In the Broadway musical Oklahoma, Rodgers and Hammerstein had a song called the Farmer and the Cowman. In reviewing the bruhaha between Antar and Tate, this old tune comes to mind. My musical rewrite follows:
The mayor and the governor
should be friends.
Oh, the mayor and the governor
should be friends.
One likes to procrastinate,
the other to pontificate,
But that’s no reason
that they can’t be friends.
Capital City folks should stick together,
Jackson folks should all be great.
One likes to dance around the Council
The other with state potentates.
I’d like to say a word for the mayor.
The mayor is a prim and verbal servant.
He’s seldom at a loss for words to say,
Unless he has trouble with his memory
Of what he’s said before along the way.
I’d like to say a word for the governor.
He stepped with boldness into the rink.
He took the water pitcher by both ears
And fixed the problem
so all of us could drink.
Capital City folks should stick together.
Jackson folks should all be great.
One likes to dance around the council,
The other prances with the heads of state.
So, the mayor and the governor
should be friends.
It serves us well when they get along,
Sing their verses from
the same sheet of paper
And teach us all to sing
the same sweet song.
We’re all in this leaky boat together.
We’re all about reaching the same ends.
Our leaders may disagree on tactics,
But that’s no reason
that they can’t be friends.
Bill Harvey
(with apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein)
