Summer 1983, The Police performed at Joe Lewis Arena in Detroit. Two friends and myself went to the concert and afterwards we walked to the little bar in Greektown, waaaaaay before there were casinos in this part of Detroit (I can still remember the hot pink mini skirt I wore). The Police were part of what was the end of the PUNK era and beginning of the NEW WAVE music, or 'The Second British Invasion' of the early eighties. Disco was on the out and this was the next trend in music. There were rumors of the band, that had now made it big, were on the verge of splitting up. When I read STING’S autobiography many years later, he would talk of the origin of many of their songs, like “Roxanne” about the girl he met in Paris who was a lady of the night, or “Don’t Stand Too Close To Me,” about his days as a teacher, not much older than his pupils and the innocent act of offering a female student a ride on a rainy day, being NOT a good idea. Their songs were from their real life experiences. It was a fun time in music and for The Police, Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, they may have been sending out an SOS to the world that they each just might be going their separate ways…
Over the past few months, I’m feeling like someone, "Anyone, Anyone?" Remember that scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off from Economoics Teacher, Uber Dork's Classroom (the character was played by actor, Ben Stein, where he is teaching a lesson that no one is listening to and tries to get a response by saying "Anyone, Anyone" after each phrase and question. Someone needs to send out an SOS to the world, “someone, please help us! ANYONE, ANYONE!! We’re drowning and someone needs to throw us a life line…Save Our Souls (SOS)…ANYONE?! Please?” For some, really maybe many, it may feel like “Every breath you take, “I’ll be watching YOU” with cell phone tracking targeted marketing, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, almost anyone can get a hold of your IP address and see what you are looking up, what you are watching, who your are communicating with and what you are saying. No one is untraceable or untouchable, not even a former President of the United States. The thought of all of that is freightening enough, but what can be done with your words, your posts, tweets (or Xs) can be used to cancel you, or even endite you with charges that have twisted The Constitution like salt water taffy on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, that is unless you are part of a very few who seem to be, untouchable, who seem to have the media, “Wrapped Around Their Finger,” no matter what they do or what laws they break…What is going on…or maybe, we know what’s going on, and we know it’s bad, but we don’t know just how bad or what to do…We could send out an SOS, but who can help us?
The 'message in the bottle" just might read something like,
"We need “The Police” of something/someone, "Anyone, Anyone?" to get things under control. Illegal aliens are invading our borders and ‘The Police," law officials once in charge of stopping people from bull rushing the gate now have their hands tied and can do very little to manage the flow of undocumented immigrants. Some traveling to seek a better life, yet some transporting drugs and trafficking young men and women …Oh, we have oil, we were drilling oil, but it has been halted, oil prices have gone up which means that everything else goes up, making the cost of living and the cost of basic necessities are up approximately 8.52% (current numbers from YCharts.com) ) since last year at the same time, all in the name of climate friendliness. The ‘new world order’ wants to manage damage done to the environment, a noble cause, to clean up the planet for future generations. However, all countries aren’t created equal in their commitment to a clean planet and China pollutes the earth’s atmosphere with many violations and many less restrictions and we give them a pass and make OUR citizens suffer, not to mention our farmers and companies, made to comply with stringent restrictions and controls…Oh, and the big cities, once exciting places to flock to for culture, sports, shopping, fun, fine dining and entertainment are now cesspools of sewage, garbage, drugs and violence with ‘The Police’ trying to do their job with one hand tied behind their back and criminals out on the streets committing more crimes, laughing in their faces…A military concerned more with woke ideas and workplace semantics that won’t offend someone rather than how to defend our country, with former military commanders/commentators questioning if the US could win a conflict with China if we get snared into one. And speaking of the Military, how they were directed to concluded the US ocupation in Afghanistan is absolutly appalling and the Commander in Chief's response to the surviving families of the fallen soldiers in that attack in the finals days, well there is just no explaination for behavior like that….Oh, and and while we're on the President who not only appears to have cognitive issues, constantly putting his foot in his mouth, and it’s not just him but the First Lady and should he not be able to fulfill his duties, the person waiting in the wings to take over, gives us little confidence that they could do much better as they are so inexperienced and incapable, one marvels at how someone with such limited capacity could have risen to such high ranks. Truly, we DO live in the land of opportunity when success is possible for anyone, just look at these two and even a drugged out attorney, former member of the military, who was discharged after cocaine showed up in a drug test, and artist, none the less, can wheel and deal with the heads of foreign countries using his family name and influence from “The BIG GUY” to push buttons and open doors and get away with breaking laws, leaving a law abiding citizen who turned over a lap top computer that proved to be evidence to the FBI who has had to scramble to defend HIMSELF from retaliating consequences for doing what he thought was the right thing to do after the numbskull took it in for repairs and forgot to pick it up... Oh, and there are the concerned parents who are now targeted who don’t want someone teaching their children topics that don’t fall under the umbrella “reading, writing and arithmetic”…
