Rebel Loon Rising
Warning whistles on frozen lakes: a Minnesota resistance anthem for anyone who refuses silence.
I’d been thinking about the phrase “we have friends everywhere” from the Star Wars series Andor as I was beginning to see the number of people showing up at our weekly protests rise, long before it became a line of solidarity during our recent unpleasantness.
So, I was delighted when I started seeing the Rebel Loon logo appearing everywhere (Star Tribune reporter Alicia Eler has the backstory on the graphic designer who created the original logo.)
It provides the perfect iconography for the song I wanted to create.
And congratulations to my fellow Minnesotans for being recognized with the JFK Profile in Courage award.
(I created a gazillion different genre versions for this one because it hits close to the heart. Scroll to the bottom to listen to the rest.)
Lyrics
Black SUVs await
Windows dark as tar
Masked men scanning plates
From the unmarked car
Schools go dark at noon
Storefront shutters fall
Neighbors screaming warnings
Through a piercing whistle call
The loon on the lake goes silent
Circles in the gray
We watch them take our neighbors
And something breaks that day
No courtrooms, no mercy
Just masks and a plane
You see a mother taken
You just can’t look away
Rebel loon rising
Over frozen lake and pine
They call us rebel scum
We wear it with pride
Rebel loon rising
You can hear the whistle blow
We have friends everywhere
Right here in the falling snow
Someone tails the ICE convoy
Through our street’s frozen glare
Phones up, recording everything
We have watchers everywhere
Someone brings the groceries
To a family laying low
Someone tracks the charter flights
Through falling February snow
A poet says “I’m not mad at you”
Bleeding out on winter ground
A nurse asks “Are you okay?”
Before lethal shots ring out
The lake wind carries names now
Through every street and square
You thought you ruled the silence
But we have friends everywhere
Rebel loon rising
Across the prairie sky
They call us rebel scum
We answer standing high
Rebel loon rising
From Duluth to St. Paul square
We have friends everywhere
Watching the corruption laid bare
We blow the warning whistles
This is the way
We watch the courthouse doors
This is the way
We stand with cameras rolling
This is the way
We keep ICE awake at midnight
This is the way
We walk the kids to school
This is the way
We respond with the rapid networks
Across the state at all hours
This is the way
We deliver food and blankets
And guard the churchyard towers
This is the way
You call us rebel scum
We wear it proud today
Rebel loon rising
Hear the northern waters cry
Rebel loon rising
Under the North Star sky
Rebel loon rising
From the lakes to far away
We have friends everywhere
And they’re rising every day
Rebel loon rising
Let the empire hear us say
We have friends everywhere
This. Is. The way