THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED

     Music is an integral part of life. It expresses emotions, changes emotions, lights up lives, and can represent challenge where there is supposedly no room fo resistance. Jewish slaves in German camps would hum Yiddish tunes, religious prayers, as they passed by guards. In the harshest of times songs flourished that expressed the emotions, hopes and fears of that time.
    The passing of the writer of "I Love Rock and Roll" hit me, for I remember that song: the defiance it represented, the importance of music to our lives that it implied. Music can hold a nation together so there is a definite lack today of that music, that binding piece of inspired writing that would hit us all in our hearts. Where is it? Buried deep within the divisions of the country as we suffer under the double whammy of a pandemic of mammoth proportions and an incompetent leadership at the top.
      "Lies, tell me lies, tell me lies..." Yes, perhaps that song could be the anthem of the pandemic, though it does reinforce the negativity and mistrust rampant in the nation, so nope, will not do. "The day the music died..." Will that do? Nope, for I certainly hope that music never dies for then humanity will be no longer, having lost its soul. Another blogger suggested "The Rocking Pneumonia" but that will not do as it plays down the seriousness, the deathly gravity of this coronavirus. We need to remember that seriousness, that fatal error so easy to do, to challenge the rules, transfer the virus to others and die. Yes, die. Or cause others to die. And how does one sing about that?
     So what does one do? Do we imagine a stamp of "cancelled" on our foreheads meaning life cancelled, at least as we knew it so few months ago? Do we give in? Or do we play it smart, take the hits now in our lives, as difficult as they are, and buy a better future for, if not for ourselves, at least for the kids. There is talk of a Gen C, for babies born during and perhaps because of this virus and home restrictions, and the talk includes the differences of their lives as compared to ours. Yes, there will be many, for the safety of people precautions, but, a huge but, we must keep an eversharp eye on the political climes of the day and insist on keeping our liberty, our democracy, our gestalt as America.
     What we do not need are the rigors and hardships of the past three and a half years. We should not need to have courts fight to hold the executive branch to the limitations of the Constitution. Even as the full Mueller Report is now in the hands of the court, why is this still playing out? Why is there the disgusting reek of corruption even attached to the name of Barr as he misreported, shall we say, on that Report? This is a tremendous piece of history, a world changing event possibility and yet it is consigned back to the closet for the courts are on recess till April 20 and possibly beyond. So, in a way, that cancelled stamp is both relevant and applicable. How sad for us, as individuals and as a country.
     Thus the country is at sixes and sevens and not the least of all factors, governing, causing and growing this uncertainty and confusion is the man supposedly at the top, Trump. This is the man who accuses his accusers of "not being nice" or out to "get ya" even as he uses racial memes, encourages his aides to physically grapple with unfavored reporters insisting on the truth, and states bold stupidities as words of wisdom.
    Contrary to his words, backed up by unfortunate truths, the response of his administration is not "fantastic" nor encouraging. Even as Fauci and other experts state they "explained" the material several times before they received the proper response, Trump keeps insisting on the wrong language. Accusing the hospitals of somehow, for some esoteric reason , of hiding ventilators and respirators, of hoarding masks from their personnel, - the man is nuts, pure and simple. He is demented,  this, the man running the country.
    His advice is to "ride it through" be like "cowboys", even as the date of what, the roundup, changes from two days to a week, to a month, to a month and a half and now two months, till June 1 when, I guess, like magic, all will be well, all sick swept under the rug and life resumes. Well, some people had better do a whole lotta thinking before we fall deep down into an evergrowing hole and we lose over 2 million of our population. Anybody eager to bang this into a thick skull? Thought so.
    So yes, the music has temporarily died; there is no theme song written for these times. I certainly hope one will be, as we so desperately need something, even a song, to build our unity and our sanity, to reinforce our optimism, our hopes, in a confused time. In the meanwhile, hang in there, isolate, wash those hands, be well and stay safe.