If you're a baby boomer, like myself, Neil Young has been around for so long it's hard to imagine a time when his voice wasn't in your head. At some time I began to take him for granted. When a friend showed up from out of town to see Neil's shows in town park and presented me with a weekend pass it was the first time that growing to a Neil Young concert had occurred to me. I'm so glad I went. Young's music is more than just wallpaper for me. He's been a part of my life. That's what I learned. If you're looking for a review, OK here goes. It was great!
One thing about Young's music and life that stands out is that he not only wrote great stuff, he inspired it from others.. When he wrote "You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain" Judy Collins countered with " the Carousel of Life " ,one of her best. When Young crooned " Southern man better keep your head. Don't forget what your good book said" Leonard Skinner sent back "Southern Man ", an anthem of Southern pride, and one of the greatest rock songs ever performed. Neil should get royalties.
On a completely different subject, I wrote a column recently that may have gone too far, even strayed into the forbidden realm of controversy. Just kidding. It was meant to be controversial. Since when did controversy become so controversial?
I wrote about the Black Lives Matter movement, which I don't have a very high opinion of. When it comes to the hornets nest that I apparently disturbed, my guess is that I came a little too close to discussing race. Re-read the column, if you dare, you'll see that I don't discuss race or make any remark that could be remotely conscrued as racist. Black Lives Matters is not shy about the discussion of race as long as opposing views are off bounds. There is a word frequently used to shut down discussions that contradict the views of the racial cognoscenti. The word is "racist". I'm old enough to remember when the word actually meant something. You can look it up in any dictionary. The original meaning is still there. Today's meaning is different, it just means you're wrong I'm right, shut up, oh ,and I think you're appalling!
Nevertheless, I'm willing to talk about race in these columns. There's no reason it should be a forbidden subject. I just haven't felt inclined to yet. I have nothing to be ashamed of, no hidden animosity, no secret agenda. I have no more reason to feel superior to someone else on racial grounds as on any other.
What I did discuss was why BLM is wrong about police shootings. I also compared them to mobs of the past who often outdid BLM in violence and racial hatred, but not necessarily in the harm they brought to their own people and society at large.
Judging from what I've seen on Facebook where my column sparked a vigorous discussion with many hundreds of comments, it could be that I've struck a chord. Maybe it was the person who made the original post ,suggesting that I apologize for my column and never write another ,that did the striking. I think a very valid point made by some was that I presented my "facts" without citing any sources. It occurred to some that I'd probably just made them up. For evidence I refer you to professor Roland G. Fryer Jr. of Harvard. Professor Fryer set out to demonstrate police racial bias, and in fact he did, but not in shootings. In matters of rough treatment from cops he found in all ten of the cities that he studied a greater propensity to strong arm black suspects. What surprised him was finding that in police shootings white suspects in similar circumstances to black suspects had a greater chance of being shot, even if not attacking the officer at that moment. This also proved out in all ten cities in the study. In Houston ,for instance, your chances of being shot in a confrontation with police is 20% higher if you are white. In LA, Orlando, same story.
Now you see why I didn't include any of this collaborative material in my original column. It's fun putting all this down on paper, but it takes up such a ridiculous amount of space. Now I have so much less room to praise Neil Young a little more, or talk about the beautiful fall we've been having, or wonder why Telluride tax dollars are going to reroute a stream that was already doing a fine job of making its way downhill? None of that should be controversial.
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