Mean as those rhinos are, it ain't over

Bravo!!! Mr Bageant ...

I imagine you get a lot of email, so I'll keep it short.

I am around your age, and have a similar genetic heritage as well, I am sure -- working class Anglo/Celts, northern style. Fishermen, small farmers. I also led a similar life as you in the '60s/'70s I would bet, only on the Lower East Side of NYC. Been there. I'm a musician -- played with Mingus, Gil Evans, Tito Puente, Thad Jones, Lee Konitz etc. -- just to establish my bona fides with you.

I recently discovered your writing on the internet. Brilliant and right on target as far as it goes. But I must ask you: If the rhinos have taken over the neighborhood and if rhinodom is the natural state of mankind, why has civilization progressed as far as it has? Why did it not evolve into a permanent state of fascism thousands of years ago?

And my own answer is: because life evolves. That is what life DOES. And this short time that humans have been here ... WE have been the tip of the evolving branch of life here on this planet. The game ain't over yet, Joe. Hang in there.

If people like you give up, if people like you encourage OTHERS to give up, then it is that much CLOSER to being over.

Do you know who Jimmy Knepper was? A visionary musician, a trombonist who heard other possibilities. He was a sort of teacher to me. Never said much, but everything he DID say had resonance. Maybe 15, 20 years my senior. Gone now.

Once, I had been over to his house playing duets. As I left, out of nowhere, he put his hand on my shoulder and said "Keep the faith." No preamble; no apparent reference to what had  been going on. That one moment has stuck with me for over 25 years. I wish to share it with you.

Keep the faith, Mr. Bageant. Mean as those rhinos are, it ain't over. Not by a long shot

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