Dear Friends,
We are in the midst of gearing up for a long Great American Road Trip. Long-time readers know how I feel about those, but for you newer readers this will give you an idea. The proximate purpose of this particular trip is that I need to be in Philadelphia next week to film twenty hours of lectures on Christian public witness. And I figure that if I absolutely must travel east of the Mississippi River—something this Montana boy isn’t fond of doing—I may as well take some companions with me and see some sights. Think of it like a reverse Lewis & Clark Expedition.
So Tara and the youngest will be joining me in the currently (!) tip-top shape Beemer. Highlights will include Minneapolis and Target Field—my youngest baseball buddy will finally get to visit the cathedral! She also has never seen a beach, so we have three days planned in Savannah, Georgia and Tybee Island. I imagine that is going to be hot. Then the Georgia aquarium in Atlanta, which I hear is a must-see. And all along the way we’ll be visiting with old friends.
We’re leaving Friday, so preparations are frantically underway. Here are some things that caught my attention this week.
Country music star Jason Aldean is under fire for his new hit single, “Try That In A Small Town.” It’s a harsh critique of rioting, looting, car-jacking, spitting on police officers, and that kind of thing. In small towns, we are to believe, you can’t get away with that kind of behavior. It’s a familiar romantic American genre playing on the rural vs. urban divide. Merle Haggard did something similar with “Okie From Muskogee.”
Anyway, a lot of people are upset because they think the song is racist. Because, in the brains of a certain segment of people who claim to be “antiracist,” talking about crime and unruly behavior must be talking about black people. Somebody might be a racist here, but it might just be Mr. Aldean’s critics.
However, I, too, object to the song. But not because it is racist. And not because it romanticizes small town communities—which, if we are being honest, are rife with the same depression, addiction, and promiscuity you find in big cities. I object to this song because the lyrics are simply terrible. I mean, terrible. Who wrote this garbage?
Country music has been in a very bad way for a very long time now, but somewhere, somehow the industry has to hit rock bottom, don’t they? If you turn on a country station you will hear song after song about short-shorts, bare feet, summer nights, and lots and lots of drinking parties—with very specific beverage brand placements. And the songs will be the exact same song—same chord progression, same instruments, probably the same session musicians, with just a different singer. Nashville is in some kind of epic rut. Now we get “Light, like.” “Cool, fool.” Somebody get the Nashville songwriters a rhyming dictionary and thesaurus. This song is just bad.
Secretary of Defense John Kirby gave a lengthy explanation for why the U.S. Military must provide abortions to service members. It was full of high-minded rhetoric about duty and loyalty and patriotism, but at the end of the day the answer is: 20% of our military are women, and we need to encourage them to kill their babies so they can get back to work.
Alternatively, he made the case for why women shouldn’t serve in the military.
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