I have been trying to sit down and write this post for a few days now.

My success rate is not there.  I have failed at doing so.

I don’t know why kids have to get killed in car wrecks.

I don’t know why I feel helpless in being able to those in need at a time like this.  We do the best we can do…but I just have a hollow feeling all over that leaves me feeling quite useless.  Most of it can be traced to a little thing called a “mask”.

Can you believe it?  We are near on a year of wearing masks to cover our faces to stay safe.

I work in a school I was hired into after mask season began.  These kids don’t me.  They know that guy behind the mask.

Yes, of course.  There have been some very good moments within this realm at times when goodness needed to show itself and be counted on.  For those moments I am thankful.  But I am a social fellow by nature. Not always easy to get to know but certainly easy to get along with.  That I feel that students still don’t know me renders a frustration that I can’t comprehend.

I chuckle when I hear about schools planning on opening, given schools in my area of Indiana have been open for some time.

I don’t chuckle when I hear of states wanting to make Covid vaccines a priority for their teachers when I know the leadership of my home state is obviously not wanting to be bothered by such a thing, as they are looking at school funding issues that don’t resemble the fact that we are in the middle of a pandemic.  All of that is quite mind-boggling too.  That is another layer of hollow that makes me sad.

I have said it for years.  Kids don’t vote.  Education is a political football that is not usually kind to kids.  Don’t get me started on The Class of 2000 and the great twenty year Graduation Qualifying Exam experiment and what that has done.

Test Scores 1  Civility 0

Now some colleges are test optional (SAT and ACT).

We are just ahead of the study that will eventually come out and most will say “no kidding.”  It has been a hard lesson.

Sadness.

I conveyed to a brother of Veronica Battista that when she entered the room it was a better place.  I enjoyed sitting next to her on the stage at NHHS during Senior Award Night.  She was a comfort there.  I respected her a great deal.  The school board will miss her leadership.  The whole school will. Her family will miss a treasure. I will miss a friend.  58 years old, Veronica was.  That looks younger all the time.

Sadness.

Family and friends in the south dealing with power outages, water supply-less issues, cold temps they are not used to.  Thank God the temps are going up.

Happiness?

Well, we press onward.  I got to deliver vittles to my folks and see them for a little few minutes at a time.  Yes, I wear a mask there also and I do not stay around long.  Glad the phone works.

Took a few snowy pictures.

St. Louis Rd toward Frenchtown.

St. Louis Rd toward Milltown.

The Blue River down there.

This interesting visitor came to listen to The Moody Blues.

Really.  He could not have gotten any closer.  He stumbled around the yard for a while.  Eventually he stood with his swings spread out.  He walked into the woods.  That was that.

And a snowy Griswoldmobile.

Take care of each other.

And speak the rights if you need to.

Danny Johnson

On February 10th, my dear wife, Carrie, and I will mark the day of our 25th Wedding Anniversary.

A one room church at Hancock Chapel.  That room was full of a great deal of love, family, friendship, and good will all around.  It was 60 degrees that day!

In 25 years Carrie and I have made great friendships, said goodbye to many family members and friends, watched the boys go into harm’s way be it a war zone or a burning building, and have been from sea to shining sea.  We found another home and friends in North Carolina that are there when we can get to them.  We have lived through job changes.  We had the best dog we could ask 14 years of.  We saw more Moody Blues concerts than we deserved.  Found a way to pay for studio time and musicians that allowed my music to become a part of our lives.  Been to football games all over the country.  I still tell the story of Carrie and me tossing a football on a new yet to be finished painted turf on a Thursday in The Rose Bowl.  I told Carrie she just caught that pass where John Stallworth hauled one in over his head from Terry Bradshaw in Super Bowl XIV.  She dropped the ball.  She threw her hands up and said, “I’m done!”  I’m convinced had I kept my shut we could have thrown there another half an hour.  We have looked at The Statue of Liberty and were humbled by Ellis Island.  We enjoy our back porch too.

