I have inserted below a YouTube
link to Simon & Garfunkel’s song -- ‘7 O’Clock News/Silent Night’.
The song was part of their 1966 album – Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
I was fifteen years old then and enthralled with their second album -- Sounds
of Silence – which had been released in January 1966. I had spent
hour after hour that year listening to their unique sound and their folk-rock
message. Their Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme album – their
third album, released in October 1966 – remains recognizable to many for
‘Scarborough Fair’ and for ‘Homeward Bound’. But the track on that album
to which I have returned again and again is the last track – ‘7 O’Clock
News/Silent Night’. Simon & Garfunkel overlaid a typically serene rendition
of the Christmas classic ‘Silent Night’ with a recitation of actual events that
happened on 3 August 1966.
 |
| 7 O’Clock News/Silent Night |
Listen. Be prepared. It/they jolted me as a teenager. I have teared up every time since.
I am certain Simon & Garfunkel could compose remakes from events every single day since an alarming mixture of frightened insecurity, economic myopia, destructive nationalism, and self-imposed ignorance surged behind/around Trump as a candidate without any credentials and now as a dangerously incompetent occupant of the oval office. Every single day brings yet more confirmation that the implications of the 2016 election -- for exposed minorities, for desperate immigrants, for a shaken international community, for a defenseless environment -- are severe. I lost touch many years ago with organized religion as I determined to be face to face with ‘the world’, to ‘see from below’. I do still resonate with prophetic advocates – religious or secular – for integrity, for peace, for justice, for mercy, for respect. We must not permit the (mis)fortune of our affluent privileges and our safe distance to numb us to or distract us from the harsh realities confronting so many within our sight/reach. We must live with courage in the tension between holding to hope amid such despair, between initiating love amid such brutality, between experiencing joy amid such loneliness, between welcoming a neighbor amid such prejudice, between ‘Silent Night’ and the evening news.
I am certain Simon & Garfunkel could compose remakes from events every single day since an alarming mixture of frightened insecurity, economic myopia, destructive nationalism, and self-imposed ignorance surged behind/around Trump as a candidate without any credentials and now as a dangerously incompetent occupant of the oval office. Every single day brings yet more confirmation that the implications of the 2016 election -- for exposed minorities, for desperate immigrants, for a shaken international community, for a defenseless environment -- are severe. I lost touch many years ago with organized religion as I determined to be face to face with ‘the world’, to ‘see from below’. I do still resonate with prophetic advocates – religious or secular – for integrity, for peace, for justice, for mercy, for respect. We must not permit the (mis)fortune of our affluent privileges and our safe distance to numb us to or distract us from the harsh realities confronting so many within our sight/reach. We must live with courage in the tension between holding to hope amid such despair, between initiating love amid such brutality, between experiencing joy amid such loneliness, between welcoming a neighbor amid such prejudice, between ‘Silent Night’ and the evening news.
