Romney Will Not Run for 2016

Mitt Romney has announced he will not seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. While an already crowded field loses a strong candidate, I think the party gains through new blood. Romney is a decent man and a gifted manager. I have little doubt Mitt Romney would have made an excellent president, but his best moment has likely come and gone. Though I am not sure he would say yes, I hope the next Republican president taps Romney for a vital cabinet post.

The Holocaust & Iran

Charles Krauthammer has an excellent column on the liberation of Auschwitz and the current state of anti-semitism. One of the rallying cries of those who come to grips with the Holocaust is “Never Again.” Krauthammer wonders how we can possibly utter that phrase and still allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons.

Fun Music Friday

I was not born in a Small Town. I was born in Indianapolis, an hour or so north of Seymour, Indiana, the birthplace of John Mellencamp, the man who wrote the soundtrack of my youth. The 80s are often dismissed as an empty, vacuous decade full of hair bands, synthesizers, and parachute pants. Though I will fight anyone who claims the inferiority of New Order, The Cure, Modern English, or Depeche Mode, John Mellencamp shaped me more than any other artist. He stood apart from the new wave because his music was disconnected from the national context, but it was rooted in the soil he so often sang about.

Mellencamp started as a garden variety rock ‘n roll guy with a raspy voice and loud guitars. His early music was excellent, catchy, and successful. As he grew, so did his music. He incorporated elements of country and bluegrass, but he connected them to modern rhythms. Yes, sometimes his lyrics were too on the nose, but they were just as often sublime, evoking a simpler time and a better place.

More than anything, Mellencamp, even when he was making millions, was one of us. He was born in Indiana, a place not generally associated with the cutting edge of the performing arts. He was, and is, quintessentially Midwestern. He was a man who embraced his time and place, but still strived to do great things, not to leave Indiana, but to make it better for all of us.

Here is one of my favorite Mellencamp tunes, Cherry Bomb. I still remember listening to this on a cassette tape with a Walkman. I would finish the song, rewind, and listen to it again, and again, and again.