Only in America
20/12/24 01:30
Last summer as part of a series of medical tests, I had an MRI performed. I had been around MRI machines before. I knew a bit about them because both of our children have had MRI procedures performed and we had an active church member during our time in Rapid City who was a technician who serviced and repaired diagnostic imaging machines for hospitals and other health care institutions who enjoyed talking about his work at least as much as I enjoyed hearing about it. But I had never before needed such a test. Nonetheless I approached the procedure without fear. I carefully read the instructions, took the prep pills at exactly the right time, arrived at the imaging center on time and changed into the hospital gown. The attendants were professional, skilled, and kind and soon I was on the table ready to go into the machine as they once again explained what was going to happen. Then they asked me a question that I didn’t expect. “Would you like to listen to music while the procedure proceeds?” That sounded like a good idea to me, so I answered that I would. Then they asked what kind of music I would like to hear. I had to hesitate on that one. I like a lot of different kinds of music. However, since I would have to lie still for the procedure, I thought that maybe it would be better to not have music and just meditate, but not expecting there to be music and faced with the need to decide, I requested classical music. It turned out to be a good choice for me and the procedure was conducted without problems and yielded the results I and the doctor needed.
It probably won’t come as a surprise to folks who know me that I didn’t choose country music. It isn’t that I don’t like country music. I do like a lot of country music. I was a country music DJ at a radio station for several years in the early 1980s. Sometimes I find country music to be a bit manipulative of emotions, but a brilliant pianist, a steinway grand, a symphony orchestra, and a Tchaikovsky piano stirs my emotions, too. I’ve been brought to tears by cello concertos. But I find country music to toe tapping and dancing more than lying very still so that a machine can make clear medical images.
We served in a rural and isolated county in North Dakota from 1978 to 1985. We were job sharing so there was time for me to DJ at a small market radio station on the side. During the time we lived there family farms were in crisis. Mortgages overwhelmed hard working families and farm corporations bought out struggling farms resulting in fewer people working the land, which meant fewer customers for local stores and fewer students in local schools. During the time we served the county decreased in population at a rate higher than had been the case during the Great Depression. I knew first hand what the Farm Crisis was all about. When Bob Dylan commented about the crisis facing family farms at the Live Aid Concert in 1985, he got my attention. When Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young organized a Farm Aid concert, I thought it was a good idea. I don’t know if anyone seriously thought a single concert could solve a huge crisis, but I doubt that the original organizers were fully aware of the complexity of the problem of the state of family farming in the US. The concerts became an annual event and a huge organization has sprung up.
Since I rarely listen to country music these days, I suspect that it was in conjunction with a Farm Aid concert that I first heard Brooks & Dunn sing “Only in America.” It would have been sometime in the early 2000s when we lived in South Dakota. Although the song shares a kind of simplistic, cheesy, faux patriotism with other country songs, it does have an inspiring and uplifting set of lyrics. The first verse is about a city school bus driver looking in the mirror and imagining the dreams of the kids on the bus. The second of a couple of newlyweds in the back of a limousine imagining their future. The chorus repeats “Only in America” and promises big dreams, everyone getting a chance, everyone getting to dance.
Big dreams may not be exclusive to America as the song touts, but I have the refrain in my mind this morning as I write having just read about the brinkmanship of the incoming president and his wealthy advisor trying to manipulate congress as bills fail to pass to fund the government in the US congress and the deadline looms. A government shutdown is a very real possibility. It has happened ten times since the first shutdown during the Regan Administration 40 years ago. Only in America.
Seriously, only in America. Brazil recently reached a budget impasse but managed to keep the lights on. European parliamentary systems might refuse to pass a budget, but it would trigger a new election, not a stoppage of national parks, tax refunds or food assistance programs. That is what happened in Canada in 2011. The government continued to function while elections where held. Around the same time Belgium didn’t have an elected government in power for most of two years, but the government continued to function. Ireland more recently had a minority government, but government funding continued because parties not in power agreed to support spending bills.
