When I ran for re-election as mayor in 1995, I was opposed by Joe Rocks, a very capable former state senator. Joe was a good guy, but running against me was a tough task because, through hard work, talent, courage, and a whole lot of luck my administration had achieved what The New York Times described as “One of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent municipal history.”
One of the major issues that Joe put forth during the campaign was that he was a native-born Philadelphian, and I was an interloper from New York City. This argument astounded me as I had lived in Philadelphia by then for 34 years, and because I had chosen after college and law school to remain in Philadelphia over going back to New York. Sometimes I think people who choose to live in this city and relocate to it grow to love it more than even those who are from here.
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In truth, I have grown to love this city as much as I believe is humanly possible. I think I know its drawbacks and its warts, but I also know all of the great things about it that make it a very special place. Because I care for it so much, I have grown incredibly troubled by the many problems that are threatening to tear it apart.
It is why I asked to be interviewed by The Philadelphia Citizen about the fact that I thought an unfair amount of blame for these problems was being put on the shoulders of Mayor Kenney. I was particularly troubled by the increasing level of gun violence and the murders, which are literally tearing the heart out of our neighborhoods. This made me take, for me, what is an unprecedented step and endorse a candidate for election over an incumbent District Attorney.
It all adds up to a very gloomy picture which can create a mood of despair and hopelessness. I concluded that we were in desperate need of a message of hope.
This made me think about the movie Godspell, which I saw in 1973. It was a great musical, and the song “Day by Day” is a classic, one for the ages. But there was a song in the movie that attracted my attention called “Beautiful City.” Its lyrics are incredibly upbeat and hopeful and it was sung by young people in all sorts of weird outfits who were smiling and joyful and you could believe by looking at them that they felt that they could do what the song suggests and build a “Beautiful City.”
You might wonder what in God’s name is the special plaster that can fix our problems? I know it sounds hokey but I think that “special plaster” is our love for the city. Now the trick is to find that special plaster and to put it to work quickly.
I was so taken with the lyrics that are so hopeful that I made “Beautiful City” the campaign song when I ran for Governor in ’86—and I wasn’t just talking about Philadelphia; I was talking about Pittsburgh and Warren and Shamokin and Nanticoke and all of Pennsylvania’s cities. I lost that election—well actually, I got thumped—but I didn’t blame it on our theme song. And when we took a campaign bus around the states in the last 10 days of Bill Clinton’s run for President in 1992, we played that song with loudspeakers on our bus and people could hear it as we came into their city.
When time passed, my fascination with “Beautiful City” faded into a memory as most things do. But when Hillary Clinton ran for President in 2008, we took the same trip around the state and I wanted the song again. I went out and bought the soundtrack to the musical “Godspell” and I played it, only to hear a version of a “Beautiful City” that I didn’t recognize. The words had completely changed.
Well, this new version faded into memory, too, and I didn’t think much about it until just a few weeks ago as I felt heartsick about what is happening in Philadelphia. I thought of the original song and went online, determined to find it. If you go online and type in “Beautiful City—Godspell” you will see that there are two distinct versions. The first is from the 1973 movie, sung by the entire cast; but you will also see the version that has played on Broadway throughout the last two decades, sung by Hunter Parrish, an amazingly gifted and talented singer.
The lyrics from the Broadway version were totally changed and only the music remained the same. Here are the two versions:
1973 Movie Version
Come sing me sweet rejoicing
Come sing me love
We’re not afraid of voicing
All the things
We’re dreaming of
Oh, high and low,
And everywhere we go
We can build
A beautiful city
Yes we can
Oh yes we can
We can build
A beautiful city
Call it out
And call it the city of man
We don’t need alabaster
We don’t need chrome
We’ve got our special plaster
Take my hand (Take my hand)
I’ll take you home (I’ll take you home!)
We see nations rise
In each other’s eyes (in each other’s eyes!)
[REPEAT]
Broadway Version
Out of the ruins and rubble,
Out of the smoke,
Out of our night of struggle
Can we see a ray of hope,
One pale thin ray reaching for the day?
We can build a beautiful city,
Yes, we can (Yes, we can).
We can build a beautiful city,
Not a city of angels,
But we can build a city of man.
We may not reach the ending,
But we can start.
