{"id":40193,"date":"2017-06-19T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T14:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=40193"},"modified":"2017-06-15T13:23:50","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T19:23:50","slug":"the-view-from-the-balcony-london-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/the-view-from-the-balcony-london-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"The View from the Balcony: London Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the third of June\u2014another sleepy, dusty day in the Delta, but a hot and sunny one in Oxford. I was tightly tucked in the southwest corner of The Balcony, in search of as much shade as I could find. Coming toward me, hop-scotching across the obstacle course on Van Buren, aka, \u201cThe Crosswalk,\u201d was my young friend, the boyish Chaz. He took a left turn and was about to walk under me when I called out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cChaz!\u201d I shouted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHey, Randy!\u201d said Chaz. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYep, it sure has,\u201d I replied. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come up and let me buy you a drink?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Chaz was on a mission but he detoured long enough to sit a spell and have a glass of water.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve known Chaz and his family for over twenty years. They\u2019re good ole Delta folks who would give you the shirt off their backs if you needed it\u2014literally. Even though we both live in Oxford, Chaz and I hadn\u2019t run into each other in nearly two years. We had some catching up to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we talked it became apparent that Chaz was taking the high road in his collegiate career, faithfully applying himself to his academic pursuits. I admire and respect that. I also hope he\u2019s having his share of a good time, but I doubt I need to worry about that. If you grow up in the Delta, good times are in your genes.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the middle of our conversation my bud, The Sheik, butted in.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUh-oh,\u201d he said. \u201cSome terrorist just drove a van into a crowd of people on London Bridge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though we Balcony People take pride in our sacred space being known as a No Google Zone, news like this supersedes any disdain for electronic devices upstairs. This was no game of Who-Played-Maracas-on-the-Fifth-Track-of-Bob-Marley\u2019s-Second-Record.<\/span><\/p>\n

My bud, The Sheik continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLooks like four or five people are already dead. The Bobbies are trying to chase down the scumbags who did it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Everybody shook their heads in disbelief. Even with the plethora of savage attacks over the last few years, you simply cannot get used to hearing news like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chaz and I just looked at each other. What do you say at a time like that?<\/span><\/p>\n

Chaz broke the silence. \u201cThe world\u2019s gotta make room for love.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe world\u2019s gotta make room for love,\u201d I thought. \u201cOut of the mouths of babes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At this writing we know that three people were killed when the van the terrorists were driving mowed them down. Five more were stabbed to death and forty-eight others were wounded. Police killed the three terrorists within eight minutes of the strike. Seven others believed to be involved in the plot have been arrested.<\/span><\/p>\n

The terrorists weren\u2019t able to cause as much havoc as they had hoped. They never got to use their supply of Molotov cocktails, nor were they able to secure a big, flat-bed truck to plow over the innocents. You may recall that on July 15, 2016, terrorists drove a truck into crowds in Nice, France, killing 86 people. No one has to tell us that life is uncertain and that there are no guarantees.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a Baby Boomer, images of the Viet Nam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the protests that surrounded them flashed in my mind. Those iconic images are indelibly linked to a score of songs like Four Dead in Ohio; Abraham, Martin, and John; Eve of Destruction; <\/em>and We Shall Overcome<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Honorable mention goes to the brilliance of one of the most poignant and powerful scenes in a movie ever\u2014EVER: Louis Armstrong singing It\u2019s a Wonderful World<\/em> as the ravages of war are played out on-screen in Good Morning, Viet Nam!<\/em>. If that scene doesn\u2019t make you to rethink war, then it\u2019s time to break some windows and rattle some walls.)<\/span><\/p>\n

As I mulled over Chaz\u2019s words of enlightened frustration, I heard singing in my ears\u2014a distant echo of times gone by. The singers were The Beatles, the voice was John Lennon\u2019s, and the echo?<\/span><\/p>\n

All you need is love, all you need is love.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Clich\u00e9? Not on your life. Real truth is never clich\u00e9, but it\u2019s often simple. Not easy, but simple.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Unfortunately, Chaz, the world does not have<\/em> to make room for love. But if we don\u2019t we\u2019re going to find ourselves singing \u201cLondon Bridge is Falling Down\u201d a lot more often, and to a brand new tune\u2014a bloody bad one, at that.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the view from The Balcony.\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the third of June\u2014another sleepy, dusty day in the Delta, but a hot and sunny one<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":39753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307],"tags":[10554,10564,8851,10562,5,642,4,10286,10563,3,753,10426],"class_list":["post-40193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-people","tag-10554","tag-chaz","tag-column","tag-london-bridge","tag-mississippi","tag-ms","tag-oxford","tag-randy-weeks","tag-terror","tag-the-local-voice","tag-tlv","tag-view-from-the-balcony"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2017-5-11-View-from-the-Balcony.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}