So here we are again. Two weeks have gone by and I have not put on a new post until now as I sit on a back porch that has been nicely kissed by weather that allows me to sit out here in comfort and tap on these keys. It feels good. We have not been able to say that much lately have we?
As I sit here I listen to my radio station of choice, Radio 96.3 WJAA in Seymour. I have written a word or two about Robert Becker on these pages. He started the station in 1991. Next month he will sign off, as far as I know. Robert is my last radio hero!
I would be remiss if I did not thank Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues.
Justin found a way to send me a recorded word of thanks to Robert for playing the Moodies music over the years. Justin Hayward is a class act. I have said it before and I will say it again. I picked the right group to listen to. This is incontrovertible proof.
That is nice.
Where did six years go?
This is post 566 of speaktherights.com
On these pages I have written over a half a million words. If I regret any of them, they are far and few between. I just speak the rights. This came along in 2014. That first year I chronicled my Granny’s illness and subsequent death. Words are cathartic for me. Be they in prose or verse of a song. I have never sat here and typed something out because I thought I needed to. That is not speaking the rights.
I have a media library here too. I look at the places my dear wife, Carrie, and I have been and reported on and it is humbling. Humbled beyond belief thanks to the health issues the world has dealt with since March. I look at pictures and wonder if we will have a chance at being near some of these places again one day. Doesn’t look good right now. But there is always hope!
Below is the first installment of speaktherights.com
All I can say is that I knew what I was doing. Can’t always say that. But in this case that is…speaking the rights!
Danny Johnson
Why Speak The Rights?
Good question…
Hopefully a good answer.
I like the sound of it. It sounds true. Truth is a very good thing. The truth will set you free from the bondage of untruth. That does sound good.
I tell many folks I don’t believe in fairness. It is the stuff of mythology. I gave a eulogy at a friend’s funeral in May of this year. I looked at his grown son and I said what I had to: life is not fair.
While I do not believe in fairness I do believe in good and bad. I do believe in wrong and right. When we speak wrongly we have screwed up. We all do it.
It just feels good to speak the rights.
Hopefully no one out there will mistaken the connotation of “rights” with political overtures. That would be to err. Just like we are not talking about “rights” as a notion of…gulp…fairness. That would be a painful mistake.
Speak the rights really took on a life of its own when I was broadcasting high school football games. My buddy Gus Stephenson and I had a grand time for a while relaying the plaudits of the athletic endeavors of teenage heroes on the gridiron. We enjoyed doing so for a number of years until it was time to move on. When I would agree with Gus at times, I would steal a line from a Shakespearean play where the character says to another: “Thou speak’st aright”.
I would say to Gus in agreement of his explanation to what happened on the following play: “You speak the rights, Gus”. It became a part of the lexicon of many around me. I just figured it must be time to share.
A number of years ago I wrote a weekly human interest column for a fledgling and now defunct local newspaper. I was flattered by the offer to share on a regular basis. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got a kick outta folks agreeing with what I said. I enjoyed it much more when I made someone laugh. I did not enjoy getting chewed out by my mother for using the word “hell” in a column. I’ll try not to do that again.
I will, however, within the confines of this space…quite oxymoronic in the year 2014. Does anyone else out there still want to date a document starting with 19…? I am guilty, on occasion.
Let me thank my dear wife Carrie for putting me behind each letter I type here today. She reminded me that…and convinced me that…all the column writing I did needed a comeback. She was right when she told me folks enjoyed what I wrote about. I just hope that will find a way to continue as I write some more.
I will write about friendship, sports, love, faith, music, time, work, movies, travel, family, history, heartache, politics, movies, schools, and whatever else may present itself that day.
Regardless…and sometimes it may hurt a little…I will speak the rights.
Danny Johnson