We didn’t expect to see a Pandemic.  We have.  I hope we see the other side of it.

We didn’t expect to be in the crowd to hear Brian Wilson sing a new song that brought us to tears.  We did and I am glad.  Tanglewood Shed.

We did not expect to see planes fly into buildings in New York.  We did.  We have paid our respects there since.

We didn’t expect to drive through the Florida Keys.  We did.  Enjoyed Sloppy Joe’s and the music of Brian Hartman in Key West.  Brian played some Moodies tunes for us

We didn’t expect to see Americans storm their own capitol.  Did you?  Lord, I hope not.

We didn’t expect to find the Harbor Town lighthouse. We did.

We didn’t expect to paint anything smaller than a room.  We did.

We never thought we’d make it to Times Square.  We did.

We never imagined this picture with Granny would mean so much.  It does.

I never imagined we would be standing in front of Hill Street Blues station.  We were.  I’m still nervous looking at this. Yes. It was VERY cold in Chicago that day.

I never thought we would see The Herd every year for eleven years.  We did.  Just not this year and that was sad.

What can I say?  I certainly expected us to get this picture with The Moody Blues one day.

The Best Day.

Another great day.  There have been many.  We press onward.  Has it always been easy?  No.  But we have always had each other to pull us through.  I must say that ECU Pirate shirt looks very natural on me.  Just sayin.

I thank God for bringing us together.

Happy Anniversary to my sweet indeed!

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

I will preface this with a guilty admission.  Earlier this afternoon I was walking through the kitchen thinking about Tom Brady playing in the Super Bowl yet again, and I blurted out to my dear wife, Carrie, “Patriots 37 Chiefs 27!”

She did not have to say a word.  I caught it after I said it.  Living in Indiana and rooting for Peyton Manning and knowing how many times Tom Brady screwed that up, it only seems natural.  At least we had an off year to marinate before Peyton joined the Broncos.  When he did it was okay.  He just graduated to a more formidable horse.  Colt to Bronco.

So there.  How can I pick against Tom Brady?

First and foremost, I hope it is a competitive game.  Flashbacks of the 49ers plastering the Chargers and the 49ers whipping the Broncos in games gone by are so so disappointing.  Super Bowl XI in Pasadena with the Raiders putting a beat down on Fran Tarkenton’s Vikings in his last Super Bowl was brutal too.  I think Dave Humm, Ken Stabler’s back-up, may have found some time at QB that game.  I am certain he was holding for PATs and field goals.  Amazing what an eight year-old can retain all these years on.

I think I enjoy the Super Bowl now as much as I ever did.  Regardless of what happens, again, I just want us to have a good game.

Of course I will always be thankful that Peyton Manning put on a Colts helmet in 1998.  He led the Indianapolis Colts to a Super Bowl win.  But more than that, Peyton Manning single-handedly made football a much more popular sport in the Hoosier State.

The two Super Bowl Championships the Eli Manning-led New York Giants put together against the evil empire of the New England Patriots will always be a great memory.  I kid you not.  In the second half of one of those games when the Giants needed a game winning drive, I thought Asante Samuel was going to pick off a sideline route that Eli threw.  I was sitting on the ottoman in front of the TV.  I held my breath and when it went through his hands I dropped my head between my knees and when I rose up suddenly I got light headed and wondered if I was going to faint.  I didn’t.  The Giants won and Tom Brady and the Patriots went home unhappy and that was great.

If I live to be 110, the Super Bowl will forever be imprinted on my mind with disappointment.  When you are thirteen and you have watched a guy play quarterback all your life and you got his autograph a few times and you loved his team, as bad as they usually were, and they finally get to the Super Bowl it is like time stood still.  And it has.

