Vindication… at last!

You may have noted that Bob Dylan has been named a recipient of the US Medal of Freedom, sort of the civilian equivalent of the Medal of Honor. This is like a “turning of a corner” moment of revelation for me, a moment that changes your perspective forever. Not many, typically, come in a life time.

To help define the moments I mean, one such came to me in March, 1968. I was engaged to be married to Sylvia in July, scheduled to graduate with a BS in physics from Texas A&M in May, and high in apprehension about if I was also scheduled to join a lot of my school mates on an all-expense paid trip to Vietnam (some of them had made the return trip already inside a box). President Johnson, LBJ, addressed the nation one evening on network television. On campus, we typically had no TV’s in the dorm rooms, so we gathered “after chow” in the most convenient student lounge, packing it to capacity to stare at the one TV screen available in each lounge (somehow, I remember it being black and white). That night LBJ announced he would not run for re-election; that night the world changed for me, for it meant the social revolution of the 60’s through which we were going was working — the revolution was bearing fruit.

Not that the President or any part of the military-industrial complex was conceding anything that night, but that the first crack in the complex became apparent. And that crack would widen until five years later the anti-war movement showed it had been right all along; about the same time (early 70’s) the civil rights movement emerged triumphant with the stamp of law, and the frontiers of racism finally began to retreat; at the same time the frontiers of sexism began to recede, and women were no longer seen as second class citizens. Despite the blood, despite the hatred, despite the divisive clashes that tore communities and families apart, we began to see ourselves without color, without sectarian creeds, without economic classes, without gender — see ourselves as more “we” than as “other.” We were as close to being the free and equal American citizens visualized by our founding fathers as we had been since the birth of our nation. Power was returning to the people.

The poet that inspired us through all this with his song lyrics was Bob Dylan. The writer (I think) of “Blowing in the Wind,” “Times They are a’Changing,” “Knocking on Heaven’s Door,” “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” and “I Ain’t Gonna Work on Maggie’s Farm No More” was the de facto poet laureate of the United States from 1960 on, as far as I am concerned. His songs resurrected the same power and influence as Thomas Paine’s words in “Common Sense” back during the American Revolution.

Dylan was a pioneer and trail blazer in American and international music. His influence in the history of music is rivaled only by the Beatles, and no one had more influence on the Beatles than Bob. He was vilified by folk music for “going electric.” Where is folk music today compared to the omnipresent electric guitar?

I walked into a class of mine in the 80’s or 90’s asking me who was that babbling old man out of his head so much he couldn’t accept his award (whatever it was) on TV the night before with any coherent words. It took me aback they did not know who Bob Dylan was or what he stood for. We had to have a little impromptu lesson right then and there; I like to think some of them went on to become Dylan fans.

There was that night during the Reagan administration when “Ronnie” actually said, “Guatemala is closer to El Paso than El Paso is to Washington D.C.,” trying to get the nation to feel threatened by Guatemala so troops could be sent to fight another Republican-inspired war, just as what happened later in Iraq. Then (when Reagan was in office) it did not take, and the propaganda from Reagan was laughed at into oblivion. I wish the same would have happened to the Iraq case. Bob’s influence had no small part in the Guatemala affair; his influence was too much forgotten in the Iraq affair.

We pay dearly if we forget the meaning of Bob Dylan’s songs.

So, well into the 21st century, Obama has recognized what this man has meant to us over the decades. I hope BD accepts it, but don’t be surprised if he does or doesn’t; Bob is Bob, and we are better for it. The world is far from the utopia visualized in the 60’s; Bob is here to remind us to keep visualizing. If we cannot reap the rewards of the kill as yet, at least we can reap the thrills of the chase.

If he speaks at all on the matter, don’t worry if you cannot understand a word he says. In his music he has spoken clearer than any of us.

He doesn’t have to say anything. The gesture of the award of the Medal of Freedom speaks volumes. You see, awarding Bob Dylan the Medal of Freedom is shouting from the rooftops that the social revolutions of the ’60’s have “taken,” like a great national vaccination against prejudice, inequality, injustice, tyranny, violence, and elitism of all ilks. The Medal of Freedom to Bob Dylan symbolizes vindication… vindication for us all who saw and lived the 60’s… vindication, at last!

RJH