Oh, and even government health authorities have tinkering with crucial data and information to impose regulations to control business, religion, voting and education…Oh, and Supreme Court Justices targeted for doing their job with protestors having the go ahead to harass them and their families on their own property, even attempting to harm them without someone stepping in to call this nonsense off, to peacefully protest is one thing and part of living in America, we do have that freedom to speak our mind freely, or at least we should, but when that freedom interferes with someone else’s safety of right to live their life the way they wish, well that’s quite another matter authorities should be able to step in and arrest anyone who enacts such behavior. on the topic of The Supreme Court, members used to respect one another, even if they had different opinions, not so much with this past court, upon the conclusion of their 'year' when announcing their decisions, one such Justice, verbally reprimanded another in such an insulting manner, which is not customary…How about all the money being send to Ukraine and why? Oh, and then this week, another inditement for President when we have all kinds of problem and this is where prosecutors focus? If he truly broke the law, so be it, however, where there are offenses that former Presidents or Presidential candidates participated in and were not charged, citizens are left asking 'Where is the Equal Justice?'. Oh, and look at the response to the fire in Maui? The President had no comment for 5 days. Really? I could go on and on but you see, as a nation, we really are sending out an SOS, which stands for SAVE OUR SOULS…
Something has got to change BIG TIME or this country, will quickly be a place we won’t even recognize it, in fact, we’re almost there. No matter what side of the country physically or politically, urban or rural, what gender, ethic origin or race, this country is spinning completely out of control and people are feeling it. People are stressed in every way possible. Divorces are up, conflict is up, road rage is up and thefts are up. A friend of mine saw a sign in a restaurant in the Detroit area recently, I’m paraphrasing but it said something like, “We treat our employees like family and we expect you to also.” Employees are hard to come by and the last thing a business needs is for some out of control patron making it even harder to staff their business. People can’t control their kids. When kids don’t respect their parents, there’s a good chance they won’t respect any other authority and “THE POLICE” now have to deal with them, but they too have a hard time because some want to reform the criminal justice system so that means law and order has, for the most part, gone out the window. It used to be that if parents didn’t manage their kids, the POLICE and the system had to manage them and now, it’s US as a society who has to pay the consequences for poor parenting. When our high ranking government officials don’t respect our rights as citizens or pick and choose who will pay consequences for crimes committed or not committed, it could possibly set an example for citizens that the laws don’t matter and respect for one another is not a priority. Unfortunalty, the danger in this is that citizens will take the law into their own hands, turning this country in to a scene from The Wild, Wide West.
In 1986 The Police broke up. Sting was getting all the attention and it caused some rifts between the three of them. Traveling and being away from their families caused rifts between spouses and marriages broke up, the drugs, the booze, the money, the crazy rockstar life style caused a lot of problems. Three struggling musicians hit it big. “Be careful what you wish for,” proved to be too much for them all at the time. Sometimes having it all and having too much of a good thing can do that to anyone and anything, like a country, known around the world as the beacon on the hill, the land of plenty, where anything is possible, now kicked to the curb by some of their own, for being too successful, mocking those who work hard and succeed, wanting to tear down those who have paid their dues, disrespecting our flag and our democracy, our three branches of government, no respect for authority, using power to take down those who they don’t agree with, almost dumbing down the principles this country was founded on “a government by the people, of the people and for the people.” The Founding Fathers were men with wisdom, common sense, strong financial ethics and values. They had Judaeo Christian values and those values guided their decisions and they set up a new country, some refer to as the greatest experiement in human democracy. The early citizens had these same values and governing a country with citizens from a common background meant that a good part of the country shared this common thread. Our country is so fragmented now that with less law and order or common values it’s no wonder we’re sending out an SOS to the world. They say, “as the United States goes, there goes the world.” Well, if that’s the case, we’re all in trouble…
Sometimes, it’s not until something breaks or gets so bad, that we realize just how bad a situation is. Maybe things just aren't bad enough, I often say to myself and I even hear Dan Bongino, former Secret Serviceman and now one of the most popular talk show hosts on the air. It may take hard times for citizens to realize that elections DO have consequences and that every votes DOES count (or should). When times are plentiful and good, it can cause us to not be as aware and careful. Look around, pay attention to what is going on. Take time to reflect on the decisions being made on your behalf and who is making them. Ask yourself if you are happy with them and how they affect you and those you love. Are those in charge acting as if they are working for YOU? YOU/WE pay their salaries. Ask yourself if you/we are getting our money’s worth? Do we have a government by the people of the people and FOR the people? If not, then it’s up to each one of us to do our homework before we choose who we will vote for, call or write those in charge and let your voice be heard. Think for yourself act for yourself. Ask yourself what kind of a country YOU would be proud of being a citizen of and let NOTHING get in the way of making that happen. Make sure you are getting the story straight from the sources you read, listen to and watch. Seek out information from reputable sources where TRUTH and WISDOM are a common thread…There are good and qualified people with the solutions, we need THEM in charge and solving them for us and we need as many citizens as possible do what they can do. Look at what a young man from Brooklyn, back in the 1970s when New York City was a dangerous mess. Curtis Sliwa was a young man who founded the Guardian Angels with the motto, "We Dare to Care."
THE POLICE, Sting, Andy and Stewart all went their separate ways and each had much success in different ventures. In 2007, they got together and went on tour. One of them described it as “finding out your Mom and Dad got back together after a divorce.” Sting said that they realized just how much they loved one another and that they were better together than apart. They settled their differences.
Our problems as a country are much bigger than that of a few band members feuding over egos, but when it comes down to it, it just takes realizing that our differences are fewer than what we have in common, and that if we have a little ‘Synchronicity,” a little law and order, respect for authority, living by The Golden Rule and rules/laws that apply to all, that can go along way…A good ‘Message in the Bottle” that could lead to…Many Great Days 🛟
