I grew up listening to country music, including the great Johnny Cash. He’s of course the country music pioneer well-chronicled in the excellent movie, Walk the Line, and he passed away in 2003.
As a long-time fan, I thought I knew all his songs, but some years ago I discovered one I hadn’t heard, “Man in Black", written in 1971 during the Vietnam War and counter culture protests.
This song, which Johnny wrote to explain why he always wore black, still speaks to us 50 years later, describing many of the challenges we still face here in the 21st century. Even if you’ve heard it before, please go see and listen to it now via YouTube.
Go ahead, I’ll wait.
10 Reasons Why Johnny Wore — and Would Still Wear — Black
“… why I always dress in black … a somber tone … there's a reason for the things that I have on”
Now, if you’ll permit me, I’ve picked ten passages most relevant to us and our world today.
Like Johnny’s attire, it’s a bit dark, but don’t get too depressed. The world’s really not so bad. But we also can’t ignore the challenges, nor stop working every day to make it a better place for us, our kids, and our compatriots.
“I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down
Living in the hopeless, hungry side of town”
Fifty years later we’ve made progress in feeding the poor, but huge gaps still remain in our safety nets, leaving us with the hopeless, homeless, and hungry in many parts of town. These days it also extends to rural areas, where hopelessness can easily creep in, creating breeding grounds for domestic extremism, violence, and opioid use.
“I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime
But is there because he's a victim of the time”
Our prisons are even fuller than in Johnny’s day and mostly full of people of color, often in for minor crimes, or even no crimes at all. They're nearly all victims of the time. We should all be doing what we can to reduce incarceration and recidivism while ensuring ex-felons are prepared for, and can get, good work.
“Well, we're doing mighty fine, I do suppose
In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes”
Many folks are doing mighty fine, with faster streak-of-lightning cars and even fancier clothes than before. But many have neither, and the divide between the “have-it-alls” and the “have-nearly-nothings” is getting wider all the time.
It’s a tough and complex problem with many roots, and we likely need broad and experimental policies to unlock diverse solutions, including better training, childcare, healthcare, and creative job creation.
“But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back
Up front there ought to be a man in black”
When we help lift others up, everyone rises. Any modern society should be helping those who are held back, and frankly, many societies do a better job than us. Here is where Biden’s heart is in the right place, and at least he’s trying.
“I wear it for the sick, and the lonely old”
It sucks to be old in America today, as so many of our elderly are old, sick, and lonely. So much so, that it’s probably an epidemic, and a hard one to solve. Coupled with a predatory and poorly-regulated nursing home industry that houses 1.5 million seniors, it indeed seems dire. And with more baby-boomer seniors coming — and coming with more health problems — it’s going to get worse.
“For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold
I wear the black in mourning for the lives that could have been
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men”
“Bad trips” are still with us, as opioids take so many lives that could have been. But instead of Johnny’s 100 each week, we now lose a thousand a week to this pernicious evil. And unlike in the 1960s, today’s opioid problem started with pharmaceutical companies pushing, and doctors prescribing, mountains of pills to people … getting them hooked as efficiently as any dealer ever did. In many cases, heroin or fentanyl then takes over and takes them.
“I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died
Believing that we all were on their side”
As yet more long wars wind down, we yet again find ourselves with another several hundred thousand (or more) dead in Iraq and Afghanistan, at least some believing we were on their side.
“Well, there's things that never will be right I know
And things need changing everywhere you go”
So true, and we’d do well to remember that. On one level, we should at least admit our policy and political faults, and work on fixing them over time. It’s a long and road, especially these days, but one surely worth taking.
“Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day
And tell the world that everything's okay”
We have politicians for that, especially the populists so popular from time to time, including in our own time. Politicians love to wear rainbows — and tell the world everything will be okay — if only you’ll vote their way.
“But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back
Until things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black”
While I don’t suggest you start wearing black all the time, please do take time to ponder the issues in our world today, especially economic, racial, and gender inequality, and what we might individually or collectively do to improve.
And lest I end on a down note, as the last line of the Desiderata says:
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Questions
Do you teach your kids about inequality & brainstorm on improving it?
Are you pondering or helping prison and criminal reform, that so disproportionally affects Black and Latino men, and their families?
Does your workplace look for or accept ex-felons?
References
Johnny Interview with Mike Douglas (and James Brown) in 1971 - Talking about why the song, why he wears black plus his addictions. Really an amazing interview on the realities of his life’s challenges.
One Bad Pig’s Punk version with Johnny