As I was preparing my playlist for this Friday’s airshift at my old college radio station’s reunion weekend I was reminded about how crappy the world was 50 years ago. I think most people, outside of a few Trump zealots, realize how bad things are now, but as we look back, sometimes with nostalgia tinged glasses, we forget just how bad things were. My reunion show this Friday from noon-4 on 90fm in Stevens Point will focus on the year 1970. I was 13 and consuming as much music as I could find. An avid listener to the local radio stations including the year old upstart WIFC, plus spending whatever money I could gather on singles and LPs. The music was varied and excellent. The events of that year…not so much. It started in January with a brutal end to the civil war in Biafra…before that year, most of us couldn’t find Biafra on a map. TV news brought the genocide home. Of course, even as we began giving over the fighting in Viet Nam to the South Vietnamese army, Nixon couldn’t help himself. He widened the are by secretly invading Cambodia and Laos. Which didn’t stay a secret long and increased the anti-war protests in the streets of America. In February, Jeffrey Mac Donald killed his wife and children at Fort Bragg in North Carolina blaming “drugged out” hippies for the deed. Natural disasters were plentiful around the globe. And young people would be amazed at the number of terrorist kidnappings of government officials and hijacking of airplanes that was going on. The groups, led by the Red Army Faction, Baader-Meinhof and the Weathermen made the mythical Anti-Fa look like the Morman Tabernacle Choir. William Calley and his band of murderers were brought up on charges by the US Army for the My Lai Massacre. The Israeli Air Force hit an Egyptian elementary school with missiles killing 47 kids in what became known as the Bahr el-Baqar massacre. Apollo 13 had their moon mission aborted by an oxygen tank explosion (although you could the say the miraculous return of James Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert was also a highlight of the year). Nixons decision to invade Cambodia infuriated the anti-war movment which led to increased protests and the murders of 4 students at Kent State by the Ohio National Guard and the lesser remembered killing of two protesters at Jackson State in Mississippi. In May 70,000 people were killed by an earthquake in Peru. The Stonewall riot occurs in New York leading to the gay rights movement. In August the US sinks 418 containers of nerve gas into the Gulf Stream near the Bahamas. Also that month terrorists in Madison set off a bomb in Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin, killing one math researcher. All but one of the bombers was caught. September saw an assassination attempt on King Hussein of Jordan leading to the events known as Black September. Palestinians battled government forces from Jordan and Israel. Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died. College football was shocked by plane crashes that killed members of both Wichita State and Marshall. The genocidal Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia. October saw a huge monsoon hit Viet Nam which killed hundreds, left 200,000 people homeless and virtually halted the war for awhile. Hafess al-Assad took power in Syria….oh, and The Beatles broke up. and Wausau male junior high students had to swim naked at Horace Mann!
There was some positive stuff as well. Monday Night Football debuted…The NFL-AFL merger happened…The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty went into effect…the advertising of cigarettes was banned from television….The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22nd….American Top 40 aired for the first time….some 600,000 people attended the biggest rock concert ever on the Isle of Wight. Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, Chicago ELP, Moody Blues and Jethro Tull were among the acts…..Elvis began a comeback tour….Doonesbury debuted…The EPA and OSHA began. But the good really didn’t outweigh the bad. So, as you despair our current situation, remember that we can come back from disaster. We’ve done it before
Here are some of the tunes for Friday….
Quotes Of The Day
“Trump is scary but not as scary as the idea that 40% of Americans will support him no matter what he does.”-Hanna
“The countries with the best response to Covid 19 are run by women. I wonder if their ambition is getting in the way.”-Steven Pasquale
“In his interview with @jonathanvswan, Trump refers to the rising U.S. death toll as “it is what it is”. He used the same phrase with Chris Wallace. 150,000 dead. “It is what it is.” A line that would be career-ending for any other elected politician. And he’s said it twice.”-Medhi Hasan
“Thinking today about this famous quote from Macbeth: “It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”-Dan Rather
Wisconsin Republicans help Kanye West in his attempt to get on state presidential ballot-Dan Bice
“Tonight, we can go to sleep knowing that trump could not care less about the deaths of nine marines and one sailor. Not one word about them. Commander in Chief, my ass.”-American Veteran
“Stop pretending you’re patriotic or you care about freedom or democracy if you support a party whose existence depends on disenfranchising voters.”-Bradley Whitford
“People are not *impacted* by the pandemic, okay? They are sickened, they are laid off, they are hurt, they are scared…”-Katie Porter
Eric Greitens kidnapped, bound, and threatened a woman he’d had an affair with, then left office to avoid a felony conviction. Mike Pence helped get him back in a uniform, against the desires of the Navy and the Seals. Every part of this story is gross.
“Trump seems concerned that the Post Office in New York can’t handle the election but is SURE the Post Office in Florida is super duper extra super for mail in ballots. If only New York used the Post Office that Florida uses!”-Walter Schaub
“BTW, as you saw in the Axios interview whatever cognitive test he took was insufficient to explain what is wrong with him: Does not process information, cannot respond to new circumstances, cannot accept reality, congenital liar.”-Jennifer Rubin
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