Super Bowl XVI between the San Francisco 49ers and the Cincinnati Bengals was a Super Cinderella Bowl like we had seen before and I doubt I ever see again.  Both teams were 6-10 in 1980.  Then in 1981, the Niners were 13-3 and the Bengals were 12-4.  They met in the regular season.  The Niners beat the Bengals in Riverfront in what was their worst game of the season.  They met in a Super Bowl played in a cold weather climate for the first time, as the game was played in the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan.  It is gone now.  The last time I saw it driving through there to a Moody Blues concert, they were using the parking lots as drive-in theatres.

But what a season 1981 was.

The Bengals lost.  Going down 20-0 at halftime will do that.  26-21 was the final.  The losing team outgained the offense of the winning team the first time ever in a Super Bowl. Ken Anderson set a new SB completion percentage record. He was 25 of 34 for 300 yards.  The Bengals turned the ball over too many times and ran Pete Johnson one too many times to the right on the goal line when Ken Anderson should have run a bootleg that was working during the season.  Someone on that line was giving something away.  Fred Dean made that last stop look way too easy.

I always thought Kenny was thinking they should have run the bootleg too when I looked at this picture.

It is 2021 not 1982.

What Tom Brady has accomplished for so long is amazing.  Patrick Mahomes is a player too.  And we need a Super Bowl now more than ever.

No team has ever hosted a Super Bowl until Tom Brady decided the part ways with New England and play with the team in host city this year, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  The Rams played the Steelers in Super Bowl XIV in the Rose Bowl and I believe that is the closest we ever came before now.

Tampa Bay 37  Kansas City 27  that is the pick here.

Have a great time tomorrow.

And don’t be afraid to speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

We had one last week.

We had one yesterday.

Snow fell on Southern Indiana and it did not disappoint many.

We needed a reminder of something we have seen before.  So many things we are dealing with now these days are seemingly things we are trying desperately to deal with.  Fill in the blank…and you will come up with something.

I remember snow days.  In January of 1978 I remember a snow month!  If you were there, you know of what I speak the rights of.  Doubt I will see another month like that ever again.

These were some of the sights around our environ last week.

The Griswoldmobile snow covered.

The birds around the feeder were quite pleased that we kept them well stocked.

The Sycamore behind the house.

Believe it or not, this was most significant snowfall we have seen in a while.  I enjoyed it.  I have yet to find someone I have spoken to about who did not enjoy it.

In earnest, I think it is just nice for us to see something different.  We have been so bogged down in our senses of self-imposed normalcy.  This was a nice repose from that.

Have a good week.  Yes, we will have Super Bowl speaks later in the week!

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Covid.

Two syllables never meant more in my lifetime.

Over 400, 000 thousand American are dead due in full or in part to Covid.

I have heard the argument that Covid ain’t what killed them!  They had other stuff wrong with them!

Yes, that’s right.  Then they caught Covid and that did the rest.

Ain’t that America for you and me.

I am sick and tired of this.  I am tired of feeling like the only one in the room scared out of his wits.  I have a history of respiratory issues.  How much history?  Well, I got here in March of 1968 and when I made my way into the world the doc took me and did not hand me to my mother.  Breathing aids were needed.  I didn’t cry when I got here.  Imagine that.  Me being obstinate from the start!  I am not laughing now.

While I am not laughing now I will also refrain from ever telling another Dumb Kentuckian joke.  When I moved from Jackson County, Indiana, a state that does not border Kentucky, to Harrison County, a state that does border Kentucky albeit over a river, I noticed a lack of Dumb Kentuckian jokes.  Geography.

Kentucky has about one third of the Covid related deaths that Indiana has suffered.  Bring on the Dumb Hoosier jokes.  We deserve it.

I am sitting here listening to the Bruce Springsteen song “We Take Care of Our Own” and I wonder what planet he was on when he wrote this song!  It sounds great.  So does a good pizza.  Unfortunately the pizza is winning right now.

