'They're rioting in Africa' -- And What Else Is New?

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
by Christine Bowman

Most Baby Boomers probably remember a song that captured the widespread, out-of-control feelings that for many defined the Sixties. The anthem was about the nuclear threat hanging over the world (then as now):

Merry Minuet

They're rioting in Africa (whistling)
They're starving in Spain (whistling)
There's hurricanes in Flo-ri-da (whistling)
And Texas needs rain

The whole world is festering with unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch
AND I DON'T LIKE ANYBODY VERY MUCH!!
But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
For man's been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lovely day Someone will set the spark off
AND WE WILL ALL BE BLOWN AWAY!!
They're rioting in Africa (whistling)
There's strife in Iran
What nature doesn't so to us
Will be done by our fellow "man"

Originally written by Broadway lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who also wrote Fiddler on the Roof and Fiorello!, She Loves Me with composer Jerry Bock. This satire was introduced by Orson Bean in the 1953 revue John Murray Anderson 's Almanac. 

... by the Kingston Trio in a live performance recorded for their first in-concert album From the Hungry i LP 1959

Today's headlines brought back memories of that song, and the same feelings, only the news is now:

They're rioting in Israel ...
They're starving in Zimbabwe.
There's hurricane survivors (still struggling) in Texas and Louisiana ...

And on and on.

Not mentioned in the song but prominent in today's news: an imperiled environment, deepening economic disaster in the U.S., religious-tinged power struggles and worldwide terrorism, O.J. Simpson going to jail (a Sixties sports hero, you will recall), the right-wing's ascendancy within the GOP ... and that's just a brief sampling.

And of course the political fall-out from the Sixties is still with us today. The new release of LBJ and Nixon tapes from 1968 and 1972 make that very plain.

But 2008 is not 1968. Yes, we still have nuclear bombs, but even some hawks are in favoring of dismantling them all. The U.S. now has a president-elect who emanates good sense and decency.  America's citizens are on alert, they're engaged, but most are not yet hopeless or in open rebellion.

So, for now, let's be of good cheer. Draw friends and family close to you. Prepare for an austere but perhaps not miserable holiday season. And look forward to January 20. Times are certainly tough, but at least George W. Bush won't be leading us deeper into the darkness anymore. He'll be moving to Dallas soon. Shall we toast to that?

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL