Some opportunities come often. Some come “Once in a lifetime” so “You better lose yourself in the music, the moment, you own it…” well you know. We can all point to missed opportunities in our own lives, if we’re honest.
I can point to countless meetings with music industry heavy weights. One particular meeting was with a producer who presents ideas to me about his vision for my career and I begin to lay out why he’s wrong and what really needs to be done. This dude was ready for me to be out of his office.
Then there are those times we go through something tough that we brought on to ourselves. And somehow after going through this, we don’t learn from our mistakes. We repeat them. We go back to that toxic relationship. We go back to that “friend” that isn’t a friend at all for introducing us to a highly addictive drug. These are all missed opportunities. And I can promise I’ve had my share and them some. So, I do not judge those that also miss opportunities.
Since this virus has hit America, there has been more division in our country than ever before since the civil war. People have picked a side and will die fighting for a side or an ideal regardless if they’re right or wrong. One side could say the sky is blue and the other will say “Fake news! I looked up and it was orange!” When in reality, they were both right but too divided to know it.
I’ve been praying and hoping there would be a voice of unity. A voice of reason in all this madness. Someone with a national platform that rises up and says something to the effect of “There are great people on BOTH sides of every argument. We must figure out a way to coexist in the middle of our disagreement… like adults!”
I keep thinking that soon it will happen. Someone will figure out a way to get people to put down their pitchforks just long enough to see the humanity in the person they have sworn to hate because their tribe says to. “ALL Biden lovers are lunatics!” or “ALL Trump lovers are racists!” really… anytime you put “ALL” on anything, you corner yourself into a place where you will most certainly be found WRONG.
In my life, I’ve had the fortune of traveling the world playing music and refereeing basketball. One thing that I found very consistent is that in every race and every culture there are: great people, terrible people, classy people, trashy people, people with high integrity and people who’d steal anything they can. There really is NO SUCH THING as “ALL” when referring to human beings… except that they are all human beings. That’s about where it ends.
Unfortunately, while waiting for this voice of reason, I completely stopped hoping it would be our president. While I realize that the things he’s “doing” are incredibly great for our country, the things he “says” aren’t. Yes, he’s taking care of America first and everyone else takes a number and gets in line… for the first time… maybe ever. Yes, he orchestrated the best economy this country has seen in at least 50 years. But the words he continues to say and tweet are at least as divisive as his predecessor. I find myself hoping someone will put him in Twitter time-out.
Trump’s predecessor, Obama, was one of the greatest speakers in American history. I was always a fan of who he was. What he stood for. He was a classy person. He was a family man. A good father and devoted husband. He knew when to lighten up and when to be serious. He knew how to put words together in such a way that they sounded like absolute art.
So when I heard he was speaking at John Lewis’ funeral, I quickly thought… “He’ll be the guy! Obama will say things to unify the country!” I’m not sure why I thought that. He never did it once in 8 years of office. But I thought that his classy nature would prevail and he’d be a voice of reason. No one would listen to Bush. No one would listen to Clinton. No one would listen to Pelosi. But EVERYONE would listen to Obama.
And as he began, the story was inspiring and full of awe. He spoke highly of a man that was worth speaking highly of. A man (J. Lewis) that overcame many obstacles and endured many hardships to make sure “the movement” didn’t die until racism did.
But then, in true presidential-Obama form, he began using his national microphone to push partisan agendas. To divide the country even further. If someone wasn’t angry about political division before, they certainly were after.
This man (Obama) had an opportunity to bring the nation together. He had the ears of Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, LGBTQ, Christians, Muslims, MAGA-bons, Never Trumpers, old, young, black, white, brown… he had the entire country in his hand and…..
He said, to a GROUP of PEOPLE in an INDOOR BUILDING that are sitting in close proximity that “there are those in power that are undermining the Postal Service in an election that is going to be dependant on mailed-in ballots so people don’t get sick.”
Yes, you read that correctly. He told people in an indoor building that coming into an indoor building was hazardous to people’s health while voting. Even Dr Alveda King, niece of the great Martin Luther King Jr., took notice of the missed opportunity. She stated that she was very upset that Obama would “grab at the chance” to politicize this funeral.
He had an opportunity and he missed it. He was the one person the entire country would have followed into unity. But he chose to divide… in equal fashion as our current president. Again, I’m not judging because I’ve had plenty of missed opportunities. Just pointing out the sad reality. So here I sit, still waiting for a national voice of reason to find a way to unify and to stop driving the partisan train into Missed Opportunities.
Stay Classy GP!
Grainger