WHAAATT!?
C'mon, Willie...
I was startled then downright dismayed...two seconds into a commercial break on CNN, here you come singing "You Were Always On My Mind." for a Fed Ex commercial…."Willie Nelson x FedEx | Delivering for Earth"
What are you thinking?
Your voice belongs in lots of places, from Farm Aid that you founded in 1985 to Honky Tonk road houses, but this Fed Ex business is a bridge too far.
The only damn thing that will make me feel at all better is if every penny Fed Ex pays you goes straight to the United States Revenuers to pay for your federal taxes this year. We all remember what happened in 1990 when the IRS raided your home, seized your possessions and auctioned them off to pay a $16.7 million dollar tax debt.
You've never been short on telling us what's on your mind. I'm not entitled to do anything but listen to your vast and adventurous catalog of songs but I sure would like to know why oh why you agreed to hitch your wagon to Fed Ex.
You support environment causes and farmers who depend on a stable environment.
The Fed Ex commercial touts its commitment to reducing its carbon imprint but hey, FedEx had more than 200,000 motorized vehicles in its fleet in 2019. To its credit it added 2944 electric vehicles that included delivery trucks, forklifts and airport ground service equipment.
Fine and dandy, but FedEx's airline cargo division boasts a huge fleet of 691 aircraft, twice as many as Ryanair, Europe's largest airline, and nearly three times as many as British Airways.as of 2017. In 2018, it's estimated that global aviation – which includes both passenger and freight – emitted 1.04 billion tonnes of CO2. This represented 2.5% of total CO2 emissions in 2018. Aviation emissions have doubled since the mid-1980s. That ain't hay.
As my dear readers have figured out after watching tons of hours of TV since March 2020, the songs pitched to sell product aim for our hearts then make a break our our wallets or try to improve our opinion of the aspirations of the corporation.
Hearing a song by Willie or Smokey Robinson transports us to the first time we heard it, who we were with, what we were doing, and the world in which we were living at the time... a cagey strategy to co-opt our buying choices by playing on my emotions.
Corporations began to capitalize it in 1926 when they knew most of America was tuned into their radios. Since March 2020 most of us have been glued to our TVs. Branding by using songs deeply embedded in our consciousness is a sneaky, powerful soft sell. Not fair. But effective on TV.
Willie, maybe Fed Ex delivers your monthly supply of weed.
For god's sake, grow your own.
PS
Amanpour & Company interview shows Willie's amazing memory
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/legendary-musician-willie-nelson-his-letters-america-nie80g/
Ernie Pyle: The Great Chronicler of GIs in WWII
May 29, 2023 MEMORIAL DAY
A perfect day to salute the memory of Ernie Pyle, born in Dana, Ind., Aug. 3, 1900 - Died on the island of Shima in the Philippine Sea, April 18, 1945
Nominally the best reporter to capture the unglorified daily life of GIs in WW II, 1940-1945.
The term “embedded” had not even been invented when Pyle followed troops in combat, ate what they ate, ducked into foxholes with them when bullets and mortar shells landed. Pyle had the gift of memory so lucid that he wrote his columns when he could get his hands on his typewriter after exchanges with enemy troops and document how soldiers faced danger or looked forward the occasional letter from home.
He asked for no protection or special status and was respected by the men with whom he served. He died on April 18, 1945 when he popped up in a bunker to see the terrain and was killed immediately when struck in the head by a sniper’s bullet.
One of Pyle’s most simply eloquent stories was "The Death of Captain Waskow".
Ernie Pyle wrote of Captain Waskow: "In this war I have known a lot of officers who were loved and respected by the soldiers under them. But never have I crossed the trail of any man as beloved as Capt. Henry T. Waskow of Belton, Texas". It's a strange word to use, but I've never read a more endearing story about the humanity of men at war.
Like a sketch artist, Pyle's ability to capture detail that personifies his subject is fully charged in his story about the death of Henry T. Waskow.
Below: "Killing Is All That Matters." Pyle's observation describing how soldiers spend their time before being ordered into combat, an experience that will change them forever, December 1, 1941, is stunning in its contrasts.
https://erniepyle.iu.edu/wartime-columns/killing-is-all-that-matters.html
A collection of Pyle's columns about war and the men waging it ..so few words, every word in service to the moment.
https://erniepyle.iu.edu/wartime-columns/index.html
Long form journalism about what Ernie Pyle saw on the Normandy beach on D-Day was published so Americans could read about the carnage and pay respects to the dead by buying war bonds to pay for the war. If read only one link, read this one from the New York Times. Ernie would have loved it. (NOTE you will be able to read as a guest or logon if a subscriber)
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0803.html
New York Times fully dimensional obituary for Ernie Pyle, April 19, 1945
Further reading
The Man Who Told America the Truth About D-Day
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/magazine/d-day-normandy-75th-ernie-pyle.html
Last and not least...Ernie Pyle up close and personal with tender observations about "that girl," his wife: https://erniepyle.iu.edu/wartime-columns/personal-items.html
Within a paragraph or two, the man has a knack for roping us in to a story whether in a war zone or his home town,
May 31, 2023 in Commentaries | Permalink | Comments (0)