I am going to reveal something here that I never shared so publicly before.  I really like country music!  I guess that I am old school because I seem to enjoy the old country western stuff more than I do the more recent country stuff.  Don’t get me wrong, I like the current stuff too but I like the old stuff better.  Tired of hearing the word ‘stuff’?  Permit me to move on.

I have not taken a guitar lesson in my life so I do not consider myself to be a guitar player.  Instead, I am what I refer to as a trail picker.  To me, a trail picker is someone like those cowboys who used to strum their guitars and sing songs, perhaps, while they were on a cattle drive.  I think that it might have helped them feel better when they began to feel too lonely on those long drives.

Anyway, I like country music so much that I even regularly pluck out a few of the songs of some of my favorite old school singers.  Singers like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, George Jones and a number of other old school singers.  But I would be remiss if I failed to mention that I also like some of the other guys like Dwight Yoakam, Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks; Garth Brooks was my daughter’s favorite.

My guitar is 47-plus years old so when I miss a few notes, if I have an audience, I can usually blame it on the guitar.  I have another one but I seldom play it; I like my old one.  Maybe I like it because I have a better chance of getting away with blaming the missed notes on it rather than owning up to the fact that I’m just an old trail picker and not a guitar player.  Be that as it may, I like the old one and I call it Debbie.  I call it Debbie because…  Well, you’re probably not interested in why I call it Debbie so I will move on.

I must mention too that I like some of the lady country singers; singers like Loretta Lynn and her sister Crystal Gayle, Wynonna and Naomi Judd, Juice Newton, Tammy Wynette, Rosanne Cash, Bonnie Raitt, The Forester Sisters and more.  I guess that I like country music because my dad used to love it.  I think that his favorite singer was Merle Haggard although he liked a number of other singers like Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and some others whose names I can’t recall right now.  I can recall though that many times he would walk around the house whistling or singing country songs.  I think that he grew to love country music because he was born and raised in…  You’re probably not interested in that so I will move on.

Another thing that I am going to reveal is how thrilled that I would have been and how much I would have enjoyed the opportunity to shake hands with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and George Jones.  It is already too late to do that with Waylon, Merle and George but at least Willie is still around.  I hope that I will not just keep daydreaming about shaking his hand but that I will actually someday do it before it is too late.  My dad might have been disappointed if he knew that I never got the chance to shake hands with these singers but he would have been more disappointed if he knew that my oldest brother didn’t get a chance to shake hands with them.  That’s because he loved my oldest brother’s country singing and was intrigued by the fact that he sang…  You’re probably not interested in that so I will move on.

The final thing that I will publicly reveal is perhaps why I have not even had the opportunity to possibly shake hands with any of these four artists.  It is because I have never attended one of their concerts.  The major reason why I have not attended a concert by any of these artists is because I have been reluctant to do so because I felt that I would be uncomfortable in that I would feel unaccepted among that crowd and, therefore, feel somewhat fearful.  Feeling fearful, even if those fears are unwarranted and a result of my own doing, is something that I am somewhat embarrassed to admit but that is the truth.

My blog site is, for the greatest part, dedicated to political issues.  So after reading this article you might ask, what does this post have to do with politics?  The fact of the matter is that during the course of the recent primary and general election campaigns the theme to divide this country and pit Americans against one another was constantly hammered home.  The candidate that pushed that theme and continues to push it is now our president.  His victory and the way that he has governed during this first two and a half plus weeks of his administration, it seems like s-o-o-o-o…much longer, has caused me to reflect on many things.

The thoughts that I expressed in this article, especially in the two preceding paragraphs, are among those things.  And writing it, like those cowboys that I envisioned and mentioned on those long cattle drives who sang to help them deal with their loneliness, helps me to deal with the frustration and fear associated with what I perceive to be the all but irreparable damage that Mr. Trump is doing to America and the rest of the erratic ride that we have yet to experience.  What Mr. Trump is doing right now is dangerous so that makes him a dangerous man.

Hopefully, as I suggested in a previous post, we all braced for the impact of his win.  Figuratively speaking, I strongly suggest now that we have crash landed that all of us remain in that position until this horrifying ride under his leadership comes to a complete halt.  Literally speaking, now that Mr. Trump is president, we need all boots on the ground to help assure that we remain the world leader in protecting democracy and a country that always welcomes immigrants who are seeking a better life and the opportunity to fulfill their American Dream.

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line