When you are smack dab in the middle of massive change, it’s nearly impossible to parse what is going on all around you.
Baby boomers have been there a few times. The chaos of the sixties, when the world suddenly went from belonging to your parents, to belonging to you and your like-minded friends – remember that?
Get to a certain age, or a certain stage, and you’d really have to make an effort not to see that everyone approaches their lives from different angles.
This column was supposed to be about London Bluesfest and a final wrap-up of Mariposa and Summerfolk but I’ve ended up down the rabbit hole, waaaaay down the rabbit hole on a totally different tangent. My apologies to those waiting for any of the above but occasionally, when I get stuck on a thread I’ve got to go with it. So….I woke up yesterday morning with a particular FB post and the subsequent thread traipsing around in my cranium. Bear with me. First the post….
No matter how you may feel about Senator John McCain’s political past, with his recent demise, you cannot help but remember that he was a war hero, and a stand up guy. His passing leaves us short of what might have been the last real gentleman standing in the Senate. As his life becomes a memory, those who knew him well remind us of those moments that defined a Giant of the Senate, and of a politician who frequently eschewed partisanship for a wholehearted defence of democracy.
With two of Trump’s main cohorts, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, now actual convicted felons, it certainly looks like we’re nearing the end of a long and rocky road in American politics. Trump’s misdeeds are beginning to emerge thru the swampy miasma, and while he may continue to scream, “no collusion!” it’s becoming very clear that the ‘best people’ with whom he has surrounded himself, are not being ‘best’ at all. They are felons, and he himself is now the ‘unindicted felon‘ in the room.
I didn’t have the best week, to be honest. On Tuesday, I learned that a very dear friend had passed away after a series of health setbacks. Scott Shelson was a good man; look up ‘mensch’ in the dictionary – his photo should be there.
If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
— Lyndon Johnson, 36th President of the United States of America
Martin Luther King Jr had a dream. And he died for it, along with the many others, of all colours, who fought to bring the civil rights movement to America.
Bullseye Records of Canada
