in a headline in the past ten years.
  38. Because of Blackwater.
  39. Because of the Clearwater.
  40. Because you've likely never talked to a migrant worker in America, but you should.
  41. Because you still don't have complete freedom over your own body.
  42. Because child-labor laws don't write themselves.
  43. Because there are still politicians emailing each other noose, banana, and bone-through-nose jokes like it's no thing.
  44. Because towns in Alabama need more black drag Santas in their parades.
  45. Because "harsh interrogation methods" exist.
  46. Because we're fucking poor, and we're fucking scared.
  47. Because the safety, health, and happiness of women are no joke.
  48. Because little boxes aren't enough.
  49. Because freedom doesn't march, it breaks step.
  50. Because no human being is illegal.
  51. Because your God doesn't have to be so small.
  52. Because we desperately need a cure for affluenza.
  53. Because it should be easier for a retail worker to earn what her CEO makes in an hour.
  54. Because manatees should matter.
  55. Because which side are you on?
  56. Because there's more truth in a lyric, any lyric, than a State of the Union address, any State of the Union address.
  57. Because a national tragedy should not be a business opportunity.
  58. Because the Confederates lost.
  59. Because your box store is spying on you.
  60. Because your attachment to consumer technology is making you terrible.
  61. Because of fracking.
  62. Because Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Morello are rarely wrong.
  63. Because of the smug media conservative sniffing at this list at this very moment.
  64. Because there's more Christianity in Pete Seeger than in most Christians.
  65. Because you owe it to your current and future children to be better.
  66. Because the national conversation on trans rights is just getting started.
  67. Because to every thing, there is a season.
  68. Because Justin fucking Bieber? Really, humans?
  69. Because of the dialectic, bitches.
  70. Because your sexist racist uncle isn't going to do it.
  71. Because Johnny Cash got it.
  72. Because even the pope gets it.
  73. Because another world is possible.
  74. Because we would all like to outlast the bastards.
  75. Because pacifism? What ever happened to that?
  76. Because international cosmopolitanism? Sounds socialist!
  77. Because so much about modern life is sad.
  78. Because you can play a sad song on a banjo.
  79. Because rye whiskey is good.
  80. Because you're alive.
  81. Because of all the good people who have died.
  82. Because there can be poetry after Auschwitz, if you write it.
  83. Because war is over, if you want it.
  84. Because compassion and empathy and solidarity should not be dirty words.
  85. Because the big fool says to push on.
  86. Because some of the flowers are still gone.
  87. Because God's counting on me, God's counting on you.
  88. Because hate needs to be surrounded and forced to surrender.
  89. Because we need to keep overcoming.
  90. Because this land is your land.
  91. Because this land is my land.
  92. Because this land was made for you and me.
  93. Because this land was made for you and me.
  94. Because this land was made for you and me.