Only in America do battling political parties use the day-to-day functioning of the government as a bargaining chip, and even a threat, to extract demands from the other side. Only in America are we facing a government shutdown at midnight tomorrow if a temporary funding bill is not passed. After all, passing a bill with the narrow majorities in the federal legislature requires compromise and compromise is not something our politicians seem willing to do these days.
Kids will still dream on school buses and couples will still dream on their wedding day, but Only in America can a president-elect who has not yet been inaugurated and a tech billionaire turned politician motivated by the promise of even more tax breaks, precipitate a government shut down in order to demonstrate their intention of near autocratic authority. Of course neither of them will run short of cash during a shutdown. Only in America.
If you have read this far, you can see why I didn’t ask for country music when I had my MRI.
It probably won’t come as a surprise to folks who know me that I didn’t choose country music. It isn’t that I don’t like country music. I do like a lot of country music. I was a country music DJ at a radio station for several years in the early 1980s. Sometimes I find country music to be a bit manipulative of emotions, but a brilliant pianist, a steinway grand, a symphony orchestra, and a Tchaikovsky piano stirs my emotions, too. I’ve been brought to tears by cello concertos. But I find country music to toe tapping and dancing more than lying very still so that a machine can make clear medical images.
We served in a rural and isolated county in North Dakota from 1978 to 1985. We were job sharing so there was time for me to DJ at a small market radio station on the side. During the time we lived there family farms were in crisis. Mortgages overwhelmed hard working families and farm corporations bought out struggling farms resulting in fewer people working the land, which meant fewer customers for local stores and fewer students in local schools. During the time we served the county decreased in population at a rate higher than had been the case during the Great Depression. I knew first hand what the Farm Crisis was all about. When Bob Dylan commented about the crisis facing family farms at the Live Aid Concert in 1985, he got my attention. When Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young organized a Farm Aid concert, I thought it was a good idea. I don’t know if anyone seriously thought a single concert could solve a huge crisis, but I doubt that the original organizers were fully aware of the complexity of the problem of the state of family farming in the US. The concerts became an annual event and a huge organization has sprung up.
Since I rarely listen to country music these days, I suspect that it was in conjunction with a Farm Aid concert that I first heard Brooks & Dunn sing “Only in America.” It would have been sometime in the early 2000s when we lived in South Dakota. Although the song shares a kind of simplistic, cheesy, faux patriotism with other country songs, it does have an inspiring and uplifting set of lyrics. The first verse is about a city school bus driver looking in the mirror and imagining the dreams of the kids on the bus. The second of a couple of newlyweds in the back of a limousine imagining their future. The chorus repeats “Only in America” and promises big dreams, everyone getting a chance, everyone getting to dance.
Big dreams may not be exclusive to America as the song touts, but I have the refrain in my mind this morning as I write having just read about the brinkmanship of the incoming president and his wealthy advisor trying to manipulate congress as bills fail to pass to fund the government in the US congress and the deadline looms. A government shutdown is a very real possibility. It has happened ten times since the first shutdown during the Regan Administration 40 years ago. Only in America.
Seriously, only in America. Brazil recently reached a budget impasse but managed to keep the lights on. European parliamentary systems might refuse to pass a budget, but it would trigger a new election, not a stoppage of national parks, tax refunds or food assistance programs. That is what happened in Canada in 2011. The government continued to function while elections where held. Around the same time Belgium didn’t have an elected government in power for most of two years, but the government continued to function. Ireland more recently had a minority government, but government funding continued because parties not in power agreed to support spending bills.
Only in America do battling political parties use the day-to-day functioning of the government as a bargaining chip, and even a threat, to extract demands from the other side. Only in America are we facing a government shutdown at midnight tomorrow if a temporary funding bill is not passed. After all, passing a bill with the narrow majorities in the federal legislature requires compromise and compromise is not something our politicians seem willing to do these days.
Kids will still dream on school buses and couples will still dream on their wedding day, but Only in America can a president-elect who has not yet been inaugurated and a tech billionaire turned politician motivated by the promise of even more tax breaks, precipitate a government shut down in order to demonstrate their intention of near autocratic authority. Of course neither of them will run short of cash during a shutdown. Only in America.
If you have read this far, you can see why I didn’t ask for country music when I had my MRI.
