John Lennon at 73

Today would have been John Lennon’s 73^rd birthday. Not a landmark one; like 70 or 75; but still an important milestone in life had he lived. It’s about the average age for men in the United States, which is where Mr. Lennon had been living for several years at the time of his all too soon passing. I can’t help but wonder what he would be doing now? Not just in music, but in the hotbed of the political discourse which engulfs us at the present time.

I love You Tube, it is a window into the past; and at the same time that past can often be a glimpse of what the future may have held. Think about President Eisenhower’s vision when he warned us against the “military industrial complex.” It was years before anyone really took him seriously, and by that time it was too late to change course. This got me thinking about many of the things John Lennon had said in his hundreds of interviews in the years before his murder. And that took me back, once again, to You Tube to see what I might find.

Most of the meatier, and lengthier interviews were audio only, so I just picked one from the early 1970’s when John and Yoko had only been in New York for a few years, taking up residence at the Dakota as they fought their battle with immigration, ultimately winning their Alien Registration (green) Cards in time for the Bi-Centennial in 1976. Had he lived, he would have become a Citizen of the United States in 1981.

Life in a fishbowl could not have been easy for Mr. Lennon, and yet I am always proud that he chose my hometown in which to live out his last days. For all of its complexity and seeming vastness, New York is a safe haven for many artists. In a city of 8 million people you rarely expect to see anyone of importance, and so it is easy for the famous ones to walk about with a minimum of fanfare.

John Lennon reveled in that freedom, but also took advantage of the proximity to the media which life in the Big Apple afforded him. During his time there he appeared on every talk show there was, both on television and radio, where he frequently arrived unannounced, but was always welcome by the surprised DJ’s.

Mr. Lennon was larger than the life he led. His willingness to take chances and to seemingly wear his heart on his sleeve, have made us all a bit more free in the long run. I still wonder though, what he would be doing if he were still with us today.

"Ishi - The Last Yahi" (1992)

Imagine being the last living person of your nationality, religion, or even just family. Now imagine having to hide in order to avoid being hunted down as a trophy. If you can possibly imagine these two scenarios successfully, then; and only then; will you fully understand the story of “Ishi – The Last Yahi”, which tells the story of an Indian named Ishi, who had fled into the foothills of California after the massacres of his fellow tribesmen in the 1860’s and 70’s.

With only a handful of warriors, their squaws, and scant supplies, the group chose to live in hiding rather than to surrender their age old customs for the white man’s world. For forty years, just as the Israelites had spent 40 years in the wilderness, Ishi and his fellow tribesmen were forced to survive in the foothills of California. Using all of their native skills they established a community, with leaders to make decisions and mete out justice, and hunters who provided the wild game on which they existed. They became a mythological presence; everyone knew they were out there; but no one had actually seen them.

And then, one day in 1911, Ishi, the last of the Yahi tribe, emerged from the wilderness half dead from starvation, to enter the white man’s world. After an initial stay in prison; there was simply no other way proposed to deal with him at the time; he was persuaded by anthropologist Alfred Kroeber to spend the last 4 years of his extraordinary life at the Museum of Anthropology in San Francisco, where he regaled visitors with his history of the Yahi people. He also told of his 40 years in exile, explaining how the tribe lived, and died in the wilderness, cut off from the life, and traditions, they had always known.

Fascinating in its detail; and with the use of photographs, some actual silent film footage, and even a rare voice recording of Yahi himself; this documentary film will make the viewer think long and hard about the foundation upon which America was built. “From sea to shining sea” takes on a whole new significance when confronted with the price paid by the people who were essentially victims of our policy of Manifest Destiny.