We open this episode of TMSOG with the song Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head sung by B.T. Thomas which was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
Redford and Newman both epitomized the human spirit and stressed the importance of giving back by taking action to make things better. We recently lost Robert Redford. He was an amazing actor, director, conservationist and family man. He starred in such films as All The Presidents Men, The Candidate, The Way We Were, and he won an Oscar for directing Ordinary People. Robert Redford was an environmentalist, and he worked in concert with the NRDC to fight for the land. He also started the Sundance Film Festival which helped keep Independent film alive. He was greatly loved and admired and he will be missed.
We are losing our freedoms on a daily basis. So where do we go and what do we do? Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head uses the metaphor of raindrops to represent life’s challenges and struggles, but it also emphasizes that one needs to remain positive and believe that happiness is on its way. The lyrics go on to suggest a realization that complaining won’t stop the rain, and instead, one must “take action” or “take the initiative” to move life in the desired direction. The song can also be interpreted as promoting freedom and the idea that as long as one is free, everything is okay. In today’s world we are facing very difficult times and the rain drops seem more like Oobleck, as in the children’s book Bartholomew and the Oobleck written by Dr. Theodor Geisel, a/k/a Dr. Seuss. In that book the king is bored with normal weather, (is there such a thing as normal weather today?) and orders his magicians to create a new kind of precipitation. They conjure up Oobleck, a sticky, green goo (similar to Nickelodeon’s Green Slime) that falls and quickly wreaks havoc, causing the entire kingdom to become covered and immobilized. Young Bartholomew is the king’s page, and he is the only one not stuck in the green muck. He has to get the king to apologize to break the magicians spell. Bartholomew eventually convinces the king to apologize for his greedy desire for a new type of precipitation, and the king’s apology causes the Oobleck to melt away, and he learns to appreciate the simple, natural weather. Right now we are dealing with a wannabe king who has no capacity for apologies or being a leader for ALL the people of the USA. He believes climate change is a hoax and has reduced staff at the NOAA, FEMA, the EPA and other agencies that do research and follow weather patterns, hurricanes and other extreme weather. In these challenging times we need to resist, take action and work to save the Republic for which we stand! We are joined on this episode by our resident political analyst, environmentalist and curmudgeon, George Polisner, founder of Civ.works, to give us some insight into the free fall of democracy in the US and the globe. We also welcome Yolanda Nava and Tina Flores, as they will be doing a new TMSOG monthly program with a focus on activism, community organizing and climate, and the historic importance of diversity. So let’s walk between the raindrops, stay away from the Oobleck and activate our eco and social consciousness. Go to Civ.works for more info.
To help defend democracy please donate if you can to help lawyers defend our constitution by going to https://www.aclu.org/ https://www.brennancenter.org/ and
https://www.democracydocket.com/ If you want to take more effective civic action visit https://civ.works/ If you want to help protect the environment please donate to https://earthjustice.org and https://www.nrdc.org/
To listen to past TMSOG shows go to: https://hudsonriverradio.com/ and https://malcolmpresents.com as well as https://themanyshadesofgreen.com/ Follow The Many Shades of Green on FB, Threads and Instagram @tmshadesofgreen and on Blue Sky @tmshadesofgreen.bsky.social. Listen to TMSOG podcasts on all major podcast apps.#RaiseYourEco&SocialConsciousness
A Special shout out to Neil Richter for all of his help and engineering wizardry in getting TMSOG up and running each week.