On Monday, I posted a 1974 video of a live Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young rendition of the tune, “Almost Cut My Hair,” calling it “Seven Minutes in Honor of Orlando.”
I did this because while many slept peacefully, a violent, homophobic, Islamic terrorist wannabe killed 50 people and wounded more than 50 others with a legally purchased AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle at a gay dance club late on a Saturday night. It was the grand slam of hate crimes, perpetrated on one of the kindest, gentlest and most accepting communities in our nation.
The airwaves are now filled with speculation, argumentation and misinformation as we try to make sense of senseless violence in the world’s most violent country. Again, we demand some semblance of gun control. Again, we ponder the hubris of politicians who lament senseless death while cashing the checks of those who deal death worldwide.
The AR-15 assault weapon holds 30 rounds in a gas-operated magazine and will fire them as rapidly as you can pull the trigger. It is one of the preferred weapons of war, used in official and clandestine operations the world over, where it is commonly known as the M-16. It’s made right here in the US by Colt’s Manufacturing LLC and marketed as the AR-15 for civilian use.
These weapons are typically described by sellers with ludicrous language about a “modular design that allows the use of numerous accessories, such as night vision and laser targeting devices, muzzle brakes, flash hiders and sound suppressors.” As one might guess, laser sighting and sound suppression may be just a tad more special ops-oriented than they are legitimate and necessary add-ons for your typical sport hunting enthusiasts. But it is in keeping with the sales of many handguns now offered by multiple manufacturers with pre-drilled barrels to readily accept silencers to “avoid hearing damage on the firing range.”
Why, we all keep asking, are our lawmakers not doing something to halt this madness? Why aren’t there stricter controls regarding who can buy a semiautomatic rifle or a silenced handgun? The answer, despite all of the heated debate, is actually fairly simple. Because half the population of the U.S. already owns a gun; because the legal firearms industry employs more people than General Motors, and it’s a $6 billion business that generates another $5 billion in taxes each year; because the illegal firearms trade is so robust in the US, that anyone can buy them anywhere, anytime, without anyone’s approval anyhow; and because keeping us busy with endless arguing about something over which we have no control keeps us from complaining about the fact that we have no control.
So the real challenge for us is to work on creating peace, practicing acceptance, teaching tolerance, slowing down our anger, providing adequate mental health care for those who need it, treating addicts and alcoholics, creating better jobs and offering quality education to everyone.
I chose this particular piece of music because it seemed to fit so well. As sad and sick and paranoid as we all are in the aftermath of such insanity, we all need to say, “But I’m not giving in an inch to fear!” Furthermore, as a writer, a musician, an educator and a human being, “I feel like I owe it to someone.”
So spend seven minutes listening to some of the best singer/songwriters to come out of the ’60s and ’70s hit this one, with a raw intensity that reflects the material and reveals their place as one of the best harmony teams of the times.
I love and appreciate how the music defined the hopes and aspirations, anger and frustration of an entire generation. And it still works today, because we can still be agents of change and start a serious grassroots movement toward peace, social justice, equality, and acceptance. We may even learn to “Love our neighbors AND ourselves,” to “teach our children well” or, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, to “decide whether we will walk in the light of creative altruism, or the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
Almost Cut My Hair by David Crosby
Almost cut my hair
Happened just the other day
It’s gettin’ kind of long
I could’ve said it was in my way
But I didn’t and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly
And I feel like I owe it, to someone, yeah
Must be because I had the flu for Christmas
And I’m not feeling up to par
And it increases my paranoia
Like looking in my mirror and seeing a police car
But I’m not,
I’m not giving in an inch,
to fear
‘Cause I’ve promised myself this year
And I feel, oh, like I owe it,
to someone
When I finally get myself together
I’m gonna get down
in that sunny southern weather,
Separate the wheat from the chaff
Oh, and I feel
Like I owe it, yeah,
to someone…
Jeffrey Bowen’s writing has appeared in Call & Post, City News, Cool Cleveland, Doan Brook Watershed, EarthWatch, Elephant Journal, Girl Scout News, Green City-Blue Lake, Heights Observer, Live Cleveland, Neighborhood News, Nonprofit Notes, Sun News, multiple Habitat for Humanity publications, and several poetry collections.