Book Report! ‘Dan Rather reporting…’ – “What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism”

During an interview published in  the January 2020 issue of AARP Magazine, Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis was asked if she talks to her 10-year-old daughter about the differences between their childhoods. She ended her thoughtful answer with, “And I’m not trying to say that I’m making her grow up passive or milquetoast. But empathy is in short supply today.”  Empathy; one of the many important bases that veteran CBS news reporter and anchorman, Dan Rather, along with Emmy Award winning filmmaker and journalist, Elliot Kirshner touch in their very timely book,  What Unites Us: Reflections On Patriotism (Algonquin $22.95 9781616207823).  This book came out in 2017, but it could have been written in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 insurrection riot on our Capitol, encouraged by “you-know-who”.

Shining a mirror upon us and our democracy’s nervous times, these reflections are like a Social Studies class refresher course (especially if you went to public school  in a major market, prior to the 1990s). It is where memoir meets history book.

Back in my television watching days, I always made time to tune into Mr. Rather anchoring the CBS Evening News broadcast when I could.  He was the logical successor to Walter Cronkite and ranks among my favorite anchors with Chet Hutley & David Brinkley, Douglas Edwards, Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Max Robinson and Connie Chung.

The gentlemen take us on a cautionary journey, with his early 20^th century rural Houston, Texas roots the backdrop against which he reminds and teaches how our country, The United States of America has been better; falters and then steps back up when non-partisanship prevails, cementing all of us together, against many odds. I loved when he challenged some who conveniently try to say they are more “patriotic” than others.

I found the chapter, “Steady”, most enlightening.  Especially page 259, where he writes about the Korean War and its effect upon our country, to be the most enlightening and insightful because that is the conflict which is rarely talked about and which was not addressed in-depth during my school days. Maybe because I was to young to have experienced it in real time, in college by the time it was written about in text books and because I had a real close uncle who served there.

At times it seems that he is speaking directly to the 45^th “President” and his ilk without naming names, not harping upon them, but giving equal thought to both ends of the political and philosophical spectrum as only a well-traveled professional broadcaster and news reporter can.  His reporting, and that of his colleagues was never “fake”, as some of the privileged characters who he alludes to would have us believe.

If ever our country needed a dose of true history and togetherness encouragement from one of its citizens, it is now.  Rather’s book should be required educational reading across the land in public, voucher, charter and parochial schools (all of which he writes about); churches, cafeterias, coffee shops, colleges and private clubs (with discussions to follow)!  My rating is five-out-of-five American flags.  

Years Later 9/11- Do You Remember When You First Found Out?

In September of 2001, many things in my life were new: I was the new Nights (7 p.m. – midnight) man entertaining on a little AM radio station in Nashville, Tennessee. I’d do my show and then off I’d go to check out some local DJs in my new Music City. Mostly, I checked out Liquid Lounge (before it became “Elements”) till about 3 A.M., looking for new club DJ opportunities and then go a short distance from my new downtown, back to my new little two bedroom cottage.

This was still the pre-cell phone era and I only had a land line and cassette tape- based answering machine which I based in my other room, across the hall in my studio room from my bedroom and had an incredibly long cord, which allowed me to be on the “princess” phone all over the house and even out on my little front stoop. I didn’t have my first home computer yet and there were still pay phones everywhere!

So I’d sleep from like 4 a.m. until maybe noon, unless I had some special morning interaction to attend or a gig; such is the life of the second and third shift radio man and many other alternative hour workers.

Then the phone rang around 10 or 11 a.m. I guess, and I heard the machine come on in the other room, and maybe my friend, Monique’s voice say something as I slept – and ignored it. Soon, the phone rang another time and I recognized her voice again! At this point I picked it up and my friend Monique says, “Turn on the TV!” I’m like, “No, I’m sleeping…” or something to that effect. She insisted and then I fumbled around and found the remote to turn it on. What I saw I thought was a movie, in the purple haze of awakening. “Why you want me to watch this movie, Mo?” I must have asked. She said something like, “No! A plane hit the World Trade Center!!” I began to sit up in my bed and just about then, the second plane hit the other tower. Shock. At that moment, I knew that this was no movie.

As I watched the coverage that fateful afternoon, I’d almost forgotten that I had a “show” to do that evening – and the more I thought about it, the more I didn’t want to perform it. – I was bummed to the max! Calling my Mum in on Long Island, I asked could she smell the smoke and she said “Yes.” So I called my Program Director to ask him out of my show that night, but instead of empathy for my feelings, he replied, in, what I’ve learned is typical southern black American ignorance, “Aww man, its just a plane hit a building. G’wan in and do your show!” At that point, my respect for him, being in his position only because he was the station owner’s son, went from like and “eight” to a “one” on a scale of one to ten. How dare he condescend, knowing that my roots are at the base of the World Trad Center and having been in my house where I had a wall-sized poster of them and the whole southern tip of Manhattan above my bed!

Writing this now, I know that the rebel in me wanted to call out, but I think that my inner “Dan Rather” made me go in that evening, but not to do my usual “party” radio show. Instead, I opened-up the phones to my new Nashville local listeners, to let them air their impressions of the day’s attack. Many were initially sort of clueless, to my disappointment, but as my program grew into the evening, I remember that the discussions became more spirited and that many of my listeners knew that I was from there and expressed their empathy to me, if not for the national implications, for me as someone they only met through the radio who identified with New York City. It was the most solem show I remember in my professional radio career – I hardly played any music and we lived for the top of the hour network updates for five hours that night.

Last night, on the cusp of eighteen years later and trying to go to sleep, I wished I could listen to that show; probably taped it on a cassette which is likely in storage with much of my belongings from those days, my radio career having imploded with the advent of corporate ownership and automation, like those beloved towers fell.

In closing, I remind you to carry the message that we have to the young people in school now who have no recollection of that treacherous attack. It is super-important that we teach them the magnitude of that day, like the Pearl Harbor surprise attack was taught to us by our parent’s the generation.

Since 2016 or thereabouts, we as Americans have lost that unity that came about in the wake of those horrific and cowardly attacks. I close by asking you, my dear reader, to help bring back that sense of togetherness-of-purpose-umbrella, which we all gathered under after September 11, 2001.

New Country Music Revu: Jay Jolley’s “God Save Us All From Religion”

In my veteran musical experience, I have noticed that very, very often the simplest, most logical themes catch-on when put to music and they become hits. We saw this with the “bubblegum” era, circa The Jackson Five and New Edition, The Bangles or more recently, Carly Rae Jepsen and many other acts and singers. However this new edition to the Country genre, “God Save Us All From Religion” by the up-and-coming Jay Jolley, not only opens the dialogue for cultural discussion and real everlasting change, but is yet another example of something so obvious that needed to be said, that it finally became a song! “Let us pray” that it becomes a terrorist-defusing, calming worldwide anthem! I smiled confidently when I first watched and listened to the video…

Written by the legendary Charlie Daniels, Kim Williams “the hit-maker” and songwriter/producer, Doug Williams, “God Save Us All From Religion” speaks to my choir because I have long said that religion has been and is responsible for most of the political disputes, land-grabbing and eventual wars on earth. Mankind must now step back and get over this anew.

I spent over a decade in my newly-adopted hometown of, Nashville, Tennessee, and I miss the place dearly for many reasons. And while it was not all “gravy” (see my book, “He’s In A Meeting…Adventures In Getting Past Gatekeepers…” [Create Space/Amazon] ), I embraced a newfound appreciation for struggling songwriters with a dream, the plethora of guitar players there, and Country music in-total as I met many of the biggest artists at the annual Nashville music and radio industry convention, “CRS” on-behalf of Michelle Jasko and Nashville Radio Syndication.

The Martha E. Moore’s “so much MOORE media” press release tells us some more about this creative country upstart, “[he is] a pianist with a soulful touch and singer with incredible range and passion, Jay Jolley has risen from the endless ranks of the regionally-successful to an up-and-coming contender on the national Country scene. Jolley has opened shows (with his own band, as lead singer forThe Notorious Johnnys or as frontman and keyboardist for the band2XL) for top-tier acts like The Black Crowes, Sass Jordan, Rick Springfield, Burton Cummings, John Alec Entwistle and UFO. Currently based in Rochester, Michigan, this singer/songwriter enjoyed previous chart success with his previous Country single, “It’s a Friday Thing (A Little More Country).”
Wow, his time is now! The lightheartedness of his approach appeals to me. I really dig and lol with the first lyric, “He was building a beer can castle at the end of the bar
He said ‘Bud we better get wiser … ’cause we’ve gone too far…”

Pickhitt! New Video as of September 30, 2013!

http://dai.ly/x178j8u

The thing about a lot of Country music is that it is culled from true-life, down-home or back woods family drama, but simultaneously you cannot take it too seriously even as if you identify with the song’s scenario. So it is and I advise you to approach Jay Jolley’s appeal here. I just had this conversation with several new associates over beverages during recent days – religion and politics, as well as the 24-hour cable TV news cycle, are the most divisive forces in media these days – and it must stop. That’s what’s UP.
I stopped watching “the news” on TV in 2008! My overall well-being is much the better for having made that decision, thank God.
I give Jay Jolley three-and-a half out of five “bold-one” stars for “God Save Us From Religion”. I admire the writers, theme, message and the music.

Check out Jay’s comments here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPRhYl3cmUk

I agree with Jay when he says, “If we could all put aside our anger and prejudices and just talk then the world would be a much better place.” Preaching to the choir again, Jay!
Can I get an “Amen!?”

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