7 O'Clock News/Silent Night
“7 O’Clock News/Silent Night” is the final track on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, a 1966 record album by Simon and Garfunkel. It consists of an overdubbing of Simon and Garfunkel singing the first verse of the Christmas carol twice, and the voice of a newscaster reading a simulated news bulletin about the actual events of August 3, 1966. As the track progresses, the song becomes faint and the news report louder. Some called its effect “positively chilling,” and “a grim and ironic (and prophetic) comment on the state of the United States in 1966.”
While Simon and Garfunkel sing “Silent Night,” the first half of the “news bulletin” goes like this:
“This is the early evening edition of the news. The recent fight in the House of Representatives over the open housing section of the Civil Rights Bill brought traditional enemies together, but it left the defenders of the measure without the votes of their strongest supporters. President Johnson originally proposed an outright ban covering discrimination by everyone for every type of housing, but it had no chance from the start and everyone in Congress knew it.
“In Los Angeles today, comedian Lenny Bruce died of what was believed to be an overdose of narcotics. Bruce was 42 years old.
“Dr. Martin Luther King says he does not intend to cancel plans for an open housing march Sunday into the Chicago suburb of Cicero. Cook County Sheriff Richard Ogleby asked King to call off the march and the police in Cicero said they would ask the National Guard to be called out if it is held.
“In Chicago Richard Speck, accused murderer of nine student nurses, was brought before a grand jury today for indictment. The nurses were found stabbed and strangled in their Chicago apartment…”
“That’s the 7 o’clock edition of the news. Good night.”
You get the idea: the 60s were a troubled time.
What would a similar track for December 15, 2019, sound like?
“This is the early evening edition of the news. It’s been more than 6,500 days since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. During that time, more than 775,000 U.S. troops have deployed to Afghanistan, many repeatedly. Of those, 2,300 died there and 20,589 were wounded in action, according to Defense Department figures. In 2001, Congress passed the Authorization for the Use of Military Force law; it’s been used to justify many aspects of the ‘war on terror,’ from the invasion of Afghanistan to the war in Iraq to drone strikes in a number of countries. American taxpayers have spent $6.4 trillion on costs related to or caused by post-9/11 wars and conflicts in more than 80 countries,.”
“Science is telling us that the impact of climate change is taking place now, and faster than expected. ‘We’re blowing through our carbon budget the way an addict blows through cash,’ said Rob Jackson, professor of Earth science at Stanford University and chair of the Global Carbon Project. ‘It’s another lost year, another lost decade...I don’t want to belittle the important things that have happened and are happening, but they are not enough. People will look back at us and wonder, ‘What were you doing?’
“As of now, nearly 500 people have been killed and more than 1,600 wounded in 409 mass shooting incidents (four or more victims) this year – an average of more than one incident a day.
“The FBI reported 7,175 incidents of hate crimes in 2017 (the most recent data available). The number of offenses is a 17% increase from 2016, and a trend of increases for three consecutive years from 5,479 incidents in 2014. Hate crimes go unreported for many reasons: Many victims could not cite tangible evidence of hate to be used by the police; some Latinos were afraid of deportations if they report; LGBTQ people sometimes don’t report because of distrust in the police...”
“That’s the 7 o’clock edition of the news. Good night.”
So, in 53 years, have we made the world a better place? I’d say no. But I have hope. There are indications that Millennials – the generation born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s – will break with previous generations on issues such as climate change and universal healthcare. A study by the Pew Research Center about the polarization of the American electorate used a scale based on ten political values questions about the role of government, the environment, same sex marriage, and other issues, to measure ideological consistency. On this scale, Millennials are considerably more liberal than older generations: about 40% of Millennials are mostly or consistently liberal, compared with 15% who are mostly or consistently conservative; the others are “ideologically mixed.”
With that thought in mind, I wish you a Happy Hanukah/Merry Christmas/Happy Kwanzaa (or any combination) and a Happy New Year.
Mark Berg is a community activist in Adams County and a proud Liberal. His email address is MABerg175@Comcast.net.