MEMO TO THE CORNER: DON�T APPROPRIATE MY NEIL YOUNG! Just so John J. Miller knows, �Rocking in the Free World� did indeed capture the spirit of 1989, but not of jubilation after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The album it appeared on, Freedom, was released before the fall of the Berlin Wall. And if he bothered to read the lyrics, he would notice that the song describes urban decay following eight years of the Reagan presidency and at the dawn of George H.W. Bush�s first and only term. My favorite line, �we got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand,� is a clear play on Bush�s call for a �kinder, gentler nation� during his inaugural address.
--Mark Leon Goldberg
