The Continuing Siege

As I sit here and listen to Dr. John's "City Lights," a seemingly relevant but anachronistic original album penned mostly by Dr. John himself, it begs the question of how music in 1980 should effect us today.  The lineage of music history covers centuries, not decades.  It would be wise for America to realize one of our most substantial and influential contributions to the world is American popular music.  I use this term extremely broadly to describe all American music not in the realm of the European orchestral tradition.  Both could be considered concert music, and as aptly we have forgotten in 2020 American popular music was a decisive force in American economics for decades, popular music began to describe America's unique, original, and artistic contribution to the entire field of music.  Often it is suggested the term "jazz" is a slang misrepresentation of the music it is meant to represent.  "Jass" possessed overt sexual connotations, and a meager attempt was made to change it to jazz.  Lee Morgan and others staunchly would suggest the better term is African American Classical Music.  He is right.  To suggest America no longer is a racist nation would beg the question why jazz music still is not recognized as the true soul of America.  Most would agree it is, or rather black artist music more accurately portrays the experiences and resulting feelings of the majority of struggling Americans.  It depends how and where you look.  Consider this.  A force in America choose to murder what could be considered the two most prolific, Christian, and honest leaders of civil rights.  When this movement was in motion effecting change in racism and classism, attempting to reverse the brutal, savage, and often murderous Jim Crow laws of the Old South, a force in our nation sanctioned the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King and President John F. Kennedy.  Depending upon which political lens of today through which you decide to look, both of these men were considered good.  They were doing the right thing.  America, and it is fair to say that these actions didn't represent the majority view, killed these men.  They were assassinated in a very high profile, seditious, and traitorous assault upon the democracy and resulting freedom in America.  To say we are not a racist nation is ludicrous.  It is burying your head in the sand and ignoring the fabric of American history.  The more appropriate political tactic in decreeing America is not a racist nation, is attempting to gaslight millennials into believing these atrocities never happened.  Consequently when I hear about reparations for slavery in the form of monetary payments to descendants of slaves, consider the slain lives of hundreds of thousands of mostly white American men in our Civil War.  These lives are payment enough.  Racism is alive and well in America, and it has been resurrected by Donald Trump and his new Republican Party.  An open letter signed by retired members of the United States Military, continuing to make false claims about a stolen election is nothing more than a Trump-penned lie.  Rest assured it can and will be traced back to his desk at Mar-o-Lago.  What else does he have to do?  If America were to stop this fascist rebellion in its tracks by imprisoning its leader, then we could get back to the heart of American ingenuity, popular music.  There 20th Century represents ten differing decades of musical evolution, creativity, and expression.  Each embodies the soul of America at that particular time in history, and yet we do not care.  We can not wait for our musical artists to die, so there is less competition for evil.  Exactly this is what has happened in America.  Instead of embracing and continuing to teach about American artists' contributions to life, quickly we seal their casket and put them in the ground.  Two hundred million dollars paid to Bob Dylan was not to preserve his legacy of protest poetry and music.  It was meant to suppress it.  Cancel Culture has been in full swing since Republicans came into power.  Ask yourself if the image and voice of Miss Lindsey represents the America in which you want to live.  Contrarily is it a "Rebel Without a Cause?"  If the American military had been swayed to the desires of Mr. Trump, Communism would have been born in America overnight.  It would have been a stealth, covert, and painless overthrow, until reality began to reveal itself.  Many populations in previous revolutions were smitten by charismatic personalities disguising fascist intent.  If all you need in a leader is someone to stroke your ego and make you feel good, you have more history to read.