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Johnny and Me

Well, I’m having a musical fling with (to my surprise) Johnny Cash. The other afternoon I was relaxing before a concert and HBO or Showtime had the biopic Walk the Line on. I’ve always found the occasional bits of Cash songs I’ve heard on the radio to be powerfully eloquent. But the classical-snob in me still had a grip on what allowed myself to listen to.

Steve Jobs and everyone else who designed Itunes really knew what they are doing. DePauw recently gave me a new Mac Powerbook to use for the next four years or so (one of the great things about working for a university with a $500+ million endowment is preks like that). So here I sit, checking my email, and Johnny Cash pops into my head. There’s the little Itunes icon at the bottom of the screen–click on it, search for Johnny Cash, and before I know it I’ve downloaded two albums. I’m listening to Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. What amazing connection with an audience. Incredible.

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Virginia Tech

The Virgina Tech shooting incident is horrifying. But I find myself strangely numb to it. Images of the thousands of American kids of the same age who’ve been killed in Iraq float to mind, and how few of us have a similar sense of tragedy about them. And then there are all the Iraqi civilians, including children, who have died in this horrible and horrifying war. The torture our own government has been allowing and encouraging and endorsing is sickening as well.

I do not mean to diminish the Virigina tragedy. The families of those who were killed will never get over the loss. But the fact that there is more outrage over this than thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths in Iraq, and the way in which the evil has gained a foothold as the United States has abandoned long-held principles as it has adopted a “the end justifies the means” approach leaves me puzzled and saddened.