Weve been through this such a long long time
Just tryin to kill the pain, oh yeah
Love is always coming, love is always going
No ones really sure whos lettin go today
Walking away
November Rain Guns N Roses
While many see Guns N Roses as an Eighties hair band in musical style, many of their best songs were actually released in the 1990s. The early 1990s saw many of the 1980s rock bands release sensitive ballads, pushing many hard rock fans toward a new sound that they quickly found with grunge – but thats a whole other column.
The original music to November Rain was put together by the band, according to legend, during a jam session in 1986 as the band was creating music for its popular Appetite for Destruction album, still the seventh-best selling album of all-time.
The issue is that November Rain didnt have lyrics at that point, only a melodic framework that allowed for long vamp sessions by the band that would come into play during tours with the song once it was released, but trying to hone that down into a distinct, radio-playable song was as much a challenge as my editor often has making sense of my column!
Eventually, they trimmed the song down to eight minutes and fifty-seven seconds, an eternity for a potential hit song. The song remains the fourth-longest song to ever appear on a Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 3.
The fog has lifted many days over the past week to bless our dry ground with some November rain, bringing the song to mind, and when examining the lyrics, you find a couple where one partner is struggling to commit to the other. We get hints that there may have been some infidelity, potentially some abuse, or many other things in the relationship, but never directly stated. The song is written from the point of the bad guy attempting to convince his partner to remain.
Certainly, after Tuesday, Im not the only one feeling like the partner in that song – with overtures and platitudes toward convincing me that things are going to be just fine – but mountains of evidence that I simply should not believe that.
and before anyone gets too on their Trump high horse (likely an NFT that you can buy for $29.99!), it has little to do with the person that won on Tuesday, but more the mood of the voting that was present, nationally and locally.
Donald J. Trump is now the oldest person ever elected to the office. Many want to call it an historic comeback, but the reality is that weve had a President serve non-consecutive terms before. A President has survived a first term that ended in disgrace to be elected to a second term before as well. The unique thing about this victory is truly the age of the victor.
For those who struggle to understand why your neighbors are grieving the election of the man, understand that for many in this country, the rhetoric spewed throughout the four years since the last election has members of many groups in fear for their basic liberties in this country. Persons of color, women, immigrants – legal or otherwise – LGBTQ+, and so many other members of society are truly frightened at giving a person whose senility is showing through, more and more unlimited power.
Imagine giving one of the guys from Grumpy Old Men Presidential power, a Supreme Court full of yes men and women, and a Congress with no ability to say no, and you can imagine what many feel could be coming for four years. Reactionary, acting on a whim without regard for who gets hurt along the way, no potential to be held accountable.
If you happen to be among those groups and youre truly frightened about your own safety, there are many more just like you right now.
I am a father of four mixed-race children, who dealt with verbal assaults in Kindergarten and 1st grade during the first Trump presidency, being told to go home (mind you all four were born in this country). Three of those four are females, and to say that you feel safe as a female in this country right now requires a kind of privilege that many, even most, women simply dont have.
One of my children was the birth child of an immigrant who was sent back to his country.
To say that Im concerned about the road of this country for my own children is putting it lightly.
My wife makes her money providing daycare, available at hours that many daycares in town wont offer, meaning a lot of shift workers rely on her to ensure their children have somewhere to be.
Many of those shift workers are refugees and immigrants to this country – members of the Huron community who have truly blessed our area with diversity and fullness of experience that many much larger cities cannot claim.
That doesnt take into account the absolute assault that what we do here at the paper took in the first Trump presidency, never mind the continuing distrust spread upon news organizations – especially those who work to tell the whole story, not a one-sided support-only version. Consolidation of the news industry is not just an economic issue, but its an economic one that was exasperated by an intentional thread of distrust in even local news sources, stitched throughout the 2016 campaign, through the first term in office, and continuing in the years since.
Encouraging an electorate to be informed is never a good thing for those who want absolute power, and attacking the very system of information for that electorate is a strategy used over and over again in history.
For those who slept through world history class, look it up.
I head into what should be a celebration week for me – my fifth year at the paper. Five years of assisting to inform members of the community where I was raised and to tell their stories. Ive been blessed to develop relationships with many of the leaders in and out of office within the city, community, and state.
However, Tuesdays election was likely a signal that this may not be a long-term home for me.
No one here at the paper is doing this job to make money, but the ones with the integrity to do the job for less pay, rough hours, and less and less respect than before are falling away and will soon be extinct. At that point, those in power who want to drown out opposition will have little challenge in their attempt to do so, no matter what social media tool exists.
So, if youre someone delighting in the victories of your chosen leader or your particular side of a ballot measure and dont grasp why there are many mourning that exact victory – not just aw, shucks bummed, but stages-of-grief mourningunderstand theres reason for hesitancy to believe any of the platitudes espoused by those who seemingly spun the country backwards Tuesday night for many.
As the song says, theyll need some time. Just dont expect them to simply take it and dont be surprised when those who are mourning right now return to fight like heck.
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