I remember growing up how much I admired the romanticized notion of what was called “newspaper men.”  I liked the idea of the hard scrabbled journalist working under deadlines and filing a story, sometimes late at night. The news story would then appear in the next day’s paper, arriving at homes right as the sun was coming up only a few hours later. The entire process sounded to me like a very noble and exhilarating adventure.

Everybody in town was reading the same thing. People trusted the morning paper and for good reason; integrity, objectivity and truth were the coin of the realm. The same philosophy of early television journalists followed suit. Truth was not an abstraction. Getting the story right was not a hit and miss proposition. Circulation and ratings were based on trust and not grandstanding or showmanship.  Keeping up with the news was a civic responsibility and not something to be taken lightly.

There were fewer media outlets, yet we were better informed. God, I’m dating myself.

I remember when Woodward and Bernstein became folk heroes and household names. It was right about the same time that I decided that being a sports writer, which seemed like a swell idea when I was sixteen, felt like a really dumb idea. The sports pages of daily newspapers were referred to as the ‘toy department’. Compared to real world events, sports was a relatively minor diversion and not an all encompassing part of our national consciousness as it is today.

I love sports however, I can put it down for awhile. On the other hand, I have never considered music to be a non essential item in my life.

We now live in a world where everybody is a journalist and publisher of sorts. Everyone is keeping a public journal of their activities on Facebook and tweeting what’s on their minds. If people could research and reflect on the complex issues that we face each day with the same zeal as they are posturing, posing and posting, we might be better informed as to how to deal with the myriad of problems which face our nation.  This would of course include ISIS or ISIL or the next violence prone person with a gun that this Christian nation produces.  

The modern journalist is likely just putting a French Flag over their Facebook profile picture and learning how to spell San Bernardino. I suppose it goes without saying that these same folks feel the same way about any type of terrorism and warfare, where ever it occurs. ISIS claimed responsibility for a similar brutal attack in Beirut, Lebanon, the day before the attacks in Paris.  I guess Facebook just forgot to make available the Lebanese flag application. The same relative indifference took place when 147 students were gunned down at a university in Kenya by terrorists last spring.

Corporate America and its shills in the modern media understand how to manipulate the public’s selective outrage and institutionalized grieving.  George Orwell sounded like a genius when he so prophetically said, “It’s not about winning a war. It is about maintaining it.”

Looking at this through my Star Spangled Ray Bans, if we fought this war on the battle field of ideas and values, we would have won a long time ago.

At times like this I think that writing about music feels like I’m working in the toy department. I write about various strains of real organic American music, mostly blues and some of its branches which don’t fall too far from that once sturdy trunk. I do it because music, by my way of thinking, is indispensable. It is something which feeds the brain, heart and soul all at once. It can be very personal and communal often at the same time. Blues, rhythm & blues that morphed into first generation rock & roll and jazz music are America’s most beloved and enduring exports. Our music says more about our country, who we are, where we have been and where we are going than most things in life. This music is almost universally loved by anyone who hears it.  It is now played by musicians all over the world and I love that. Blues is the music of redemption and Lord knows we can use some of that right about now.

As shocking and as sad as the events which have taken place over the past few weeks are, they are also fairly predictable as massive intelligence failures collide with a world full of well armed religious zealots and ethno-centric bigots of all stripes on a fairly regular basis.   

One day after the terrorist attacks on Paris, going out and celebrating the joys of American music seemed almost downright inappropriate, but the band known as The Paladins was playing in my hometown and right down the street.

Any notion that I shouldn’t be there was quickly dispensed when the dance floor filled up. A young woman wearing a short black dress twirled and as her dress flew up she revealed, just for a split second, a matching thong. What a great salvo she fired at this cultural/religious war. The good part was no one was hurt. Chalk up a win for our side.

While this is a very contentious issue, many Islamic scholars (and fundamentalist Christian preachers) contend that music can lead to lewd behavior amongst scantily clad woman, impure thoughts and consensual sex. To that I say, ‘Amen.’  Why do you think we love it so much?

So on that Saturday night, I am very thankful that this music venue wasn’t under siege by the other side in this war. No one burst in and yelled “God is great!” before opening gunfire, indiscriminately killing their “enemies,” or who I like to call innocent civilians, having a good time.

I’m guessing the horrors in Paris were akin to being in America while being shot by white Christians at an elementary school yard, college campus, holiday gathering or movie theater. By now we must have an official Facebook profile picture app for those occurrences. It’s been going on for a long time.

I just hope all this horrible violence and hardship ends soon and we here in America can go right back to arguing about coffee cups, crucifixes and Confederate flags. We are getting pretty good at these meaningless discussions. As far as stopping gun violence in our country, I think the ONLY thing on which we can all agree is that is we aren’t even trying. 

If anyone who reads this actually thinks the National Rifle Association cares about you or your second amendment rights, I am shocked you read anything that doesn’t come with free crayons, let alone BLUES JUNCTION. Let’s review: The NRA is a lobbying group for the gun manufacturing industry... period. Mass shootings are good for business. It scares decent, otherwise thoughtful people into buying more guns. They are gambling with the lives of innocent people that we won’t change our gun laws, which are the ridicule of the entire world. So far they have been right.

What will happen and what kind of policies should the United States adopt as it relates to making our world safer from the kind of evil we saw take place in Paris, Beirut, Colorado Springs, San Bernardino and other places?...I don’t know and neither do you. What should our policy be as it relates to the current refugee crisis (all of which are always the result of a war between bombs and bullets rather than ideas)?...I don’t know and neither do you. I’m wondering when every troglodyte in America became a constitutional scholar and foreign policy expert?

What I do know is that we were all better off in the pre-Orwellian world when we had a free, independent and objective press that had a good toy department. With that type of press we might be informed enough to make the right decisions as it relates to the future of our country and therefore the world.

We need to read something where the writer’s only agenda is getting the story right. We need to read news, such as it is, rather than editorials. We need to read....period. Network television news is next to worthless. Getting your news from like-minded friends on Facebook is just as inane as Donald Trump running for president, but this kind of thing is what happens when nobody is paying attention. This is what happens when we become a nation where an alarmingly large amount of people are totally immune to facts.

I still hold close to my heart the notion that this nation can become, once again, a beacon of hope and democracy. We can be the greatest nation in the world and not just a global bully. I am still of the mind that knowledge is power and until we get some, we can continue to abdicate that power to the business end of an AK47. In the mean time, have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

-  David Mac



To support our efforts, click here ->