Never in my life have I felt as pessimistic as I do now.  My tune will no doubt change after I get a vaccination for this Covid nightmare.  I am ready.  Eventually folks in education will be deemed as important, though not essential?  Says who?  It’s the old education political football again.  The kids can’t vote and the educators don’t matter.  They can be replaced in a heartbeat.  But we sure are quick to talk about opening schools!  Some of us have been open for a while now.  But if you think it is business as usual because the doors are open you too would be wrong.  Are we doing the best we can?  Yes.  That is what we do.

I recently told a friend of mine I don’t like my odds.  I had a baby sitter kill over on me when I was five and I have been struck by lightning.  Get the picture?   If I catch the Covid I doubt I would live to tell the story.

But I press onward.  It is what we do.

Jim Stewart, one of my education heroes, said it best so many years ago.  He said education is the most resilient thing ever.  No matter how politicians screw it up, kids inherently want to learn.  Indiana thinks it is going to standardize test students as usual this year.  All I can say is there is a large testing contract that someone just can’t be turning their fiscal backs on.  Colleges are saying they don’t need to see the SAT these days but by golly we are gonna make sure the 7th graders let us know how this pandemic has treated them!!!!  I call that stupid tax.  I am more interested in seeing kids survive and prosper than give them something else to worry about.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Written January 19 and first posted on facebook.

Hello friends. You know those times in your life that make a difference and you know in your heart you will forever keep it to yourself?

Given the day and what will transpire for our country tomorrow, I need to share these words if I plan to sleep tonight.

Many years ago I was coaching football and I had the answers! I had a chance back and forth with a college football coach who had won a National Championship and was a chief Promise Keeper. He was at a coaches clinic and so was I.

I was all high and mighty with my idealism. The Coach told me to cut guys some slack. He told me challenging works better than judging. “Mercy triumphs over judgement.” We need to use the same barometer to measure others as Jesus would measure us. He told me that too. I paraphrase.

Let’s move on. Make tomorrow better. Republican, Democrat, Independent, Neutral, whomever you are you will surely find someone tomorrow in some circumstance or the next day or the next day and you will have a choice to make. Better or worse?

In the end “Mercy triumphs over judgement.”

For the record, my name in a drawer in the Harrison County Court House has a big R next to it. Republican. I don’t apologize for that or what has made me hang my head at my own party. Better days are ahead.

“Mercy triumphs over judgement.”

Don’t talk yourself out of a simple truth. THERE IS A BETTER DAY AHEAD. Be a part of the solution! We need you. Our kids need you.

Nearly thirty years later, a Coach’s speech still motivates when it needs to.

I’m just speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Look at that.  Does it get any better than that!

This is a photo of me and Jackie Gayheart.

Many years ago I stopped in on her just to say hello at her new digs in Ramsey.  Jackie is the mother of my dear friend Marc Gayheart and his precious siblings.

On that visit to see Jackie, we talked of old days and present days.  She left the room.  She came back with a piece of paper.  She knew I was making music.  She knew I was writing and recording songs.  Jackie handed me a piece of paper with what she deemed as song lyrics.  It made me nervous.  I was early in my musical journey.  This piece of paper, while delighted to be handed, was nothing I wanted to be a part of.  How could I get this right?  That is what I asked myself.  And that was that.

This piece of paper was always within arm’s reach in my home office.  I looked at it many times for many years.

One day I looked at it and grabbed my guitar.  And good things happened.  I recorded this song with just me and the guitar at Jeff Carpenter’s Al Fresco’s Place Recording Studio in Louisville.

I made this recording for Jackie and her family.  I saw to it that many CDs of this recording were passed on.  And on a Tuesday in May in 2018 at a Harrison County Hymn Sing, I sang this song at Unity Chapel UMC.  I will never forget the look on Jackie’s face as I was singing.  I looked at her and gave a her a nod.  Priceless.  Thankful.  Amen.

