Hello, Everyone!
It’s been a while since I’ve sent out a newsletter. What a time we find ourselves in. Much has happened in my life and in the lives of all Americans, since my last posting. The onset of this COVID-19 crisis has impacted literally everyone in These United States and on the planet, as a whole. Not one among us has been untouched. Some have lost their life, many have lost friends and loved ones, so many find themselves jobless and unable to make ends meet. All of us have been affected by this evil enemy in one way or another.
On a personal note, in April of this year I decided to come out of retirement to once again work as a Respiratory Therapist at Duke Regional Hospital in Durham, NC to help in this fight. I know the risk, being 66 years old and a cancer survivor but I felt the need outweighed the risk. I felt I had a duty to help. I also needed a way to earn a living, as, like so many people, I found myself out of a job. It’s been a challenge to return to the feild I walked away from three years ago to follow my passion for music but it has proven to be very rewarding.
I’m truly proud to be in the company of an amazing group of health care professionals who are striving every day to make a difference. And I’m working side by side with some very talented and dedicated RT’s. I do want you all to know that I’m being careful and taking all precautions, to stay safe. I know in my heart that we can and we will win this fight. We’re beginning to see some indications that this is so. But now we now face the enormous task of re-opening a country and reclaminig our lives, certainly not an easy task but we can do it and do it safely if we all pull together.
This brings me to another equally sad and devastating problem. Once again we have come face to face with the ugliness of racsim, a true blight on our nation. The killing of George Floyd was so senseless, so inexcusable and so horribly wrong! Though I believe that most people are basically good and accepting of others based on our common humanity and sense of community, it breaks my heart that there continue to be those among us who cannot see beyond skin color, nationality, gender or race. People, it’s way past time we moved past this! It just cannot and must not continue. Once again the lyrics to my song “All Fall Down” have proven to be relevant. I hope and pray for the day when this is not the case.
Yes, we have come a long way since the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s but we have not come far enough. We must as a society, as a nation, as human beings, strive to root out and conquer this common enemy of us all and vanquish it forever! I’m reminded of the nursery rhyme many of us learned as children, “red or yellow, black or white, we are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.” This is and has always been true. We need to make this a mantra by which we all live our lives. We need to end racism, forever! I hope that anyone who reads this will join me and commit to working for permanent change. Life is precious and worth fighting for! Life matters. People matter. We’re all people. We all matter.
As always I thank you all for supporting me and I look forward to seeing many of you again, once we are back to normal, even if the new normal is a bit different than the old. Please remember to support live original music and remember, music has the ability to connect us all, to bring us together and to offer hope and healing to the world. It truly is the universal language.
Peace, to you all!