In the last quarter of this year, 2023, Beatles and Stones fans woke up from their dreams. Who could have foreseen that our Heroes of the Sixties would make such a dent after all these years with a great new album, “Hackney Diamonds”, and a sensational single, “Now and Then”. The Forerunners of the British Invasion got to number one again!
As far as Nashville is concerned, all eyes of the Wilbrink family were on Dolly and Taylor. They’ve never been ‘away’, or even thought about retiring, but still, 2023 was an exceptional year for our favorite girls. Dolly Parton did her rock ‘n roll album and Taylor Swift even got acknowledged by the Fed for contributing so much to the American economy. If either woman would run for office, I think going back to the USA would be so much more attractive.
And then there’s a third woman in Nashville I’m happy for. She falls more into the category of the Stones and the Beatles, coming back unexpectedly! We’re talking about Megan Barry.
Deborah and I met Megan one Sunday afternoon at Manuel’s boutique at 8^th Avenue, across from the Frist Museum. Manuel, closely connected to the Stones’ tongue, Dylan’s hat wear and Waylon’s jackets, introduced us to the woman who was running for Mayor and eventually made it, in 2015, to become the first lady to manage the capital city of Tennessee. The dawn of hope. The promise of tolerance, of public transport, of affordable housing.
In 2018 the sun went down. Megan did something only men get away with and resigned. Marcia Blackburn started embarrassing Tennessee in the Senate and with Bill Lee as the 50^th governor the Great State started sliding back into the Middle Ages, the Dark Days of women losing their basic rights, books being banned, Democratic Nashville being gerrymandered into republican oblivion, rural hospitals closed, lies becoming the new reality and Fear, Fox and Redneck Country music closing ranks.
And then, all of a sudden, the sun breaks through. The clouds seem to disappear. As iconic as Amalia Earhart we see Taylor Swift at each newsstand looking at us from the cover of Time Magazine, the ‘Man of The Year’ with so much hope in her bright blue eyes. And the same moment I get an email from Megan Barry: She’s had it with hiding in the shadows, she’s picking up the baton again for real liberty and democracy, running for Congress. Nashville is no longer sending a candidate like six-time representative John Cooper to Washington, the city is now scattered over a number of districts in which rural votes drown out city votes. Megan decided to fight the odds and take on the sitting representative of the 7^th congressional district, which includes parts of North Nashville and northwestern Davidson County, stretching crazily enough from the Kentucky border down to the state line with Alabama.
It will be an uphill struggle against a well-oiled political machine that doesn’t seem to suffer from the in-fighting, corruption and treasonous craziness of the grand old party. But we might be entering into a new Season of Reason and human kindness, honesty and ethics, might once again prevail. Megan Barry’s candidacy gives me hope like Martin Luther King's “I Have a Dream” did, like Kennedy’s smile and Obama’s “Yes We Can”!
Most of 2023 I’ve been feeling utterly pessimistic about the climate, the European swing to the right, the misery in the Ukraine and Palestine, the next Presidential election. But now, today, looking out of the window, seeing the sun break through the clouds and shining like in the golden hour, all of a sudden, I feel hope again. Thanks, Megan, for making my day!