Slowly but surely mending,
Brick by brick,
Heart by heart,
Now, maybe now,
We start learning how.
[Chorus]
When your trust is all but shattered,
When your faith is all but killed,
You can give up bitter and battered,
Or you can slowly start to build!
[Chorus]
As I read the Broadway lyrics they clearly invoke a different emotion than the film version. They were obviously describing a very difficult situation and only by the beauty of the words, not the tenor of the song, they tried to convey hope. You can say the song is hauntingly beautiful, but it is not nearly as optimistic as the film version.
I continued to wonder why the switch had taken place and searched on the internet (which I can barely do) and I heard the composer explain that he wrote the second version after 9/11. The “ruins and rubble” and the “night of struggle” refer to that fateful day that none of us who lived through will ever forget. Wow, amazing! Someone should put both versions together. Start with the beautifully haunting but mournful song that whispers words of hope and change the mood by switching to the lyrics and music of the film version with its crescendo of hope and optimism. The Godspell kids who sang it were right, “We don’t need alabaster, we don’t need chrome….we’ve got a special plaster….”
You might wonder what in God’s name is the special plaster that can fix our problems? I know it sounds hokey but I think that “special plaster” is our love for the city. Now the trick is to find that special plaster and to put it to work quickly.
I believe there are people in every one of our 90 neighborhoods that truly love this city and want to see it meet its challenges and even, perhaps in their lifetimes, become that beautiful city. We just need a way to find a way to put that love to work.
The people in our neighborhoods have to manifest that love in any way they can—by keeping it clean, by sweeping the streets, by picking up trash on the sidewalks. A clean neighborhood begets pride in the people that live there. Those who physically can, should participate in a neighborhood watch that will help the police identify crime before it starts or ends with violence. The people in the neighborhoods have to realize that most of the police truly want to protect and serve but what is happening frightens them as well. They never know when an ordinary traffic stop or a call for domestic violence can become deadly. They must work together with the police if we are ever to end this cycle of gun violence.
I believe there are people in every one of our 90 neighborhoods that truly love this city and want to see it meet its challenges and even, perhaps in their lifetimes, become that beautiful city. We just need a way to find a way to put that love to work.
Our police have to help out too. The vast majority of our force are good people who want to do the right thing, but they must understand that every citizen whether it be a homeless person living on the street or Brian Roberts, the head of our most powerful corporation, are citizens and are to be treated equally and fairly. If the police do that they will find their longtime ally, the people who live where they patrol, might just be on their side again.
Our business community needs to roll up its sleeves and go to work helping to build back the city. How? By hiring more people and by paying them a salary that can allow them to support themselves and their family. To give summer jobs to our young people to show them that you don’t have to sell drugs to make a living and buy things you want. To commit additional dollars to programs that are so necessary to create opportunities for all of our citizens, like after school tutoring or full day pre-k. I realize this may cause the company to make less profit at the beginning, but I believe it is not only the right thing to do, but over time it will help that business flourish even more by creating an attractive, vibrant community that they will be doing business in.
Our sports stars and celebrities should pledge to give their time and money also. Imagine if a cadre of them committed themselves to go around to middle schools to try to reach kids before they have formulated their thinking about their future by telling about what is possible and by ceasing to find violence as an alternative which, in the end, will only hurt them. Imagine if Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris, Fletcher Cox, Miles Sanders and Lane Johnson, Bryce Harper, Aaron Nola, JT Realmuto, Andrew McCutchen, Carli Lloyd, John Legend, Will Smith, and Jill Scott, to name just a few, were part of a group that didn’t just do this once or twice a year but did it five to 10 times a year.
And lastly, our elected officials. It is imperative, if we have any hope to turn around the city, that our elected officials promise to make decisions solely on what is right and what would get us out of this crisis, and not what would gain them the most political advantage. Can it be done? Is it realistic? To ask all of these folks to do these things regularly would not be realistic unless they understand the crisis and the plateau we are on and the choice we must make—and virtually lock arms in an all-hands-on-deck response to this crisis.
We must all do this with hope and determination with the belief that if we care enough and if we love this city enough, we just might make it a “Beautiful city of man and woman.”
Ed Rendell was mayor of the city of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2000 and Governor of the state of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011.
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Header photo by J. Fusco / Visit Philadelphia