The recording I handed off to the family was comprised of the following intro and corresponding lyrics.  Jackie wrote the words and I wrote the tune.

How’s it going group?  This is Danny Johnson and I am coming to you from Al Fresco’s Place Recording Studio.  Jeff Carpenter is on the board, a very near and dear friend, and we are going to record a song that Jackie Gayheart handed to me many years ago.  The day she handed it to me I had a silent scream on my face because she asked me to put some music to it and at the time I was not very comfortable doing that.  Things change.  I found this song recently and was delighted that I did and about fifteen minutes later it was complete.  I hope you enjoy it.  Jackie, I hope you enjoy it as well.   

Then I played the tune.

Going Home   (Words by Jackie Gayheart and Music by Danny Johnson)

When we think about the future the present and the past

We know this is fleeting and it’s never going to last

But we know our home in heaven will be ours forevermore

We will be there for eternity upon those peaceful shores

Chorus                                                                                                                                     Going Home…Going Home

We’re just travelling down life’s highway going home

When our life on earth is over and we cease this world to roam

We’re going home…just going home…going home.

We have all have trials and temptations in our life’s every day

Yet we must follow Jesus and walk steady in His way

We look forward to our meeting with our savior by and by

When we’re called up there to rest in our mansion in the sky

Repeat Chorus

Bridge

So walk carefully down this road of life and don’t forget to pray

There will always be a reckoning on that final day

Walk closely to the savior and hold tightly to His hand

Until the day we finally reach that blessed promised land

Repeat Chorus

I dug this CD out tonight and listened to it. I found out today that Jackie passed away on January 13th.  It was the best demo recording I ever made.  That means just me and the guitar and that’s it.  I am proud of this recording.  Without Jackie and her kind eyes and words, it would have never been. I am so blessed.

So today I mourn the loss of my first musical co-writer and loving soul to all.

For the record, thank you Jackie.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Oh my.

I must say I am not too inclined to write much this week.  There just isn’t time to get it all in.  Being an old-school Republican sick with what he is seeing, I doubt my views would matter.

See why I don’t want to write!  This is awful.

On a lighter note, my dear friend Brother Tim Petty’s Alabama Crimson Tide won their 6th National Title under the direction of Head Coach Nick Saban.  That is the same number of titles the Tide won under Coach Bear Bryant.  There is a museum on campus dedicated to Coach Bryant.  I doubt there will be another museum for the current coach.  History is changing a bit by the likes of Youtube and stuff like that.  I see it.  What was once ever so elusive is now in the palm of your hand.  What we thought we would never see again in 1988 is now common place if we want to “look it up”.

On that subject.  Am I the only citizen clamoring for the release of the NBC TV show ED to be released to DVD?

I digress.

Brother Tim’s Coach, Nick Saban, won his sixth National Championship last night.  Thank you for beating Ohio State.

Today the Indiana Hoosiers were placed at #12 in the final AP poll for the…wait for it…sixth time in school history.  Saban wins 6 titles.  IU gets ranked in the final poll for the 6th time.

1945, 1946, 1967, 1979, 1988, and 2020.  Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Final AP Ranked Indiana Hoooooosiers!!!!   If you have been to a game at Memorial Stadium some of that might resonate.

But guess what?  I am confident the Football Hoosier faithful won’t have to wait for 32 more years to be ranked again.  Get used to it for a while.  With a nod to Bob Dylan, Things Have Changed.

I sure hope more change will follow.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

On July 6, 2014 I wrote the first installment of speaktherights.com.

One of my favorite photos put on this page some time ago.  My Uncle Stanley and myself taken at family reunion in Forest, Mississippi.

Today is January 2, 2021.  I am writing the 600th installment of speaktherights.com.

I have written a half a million words on this space.  I have enjoyed it all.  I have been asked why I do this.  My answer: It is just one of the things I do.  I didn’t plan on doing this.  It turned out that way.

