Many of you have likely never heard this song, penned by Eugene McDaniels and recorded by Les McCann in 1969. I strongly urge you to search it online and listen.
Here’s one stanza that always gives me the chills:
“Where’s that bee, where’s that honey?
Where’s my God, where’s my money?
Unreal values and class destruction,
Unwed mother’s need abortion,
Kind of brings to mind ol’ young King Tut,
He did it now, tried to make it real
Compared to What?”
I am not sure what led me to buy this LP back in 1983. I was likely just browsing a record store in Berkeley, California one Saturday afternoon, and it looked interesting. Little did I know how that decision would affect my life going forward.
“Where’s that bee, where’s that honey?
Where’s my God, where’s my money?
Anyone who really knows me can attest to my being a person who regularly challenges the “status quo” of given, sometimes foundational, American experiences. I never owned a pair of Jordache jeans, bought a Cabbage Patch doll for my daughter, or spent time at a cigar bar. When American “culture” went right, I ALWAYS took the door to the left. Fitting in never seemed like a reasonable avenue for me to pursue. And it has served me well thus far.
In the mid-1980’s and early 1990’s people were getting MBA degrees in the pursuit of climbing that golden ladder of corporate America. Big salary. Big house. Fancy car. What they did not see coming was their ladder being sawed off at the bottom as those same companies laid off millions of American workers when those CEO’s moved the company to Mexico, India and China. The American Dream became a nightmare, and everyone blamed immigrants. Psyche!
We are once again witnessing a nation that is in turmoil. We have seen 10 people murdered in Buffalo, 19 children in Uvalde, Texas and 4 more in Tulsa, Oklahoma. People who were in the right places at the wrong time. People who had done nothing to deserve a fate so brutal.
Unreal values and class destruction,
Unwed mother’s need abortion,
Yet, the elected officials, mostly Republicans, have sought to again redirect the conversation from gun control to mental health. As though living in the USA, by its very nature, is cause to make anyone lose their mind. Give them easy, unfettered access to weapons of war…carnage.
The Supreme Court of this Nation has been politicized by the GOP, and is now seeking to allow criminal charges to be brought upon women who decide to not carry a child to term. Imagine that…a political party that for decades pushed for less government involvement in our lives, is now legislating what women can do with their bodies.
White nationalism, Black and Brown apathy, and a desire to be entertained instead of educated is the perfect recipe for our American Empire’s demise. It has been baking at 400 degrees for about 200 years, and she is almost ready to explode. A Nation that does nothing to respect her Elders nor protect its Children is a Nation in moral decline. We have more than enough evidence of this just in the past few weeks to know…
Kind of brings to mind ol’ young King Tut,
He did it now, tried to make it real
Compared to What?”
And one day, a few decades in the future, when the geological excavation crew is digging through the rubble and ashes of what used to be the United States, someone will ask that question,
Compared to WHAT?
The Traveler Weekly 