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The Beautiful Ones

By Billy Fried
By Billy Fried

Happy New Year. I’ve been pondering death a lot lately, what with another trip around the sun and the spate of heartbreaking losses this past year. I’m looking for the takeaway, the through line to make sense of it all. Such towering, uncompromising and groundbreaking talents were Muhammad Ali, David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, and George Michael, among others, not to mention Garry Shandling, Gene Wilder, and of course Carrie Fisher.

Ali was in a class of his own. The most popular, polarizing, inspiring, confounding, scary, tender, playful, beautiful man to ever walk the planet. Who gave eloquent voice and unwavering hope to an entire race, a continent, and oppressed people everywhere. Bowie and Prince were the ultimate androgynous outliers, gaining worldwide acclaim not only for their prodigious musical talents, but because they gave permission to freaks and geeks and gays and transgenders and gender confused that it was okay to be outside the mainstream. In fact, it was to be celebrated. And what a surprise then that the artist who actually turned out to be gay and flew the flag proudly once he was outed was the hetero heartthrob George Michael. Everything we thought was turned on its ear.

Leonard Cohen was an artist of 50 years who always stood outside the traditional canons of rock and roll, but whose musical poetry seared into the consciousness of so many, with his ruminations on religion, isolation, sexuality and death. Garry Shandling and Gene Wilder practically invented the low self esteem comic persona, which inspired just about every comedian working in the field today. Last but not least, Carrie Fisher’s social impact was not her ironic portrayal of a Princess, but her brilliant confessional writings about addiction, fame, and the complicated relationship she had with her self-absorbed parents. They were naked and hilarious and deeply moving.

What these artists all shared in common was significant. They weren’t the leading ladies or male archetypes of the ‘50s, the masculine, powerful, white man. They were the transgressives, the people who sat in the back of the classroom and finally stood up and shouted and the world took notice. They helped usher in an era of tolerance and empathy and acceptance that resonates today among races, ethnicities, and sexualities. That the light on this flame extinguished in one deep exhale of 2016 coincided perfectly with the transition to a new world order under President-elect Trump. Decency and inclusion have been swept up in a torrent of hate, belligerence, and division. It’s as if this collective ray of energy and light that these individuals brought to the world has ascended to a higher plane and left us bereft of inspiration.

Do not despair. As we enter the uncertainty of the most universally reviled president to ever take office, where we even question what it is to be American, and pray every night that this national disgrace is just a sad and aberrant footnote in our history – rest assured that the vacancy left by these universal talents will be filled with a new generation of genius, leadership and inspiration that knows that love is the way forward.

Prince was reportedly working on his memoirs when he died. The book was tentatively titled “The Beautiful Ones.” That’s who these people were. They haven’t left us. They are reborn in every generation. I have no choice but to be positive and optimistic about the future. The country of diversity and inspiration that gave us Abraham Lincoln, Jack and Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein, Steven Hawking, and certainly Barack Hussein Obama will surely rise up and continue the progress and evolution we have made as a people. Perhaps in a neighborhood in Laguna right now a future leader awakens who will inspire and bring us together as we march into the future. That’s my hope and belief for 2017 and beyond.

 

Billy Fried hosts “Laguna Talks” on Thursdays at 8 p.m. on local FM radio station KX 93.5. He can be reached at billy@lavidalaguna.com.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. I agree with you wholeheartedly Billy. I have worked with too many politicians in my life here, overseas and from top to bottom. If we want to find such a person(s), this is what we have to look out for. There are no qualifications, one is a leader by birth not by skill, JFK, Norman Schwarzkopf, Obama and locally, there are perhaps 2 leaders on our City Council. Defining qualities: Being able to see context to have a future vision, character – to do the right thing, because it is the right thing to do and finally, surround yourself with the smartest people you can find. A threat to a leader is losing context/oversight. It can make or break a leader because oversight is a leader’s essence and driver. Let’s go and look. Michaell

  2. Billy wrote: “Decency and inclusion have been swept up in a torrent of hate, belligerence, and division.”

    First, Barack Obama promised to “bring us together.” In fact, he did precisely the opposite. He was divisive and racist. He sent representatives to the funerals of black thugs, but not to the funeral of Kate Steinle, who was murdered in front of her parents in San Francisco by an illegal alien who had previously been deported five times. This is “sanctuary city,” violating federal immigration law and proud of it.

    The “hate, belligerance, and division” have been on display from coast to coast as Leftists like Billy riot, break windows, smash and burn cars, burn the American flag, and show their “love” in countless vile, hateful ways.

    Liberal Democrats have had their way for so long they feel the need to throw endless temper tantrums and declare themselves the victims, though of what they cannot honestly say. Hillary’s fanatical supporters are masters of rhetoric only, but the truth is not on their side. It never has been. Billy defends tantrum-throwing rioters with his B.S. Immature and despicable.

    All you need to know about Hillary Clinton is that she defended the rapist of a 12-year-old girl and laughed as she bragged about getting him off with “time served, two months.” Her boast is available on YouTube. That’s defending “women’s rights”?

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