Have we ever been more delighted to see a year go?  2020 will certainly acquire a euphemism or two moving forward in subsequent years.  I’ll just call it a pain.

I am sitting here listening to AMAZON music.  Justin Hayward’s solo album Songwriter released in 1977.  I am listening to this because on this past August 28th I lost my radio station.  Or at least I lost my desire to listen to my radio station.  Robert Becker sold 96.3 WJAA and that was that.  Nothing against the new owners.  But, for me, it was over.  The Cool Bus was never cooler than when Robert Becker walked out.

I still miss 890 WLS The Rock of Chicago.  I have written about that here many times before.  Uncle Lar and Little Tommy doing Animal Stories.  Oh my.  Irony?  Robert Becker is from Chicago.

This past year I saw that Les Grobstein, who was once the WLS Sports Director, was celebrating 50 years in the business.  Albeit he got an early start, 50 years is still 50 years and Les is still going strong in Chicago at WSCR 670 The Score.  Good for him.

A year with no music.  That was 2020.

Justin Hayward at The City Winery in Nashville, October 30, 2019.  This was the last concert my dear wife, Carrie, and I attended.

Seems like a decade ago.  Justin was kind enough to send me a recorded message to pass along to Robert Becker this past Spring, as I conveyed to Justin of Robert’s selling the station and Robert’s devotion to playing a Moody Blues tune even when I wasn’t requesting the song.

I shouldn’t say a year with no music.  Shame on me.  You can look on YouTube and find Tuesday Afternoons with Justin Hayward.  This year he was kind enough to present a video series of acoustic renditions of songs both originally by The Moody Blues or solo material we had never heard outside the record.  It was very nicely done and there are many of them.  Thank you again, Justin.

Post #600.  How can that be?

I have commented on and shared photos from places and people from all over.  I have been blessed.

One of my favorite photos from Tunnel Hill Bridge.

Do we go on with it?  I guess so.  After all, it is one of the things I do.

Speaking the rights…and yes, GO HOOSIERS today against Ole Miss!

Danny Johnson

Well.  I wish I were more computer-interactive savvy.  I guess I’d rather write.

So I wrote a song to get a few thoughts to music and help me make better sense of some things.  Songs help me that way.  I have found meaning in some tunes years later after I have written them.

I recorded this tune on my phone, as I can’t get into Jefferson Carpenter’s studio yet.  This would have been simple in simpler times.  Tried to transfer it to YouTube.  Didn’t work.  Not for me, anyway.

So here are the lyrics to the tune.  Had fun writing it.

INDIANA FOOTBALL 2020 (I Believe)

V1

Well in Bloomington they line up eleven

Just as well as they line up five

You can sense a fear out there

Since Indiana football has come to life

I’ve seen it all my born days

Corso, Mallory and too many since

Empty stadiums in the best of times

I know all too well what its meant

Chorus

I believe in this Indiana Football Team

I believe in the way they play and what they mean

And thank you Coach Allen and your staff for all you’ve done

You know I have believed since day one

V2

So tell me what’s with the likes of ESPN

Running on the bottom of the screen

Why did they have to tell the world

Something so football obscene?

They made it a point day and night for you to know all too well

That the Hoosiers didn’t cross midfield

On the last drive against the precious Buckeyes

Do you think that made someone sleep well?

(Repeat Chorus)

Bridge in conversation style

So this Indiana football team has made some history

Imagine a team ranked number 7 in the AP poll

Playing a bowl game… against a team with a losing record

And you have to look down that same AP poll (if you have time)

All the way down to #22 to find the next ranked team

Playing in a bowl game… against a team with a losing record

In the parlance of Vince Lombardi I think he’d say

“What the hell’s going on out there” (YouTube it.  You’ll laugh.)

Repeat the chorus….fade out.

Have a Happy and Safe New Year’s Eve!

I wish you and yours the best.

Speaking the closing rights of 2020.

Danny Johnson