I have been struggling with the prospect of this coming week for some time. I thought at one point after the election that I would just sit back and just watch the whole thing unfold, maybe give them a chance to prove that my doubts were unfounded. For a short period of time –actually, several fleeting instances– he-who-shall-not-be-named-here acted almost conciliatory and I thought I might just keep this wait and see attitude.
But in the two months since, he-who-shall-not-be-named-here has shown with his words and actions just what he is and will continue to be. And that is an absolute reflection of our worst self in every possible way. There is nothing he has done or said that I would advise a child to emulate. Try as I might, I can not come up with a single quality in his shown character that is admirable in any way. Every aspect of this person is ugly in spirit. Even his limited acts of charity are done selfishly, done only because it somehow benefits him and is seen as a cost of doing business.
This is not a person who is taking the weight of this nation upon his shoulders so that all in this nation will benefit. He doesn’t care about you or me. He doesn’t care about coal miners in Kentucky or farmers in Iowa– they were simply a cost of doing business. No, he’s putting this country on a butcher block in front of him and is trying to figure how to carve off an even larger and juicier portion for himself and his money buddies.
I agree with John Lewis when he says that he-who-shall-not-be-named-here is not a legitimate president and applaud his courage for saying those words. But John Lewis is a man of courage and a man who has always worked to lift others. This is a man who has truly worked to change America for the better and who has consistently stood on the right side of history.
And he is seeing a person coming to power who seeks to weaken the rights and freedoms for which he has bled. A person who is poised to push us on to the wrong side of history, who is willing to trade away the idealism that has long been our strength and foundation for the benefit and self interests of a precious few.
So, on this weekend marking the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday I thought my Sunday morning musical choice should reflect that. It’s A Change is Gonna Come from the great Sam Cooke, a song that was written by Cooke at the height of the civil rights struggle in response to his arrest in Louisiana after protesting a Holiday Inn‘s refusal to honor his reservations at that hotel.
It’s a great and powerful song with a message that resonates for both then and now. I am also including the Otis Redding version just because I absolutely love this performance. Give a real listen and try to have good day.
Sick days. The flu has come to our home and we find ourselves absolutely miserable, just waiting and hoping for it to somehow pass by. Haven’t been getting a single thing done but I wanted to at least post my Sunday morning music. First thing this morning, every song I listened to was like shoving an ice pick in my temple. But I finally settled in a bit and was able to listen to some songs. They all happened to be sad songs but I guess that’s a side effect from the illness.
I thought that the image from this cover painted by Dr. Seuss for Judge magazine for its first issue of 1931 might fit today’s situation here in the USA, at least in the view of many folks. It shows a New Year’s reveler waking up to find a creature in his bed. The prior night–the year before– it had looked pretty good. Lots of fun and lots of promises of all the things it would do for him. But here in the bright light of the New Year he realizes that the party is over now and he is left with a monster on his hands — and little idea of what to do with it.
A few years back I played a version of the song Riu Riu Chiu, an early 16th century song from the Iberian Peninsula that is about the Nativity story. That version was a surprisingly lovely a capella version from the Monkees. I say surprising because it was part of a really bad Christmas episode of their television show from the 1960’s. Watching it made me question my taste in television when I was a kid. But at least this song was there to somewhat make up for the bad parts.
I saw a short segment on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) that they run between their films at this time of year. It’s their look back at all of the people associated with filmdom who have died this past year. Every year it seems that I find myself being surprised at the number of well known actors, directors, composers, etc who have passed away in that year.
It’s Sunday morning and I want to play one of my all-time favorite songs, Nature Boy. It’s an extraordinary song from an unusual character by the name of 
I started off this morning at a very different place than where I finished when I began looking for this Sunday morning’s musical selection. I started watching videos from Long John Baldry which somehow led to Neko Case which even more oddly led me to Oscar Peterson and Count Basie.
“All there is, is fragments, because a man, even the loneliest of the species, is divided among several persons, animals, worlds. To know a man more than slightly it would be necessary to gather him together from all those quarters, each last scrap of him, and this done after he is safely dead.” 
Redtree Times 