You might remember the Cheech and Chong song "Born in East L.A." It's from a number of years ago. It got humor from the subject of illegal immigration. Society appears much more humorless about that today. Come to think of it, we're so much more humorless across the board.
It sounds cliche-ish to describe a previous time period as more "innocent." In regard to the Cheech and Chong song, I think the spirit is in fact much more innocent. More relaxed.
Actually I think it was just one of the two - Cheech or Chong - behind this particular song and video. Like everything else we can recall from our past, there it is on YouTube.
"Born in East L.A." is '80s nostalgia. We might have expected this "MTV" channel to be a resource for music videos forever. But we were steadily progressing into a time that would put so much in flux, mostly for the better. So YouTube was born. No need to ever again spend money to consume music! A true miracle.
It is part of the human condition to always find some fault with the way things are. The "East L.A." song showed how we could live with some non-exemplary things like smoking and sexism. The guy in song - Cheech or Chong - ogles over a couple "shapely" women. Such behavior and imagery were in our face a lot.
Women's rights were steadily carving a new path on the legal front. Entertainment and culture lagged behind. Most of us did not want to let go of certain notions. We were a more relaxed society because we put up with cigarette smoking? Interesting: cigarettes were/are a sedative. Well, any pluses from such behavior are negated as if with a sledgehammer.
There are other such exhibits, e.g. sexism or misogyny. We have gotten mighty serious on that front too. Does anyone use the term "beauty pageants" any more? Ah, the "swimsuit" division. You grimace. Well of course. "Miss Congeniality" rewards the female most disarming with her personality. Not sure what message this award really conveys.
The chief character in the "East L.A." song gets confronted by an immigration officer who pops out of a truck. The officer has a way of testing to see who might be suspicious. The U.S. president at the time was Ronald Reagan, former movie actor. So the officer asks the dude, "who is president of the United States?" And the dude, after first saying "that's easy," says "John Wayne."
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| John Wayne |
You know what I'm talking about. Anti-intellectualism? Such people can be hard to generalize about. At times they flail away, seeming more interested in projecting a certain image or matching the prevailing views of "their crowd." Wayne emerged as a sympathizer with the Vietnam war - how about his movie "The Green Berets?" - and he was a pointed skeptic of the young agitators.
The memories ought to be crystal clear. Remember the term "hard hats?" I have to wince writing that. But such was the milieu as I grew up. It was right in front of our faces.
By the same token we saw the Jan. 6 travesty of 2021: a lashing out by the know-nothings. "Keep America great" etc.
For sure we will remember the rioters in the same way we remember the "hard hats" who wanted to beat up war protesters. All these people are just gravitating to a certain attitude of the moment among their crowd. Certain celebrity leaders set the tone.
This crowd has some reconciling to do now: their man Trump has come out against foreign wars and even attacks Liz Cheney as a war monger. But the Cheneys with George Bush certainly drew the affections of the Michele Bachmanns of the world. Remember how Bachmann strained to go extend a physical greeting to George W. Bush as Bush entered for the State of the Union? She wanted to slobber all over him.
But now? The Cheneys who were an extension of Bush have become persona non grata.
Didn't Bachmann have to leave her Wisconsin Synod church? Is that because the Wisconsin Synod views the Pope as the antichrist? So silly to have such theological divisions. It's reasonable to put aside Christianity altogether. Young people are paying attention. I believe Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is still in the Wisconsin Synod.
Because of religion, we now have Roe vs. Wade overturned. This morning I read that doctors are having to call lawyers when dealing with a complicated pregnancy. We have the evangelical Christians to thank for this. Over the long slope of history, the evangelicals are tied in with John Wayne, seriously. My generation of the boomers has largely forgiven Wayne, like we have forgiven so much including our own parents in many cases.
It has been so long since young American men had to live in fear over getting a military conscription notice. Time heals all wounds? Maybe. I guess in my case, I have not forgotten. The U.S. sacrificed something like 60,000 young men to the Vietnam conflict. Just thought I'd mention it.
Wayne spent much of his movie career fighting "the other" on the big screen. He fought Indians, he fought the Japanese and he fought Mexicans. He fluffed up the total myth of "The Alamo."
There is a book out called "Jesus and John Wayne" by Kristin Kobes Du Mez. The book reveals how "evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism - or in the words of one modern chaplain, with 'a spiritual badass.' "
Pay attention to this as you notice the numbers getting thinner in the pews. The real Christianity is gentle, caring, empathetic and charitable. It embraces minorities (the "other") and people who are disaffected for various reasons.
We ignore the background of "Jesus and John Wayne" at our peril. The damage may have already been done. We have neglected climate change for too long. Trump has told us climate change is a "hoax."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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