Assassins: Everybody's Got The Right

[Bolo Boffin]

Everybody's got the right to be happy.
Don't stay mad, life's not as bad as it seems.

If you keep your goal in sight,
You can climb to any height.
Everybody's got the right to their dreams...

[delrem]

1. WTF have those lyrics got to do with "ASSASSINS", and a giant pointing finger?

I don't get it.

[Bolo Boffin]

2. It's a Sondheim musical about the various people who have assassinated the POTUS

or tried to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassins_(musical)

As that Wiki article reports, one reviewer says that Sondheim's message is "political murderers are a product of the American political culture." Wiki describes this opening number as so:

The play opens in a fairground shooting gallery where, amid flashing lights, human figures trundle past on a conveyor belt. One by one, a collection of misfits enter the stage, where the Proprietor of the game entices them to play, promising that their problems will be solved by killing a President. ("Everybody’s Got the Right&quot . Leon Czolgosz, John Hinckley, Charles Guiteau, Giuseppe Zangara, Samuel Byck, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, and Sara Jane Moore are given their guns one by one. John Wilkes Booth enters last and the Proprietor introduces him to the others as their pioneer before he begins distributing ammunition. The assassins take aim as "Hail to the Chief" heralds Abraham Lincoln's offstage arrival. Booth excuses himself, a shot rings out and Booth shouts, "Sic semper tyrannis!"

The giant pointing finger is a hand forming a gun.

I highly recommend the musical. This song is from the Broadway revival. Michael Cerveris is Booth, and Neil Patrick Harris is the Balladeer/Oswald. If you follow the Youtube link to the site, you can find the rest of the music of the show.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

3. As noted, "political murderers are a product of the American political culture."

I don't believe the idea has been historically restricted to America or Americans, yet our vaunted sense of individualism, for what it's worth, seems to manifest itself on this peculiar stage.

[liberalmike27]

4. Oddly, Been Thinking

Lately, how weird is it that they use a separate word, "assassination" for murder. And the weird thing to me is I suspect the "word" was invented to give it more gravitas. But in a weird way, the word "assassinate" almost seems to have less effectiveness than if they'd just said "the president was murdered," back in '63.

Maybe it is just me, or maybe it is because only "liberal" or really less-conservative presidents were killed. But it almost seems like the word itself is less severe that "murdered," or "killed."