Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things. ~2 Thessalonians 1:9

Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. ~ Psalm 144:1

Well, it’s been a minute, as they say. Six years have come and gone since my last UTRS post. Why so long, you ask? Hard to say. Covid came and went (sort of), a new job came and went, a new relationship came and went (sad for that, she was a great lady, I just wasn’t ready) and I became a grandparent for the first time. Maybe I just lost my passion for things to say.

The Eastern world, it is explodin’
Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’
You’re old enough to kill but not for votin’
You don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re totin’?
And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin’

Anyway, I’m back and ready to go again, batteries renewed and a different perspective on things. I’ve been restless in my soul lately. Turning things over and over in my mind. I’ve started listening to a lot of 60’s music lately (the Golden Age of Transistor Radio) on SiriusXM and Spotify. This song has come up on rotation several times over the past few weeks and it seems to capture the creeping sense of foreboding I’ve been feeling.

But you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
How you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction

Could this possibly be the reason I’ve been searching for some property out in the woods, off the grid? I increasingly feel like I need to get further away from urban (and even suburban) areas. It’s not necessarily the people I want to avoid, I’m just feeling more and more like we are going to need to become more self-sufficient to survive. I’m no “doomsday prepper”, but I can definitely see the advantage of living where you might be able to live off the land, if you had to.

Don’t you understand what I’m trying to say
Can’t you feel the fears I’m feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’ away
There’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave
Take a look around you boy, it’s bound to scare you, boy

I just don’t think people are anywhere near aware enough of the very real threats we face these days. They have no idea how quickly it could all come apart. It’s been over 20 years since the 911 disaster which was the last time I saw us truly pull together as a nation. 911 was regarded as an attack like we haven’t seen on our country since Pearl Harbor, but I think those events both pale in comparison to what may soon come. And, of course, the upcoming presidential election is a foreshadowing, as well. This whole place in time seems eerily reminiscent of the late 1960’s. Civil unrest, political violence, racial strife, foreign wars; it feels like Groundhog Day to me.

And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
How you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction

WE ARE NOT READY. Say it out loud; we are not ready. As a nation. As a people. As an elite military force. We are simply not ready. Our country has done nothing but reduce our military since WW2 ended. Even through the 1960’s there’s been nothing like it. In the last few years of WW2 our military budget was equal to 50% of our GNP. Ronald Reagan reawakened our military conscience a bit in the 1980’s, but it has fallen off sharply since then. Today our military budget is equal to 3% of our GNP. We’ve got to wake up. A strong military will help us avoid war, not encourage it. Peace through strength, as Reagan said in 1980: “We know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak. It is then that tyrants are tempted.” Boy, doesn’t that sound familiar?

Yeah, my blood’s so mad, feels like coagulatin’
I’m sittin’ here just contemplatin’
I can’t twist the truth, it knows no regulation
Handful of senators don’t pass legislation
And marches alone can’t bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin’
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’

“Eve Of Destruction” burst off the airwaves in 1965 with a sound that was very different to my then 7 year old ears. That chorus “over and over and over again” just stuck in my head. The echoing intro with the bang of drums sounding like gunfire, the ringing guitar and Barry McGuire’s gravelly Dylan-esque vocals and harmonica riffs just reached out and grabbed me. You’d think those lyrics would be somewhat frightening to a young kid, but it was nothing new to me. We were seeing it in black and white every night on the evening news with Walter Cronkite giving us the daily stats for the war in Vietnam like it was a ball game. Instead of hits, runs and final scores, it was the number wounded, KIA and total casualties. We saw the Kennedy’s, MLK and George Wallace shot on TV. We had “duck and cover” drills in school. All of us had family or friends with brothers or fathers who didn’t make it home from the war. We were being made READY.

And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
How you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction

The song was written by P.F. Sloan and recorded by several artists, but most notably by Barry McGuire and The Turtles. I always preferred Barry’s version; it sounded so raw and stark versus the slicker production heard on The Turtles version. As the story goes, the song was cut in one take with Barry reading the words for the first time off a scrawled on, crumpled piece of paper. As the story goes, the original “rough” cut was leaked to a local radio DJ who immediately put it on air. Even though a second, more polished take of the vocals was produced, the original track persevered. The song made it all the way to #1 on the Hot Billboard 100 chart.

And think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
Ah, you may leave here for four days in space
But when you return, it’s the same old place
The poundin’ of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don’t leave a trace
Hate your next door neighbor but don’t forget to say grace

The late 1960’s were definitely a time of turbulence and yet, out of all the destruction and chaos some good things came. The 70’s saw a decade of relative peace, harmony and acceptance. People were cool, life was lighter. Racial stereotypes were blasted apart and laughed at by all races on network TV with shows like All In The Family and The Jeffersons. In the 80’s the Cold War reared it’s ugly head again briefly, but Reagan told Mr. Gorgachev to “tear down this wall” and we all knew that Maverick and the Ice Man would be quickly dispatched if he didn’t comply. I wish those days would return, but I’m not sure they ever will. And now, whenever this song pops up on my playlists, I get a bit of a chill in my soul for the days to come. We all should start to listen, heed this message and believe. If we don’t, we really could be “on the eve of destruction”.

And you tell me
Over and over and over and over again, my friend
You don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction
No no, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction