First things first, a happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there, including my own living down in Florida. I was going to say more about him today and some recent cognition troubles he’s been experiencing but I think I will keep it simple and just send out my wishes for a Happy Father’s Day.
Being Sunday, it’s time for some Sunday Morning Music. I was going to play something with a father-y theme but this week’s tragic event down in Charleston has been on my mind.
In the late 1980’s, my parents lived for a couple years on one of the sea islands outside of Charleston so we were able to visit a few times. It was hard not to embrace the place with all its charms, its people and history always on display. I’ve had a soft spot for that area ever since and when the Principle Gallery opened a new location there two years ago I was thrilled in that it might give me an excuse to visit that place once more.
So when a hate-filled , weak-minded coward given power through a gun takes the lives of nine innocent people in that city, I am filled a multitude of emotions. Sadness for the families and friends of those victims, for the city itself and for this nation that seems to accept this type of tragedy more and more as the norm. Anger at the killer and at ridiculous hatred he possesses. Anger at the societal mindset that incubates or tolerates this hatred, especially in a state where the Confederate flag brazenly flies about the state capital. Anger at those people who believe that this is somehow “their”country and that it is their duty to somehow take it back. Anger at politicians who give lip service but little else in the aftermath, only looking to put the event in a perspective that suits their own agenda.
How many more times will we tolerate this? Many, many more I am sure because there is no easy answer here, no magic pill that wipes away racism, especially in a society where the constant thinly-veiled racism shown in the contempt and disrespect for our president is accepted as the normal. We can’t continue the way we have int he past, simply accepting this as the everyday event it is quickly becoming. We must not tolerate intolerance. We must choose to change.
But Charleston will survive, will get past this time as it has so many other dark days. This morning I am playing a song that has a foot in those earlier days of Charleston. It’s a song from George and Ira Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess based on the Dubose Heyward novel, Porgy, set in the the real Cabbage Row area of Charleston. This became Catfish Row in the story so that it could be relocated to the seafront. The photo above with the Catfish Row sign is the actual site of Cabbage Row where families of freed slaves lived in the late 1800’s and ealry 1900’s, selling cabbage from the windowsills.
The song is I Loves You, Porgy from the late and oh so great Nina Simone. She was one of the greatest and most distinct interpreters of song ever. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her sing anything that didn’t become hers once it was sang. This song is a tour de force among many version of it from a wide range of singers. Enjoy and have a great Sunday and a great Father’s Day.
Redtree Times 