Thank you, Louis Armstrong….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWzrABouyeE
Thank you, Mr. Armstrong, for recording this amazing song, first released as a single 60 years ago today. Your smooth and grainy, gravelly voice is an inspiration. The seniors among us remember what it was like in the USA in 1967.
- Viet Nam war drags on with no end in sight
- About 2500 mothers of drafted soldiers storm the Pentagon, demand a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert McNamara
- LBJ doubles down–determined not to ‘lose’ this war
- Edward W. Brooke, Attorney General of Massachusetts, seated in the US Senate as the first elected Negro Senator in 85 years
- Muhammed Ali refuses to be drafted into the Viet Nam war, is stripped of his world heavyweight boxing championship
- Anti-war protests break out across the United States
- Blood poured on draft records by a Roman Catholic priest and two companions
- California Governor Ronald Reagan suggests that LBJ ‘leak’ the possibility of nuclear weapons being used
- Stokely Carmichael calls for a black revolution in the US, using skills “they taught us” in Viet Nam
- Thurgood Marshall confirmed by Senate as first black on the Supreme Court, opposed by one Republican–Strom Thurmond of South Carolina
I know you didn’t write this song yourself. Yet you chose to record it during a difficult time in our history. Perhaps because of the chaos, you wanted to shine a light on the simple gifts and beauty of this world, and on everyday life with our neighbors. I need this as much today as I did back then.
With admiration and gratitude,
Elouise ♥
©Elouise Renich Fraser, 16 August 2017
BBC video found on YouTube; pop ballad written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss
Response to WordPress Daily Prompt: Grainy
Telling the Truth 