Covid.

Two syllables never meant more in my lifetime.

Over 400, 000 thousand American are dead due in full or in part to Covid.

I have heard the argument that Covid ain’t what killed them!  They had other stuff wrong with them!

Yes, that’s right.  Then they caught Covid and that did the rest.

Ain’t that America for you and me.

I am sick and tired of this.  I am tired of feeling like the only one in the room scared out of his wits.  I have a history of respiratory issues.  How much history?  Well, I got here in March of 1968 and when I made my way into the world the doc took me and did not hand me to my mother.  Breathing aids were needed.  I didn’t cry when I got here.  Imagine that.  Me being obstinate from the start!  I am not laughing now.

While I am not laughing now I will also refrain from ever telling another Dumb Kentuckian joke.  When I moved from Jackson County, Indiana, a state that does not border Kentucky, to Harrison County, a state that does border Kentucky albeit over a river, I noticed a lack of Dumb Kentuckian jokes.  Geography.

Kentucky has about one third of the Covid related deaths that Indiana has suffered.  Bring on the Dumb Hoosier jokes.  We deserve it.

I am sitting here listening to the Bruce Springsteen song “We Take Care of Our Own” and I wonder what planet he was on when he wrote this song!  It sounds great.  So does a good pizza.  Unfortunately the pizza is winning right now.

Never in my life have I felt as pessimistic as I do now.  My tune will no doubt change after I get a vaccination for this Covid nightmare.  I am ready.  Eventually folks in education will be deemed as important, though not essential?  Says who?  It’s the old education political football again.  The kids can’t vote and the educators don’t matter.  They can be replaced in a heartbeat.  But we sure are quick to talk about opening schools!  Some of us have been open for a while now.  But if you think it is business as usual because the doors are open you too would be wrong.  Are we doing the best we can?  Yes.  That is what we do.

I recently told a friend of mine I don’t like my odds.  I had a baby sitter kill over on me when I was five and I have been struck by lightning.  Get the picture?   If I catch the Covid I doubt I would live to tell the story.

But I press onward.  It is what we do.

Jim Stewart, one of my education heroes, said it best so many years ago.  He said education is the most resilient thing ever.  No matter how politicians screw it up, kids inherently want to learn.  Indiana thinks it is going to standardize test students as usual this year.  All I can say is there is a large testing contract that someone just can’t be turning their fiscal backs on.  Colleges are saying they don’t need to see the SAT these days but by golly we are gonna make sure the 7th graders let us know how this pandemic has treated them!!!!  I call that stupid tax.  I am more interested in seeing kids survive and prosper than give them something else to worry about.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Written January 19 and first posted on facebook.

Hello friends. You know those times in your life that make a difference and you know in your heart you will forever keep it to yourself?

Given the day and what will transpire for our country tomorrow, I need to share these words if I plan to sleep tonight.

Many years ago I was coaching football and I had the answers! I had a chance back and forth with a college football coach who had won a National Championship and was a chief Promise Keeper. He was at a coaches clinic and so was I.

I was all high and mighty with my idealism. The Coach told me to cut guys some slack. He told me challenging works better than judging. “Mercy triumphs over judgement.” We need to use the same barometer to measure others as Jesus would measure us. He told me that too. I paraphrase.

Let’s move on. Make tomorrow better. Republican, Democrat, Independent, Neutral, whomever you are you will surely find someone tomorrow in some circumstance or the next day or the next day and you will have a choice to make. Better or worse?

In the end “Mercy triumphs over judgement.”

For the record, my name in a drawer in the Harrison County Court House has a big R next to it. Republican. I don’t apologize for that or what has made me hang my head at my own party. Better days are ahead.

“Mercy triumphs over judgement.”

Don’t talk yourself out of a simple truth. THERE IS A BETTER DAY AHEAD. Be a part of the solution! We need you. Our kids need you.

Nearly thirty years later, a Coach’s speech still motivates when it needs to.

I’m just speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Look at that.  Does it get any better than that!

This is a photo of me and Jackie Gayheart.

Many years ago I stopped in on her just to say hello at her new digs in Ramsey.  Jackie is the mother of my dear friend Marc Gayheart and his precious siblings.

On that visit to see Jackie, we talked of old days and present days.  She left the room.  She came back with a piece of paper.  She knew I was making music.  She knew I was writing and recording songs.  Jackie handed me a piece of paper with what she deemed as song lyrics.  It made me nervous.  I was early in my musical journey.  This piece of paper, while delighted to be handed, was nothing I wanted to be a part of.  How could I get this right?  That is what I asked myself.  And that was that.

This piece of paper was always within arm’s reach in my home office.  I looked at it many times for many years.

One day I looked at it and grabbed my guitar.  And good things happened.  I recorded this song with just me and the guitar at Jeff Carpenter’s Al Fresco’s Place Recording Studio in Louisville.

I made this recording for Jackie and her family.  I saw to it that many CDs of this recording were passed on.  And on a Tuesday in May in 2018 at a Harrison County Hymn Sing, I sang this song at Unity Chapel UMC.  I will never forget the look on Jackie’s face as I was singing.  I looked at her and gave a her a nod.  Priceless.  Thankful.  Amen.

The recording I handed off to the family was comprised of the following intro and corresponding lyrics.  Jackie wrote the words and I wrote the tune.

How’s it going group?  This is Danny Johnson and I am coming to you from Al Fresco’s Place Recording Studio.  Jeff Carpenter is on the board, a very near and dear friend, and we are going to record a song that Jackie Gayheart handed to me many years ago.  The day she handed it to me I had a silent scream on my face because she asked me to put some music to it and at the time I was not very comfortable doing that.  Things change.  I found this song recently and was delighted that I did and about fifteen minutes later it was complete.  I hope you enjoy it.  Jackie, I hope you enjoy it as well.   

Then I played the tune.

Going Home   (Words by Jackie Gayheart and Music by Danny Johnson)

When we think about the future the present and the past

We know this is fleeting and it’s never going to last

But we know our home in heaven will be ours forevermore

We will be there for eternity upon those peaceful shores

Chorus                                                                                                                                     Going Home…Going Home

We’re just travelling down life’s highway going home

When our life on earth is over and we cease this world to roam

We’re going home…just going home…going home.

We have all have trials and temptations in our life’s every day

Yet we must follow Jesus and walk steady in His way

We look forward to our meeting with our savior by and by

When we’re called up there to rest in our mansion in the sky

Repeat Chorus

Bridge

So walk carefully down this road of life and don’t forget to pray

There will always be a reckoning on that final day

Walk closely to the savior and hold tightly to His hand

Until the day we finally reach that blessed promised land

Repeat Chorus

I dug this CD out tonight and listened to it. I found out today that Jackie passed away on January 13th.  It was the best demo recording I ever made.  That means just me and the guitar and that’s it.  I am proud of this recording.  Without Jackie and her kind eyes and words, it would have never been. I am so blessed.

So today I mourn the loss of my first musical co-writer and loving soul to all.

For the record, thank you Jackie.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Oh my.

I must say I am not too inclined to write much this week.  There just isn’t time to get it all in.  Being an old-school Republican sick with what he is seeing, I doubt my views would matter.

See why I don’t want to write!  This is awful.

On a lighter note, my dear friend Brother Tim Petty’s Alabama Crimson Tide won their 6th National Title under the direction of Head Coach Nick Saban.  That is the same number of titles the Tide won under Coach Bear Bryant.  There is a museum on campus dedicated to Coach Bryant.  I doubt there will be another museum for the current coach.  History is changing a bit by the likes of Youtube and stuff like that.  I see it.  What was once ever so elusive is now in the palm of your hand.  What we thought we would never see again in 1988 is now common place if we want to “look it up”.

On that subject.  Am I the only citizen clamoring for the release of the NBC TV show ED to be released to DVD?

I digress.

Brother Tim’s Coach, Nick Saban, won his sixth National Championship last night.  Thank you for beating Ohio State.

Today the Indiana Hoosiers were placed at #12 in the final AP poll for the…wait for it…sixth time in school history.  Saban wins 6 titles.  IU gets ranked in the final poll for the 6th time.

1945, 1946, 1967, 1979, 1988, and 2020.  Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Final AP Ranked Indiana Hoooooosiers!!!!   If you have been to a game at Memorial Stadium some of that might resonate.

But guess what?  I am confident the Football Hoosier faithful won’t have to wait for 32 more years to be ranked again.  Get used to it for a while.  With a nod to Bob Dylan, Things Have Changed.

I sure hope more change will follow.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

On July 6, 2014 I wrote the first installment of speaktherights.com.

One of my favorite photos put on this page some time ago.  My Uncle Stanley and myself taken at family reunion in Forest, Mississippi.

Today is January 2, 2021.  I am writing the 600th installment of speaktherights.com.

I have written a half a million words on this space.  I have enjoyed it all.  I have been asked why I do this.  My answer: It is just one of the things I do.  I didn’t plan on doing this.  It turned out that way.

Have we ever been more delighted to see a year go?  2020 will certainly acquire a euphemism or two moving forward in subsequent years.  I’ll just call it a pain.

I am sitting here listening to AMAZON music.  Justin Hayward’s solo album Songwriter released in 1977.  I am listening to this because on this past August 28th I lost my radio station.  Or at least I lost my desire to listen to my radio station.  Robert Becker sold 96.3 WJAA and that was that.  Nothing against the new owners.  But, for me, it was over.  The Cool Bus was never cooler than when Robert Becker walked out.

I still miss 890 WLS The Rock of Chicago.  I have written about that here many times before.  Uncle Lar and Little Tommy doing Animal Stories.  Oh my.  Irony?  Robert Becker is from Chicago.

This past year I saw that Les Grobstein, who was once the WLS Sports Director, was celebrating 50 years in the business.  Albeit he got an early start, 50 years is still 50 years and Les is still going strong in Chicago at WSCR 670 The Score.  Good for him.

A year with no music.  That was 2020.

Justin Hayward at The City Winery in Nashville, October 30, 2019.  This was the last concert my dear wife, Carrie, and I attended.

Seems like a decade ago.  Justin was kind enough to send me a recorded message to pass along to Robert Becker this past Spring, as I conveyed to Justin of Robert’s selling the station and Robert’s devotion to playing a Moody Blues tune even when I wasn’t requesting the song.

I shouldn’t say a year with no music.  Shame on me.  You can look on YouTube and find Tuesday Afternoons with Justin Hayward.  This year he was kind enough to present a video series of acoustic renditions of songs both originally by The Moody Blues or solo material we had never heard outside the record.  It was very nicely done and there are many of them.  Thank you again, Justin.

Post #600.  How can that be?

I have commented on and shared photos from places and people from all over.  I have been blessed.

One of my favorite photos from Tunnel Hill Bridge.

Do we go on with it?  I guess so.  After all, it is one of the things I do.

Speaking the rights…and yes, GO HOOSIERS today against Ole Miss!

Danny Johnson