The Rolling Stones said it best

One of my Mom’s favorite songs when I was growing up (and as a result, one of my favorite songs now) was the Rolling Stones’ 1969 classic, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Not only was she guaranteed to belt out the lyrics along with Mick Jagger as she cleaned the house while listening the popular tunes of the day, but she was also quick to sing the chorus to one of us kids any time we weren’t getting our way about something, like wanting a cookie before dinner or wanting to watch something on TV instead of cleaning our rooms.

I’ll admit it, it was both effective and occasionally infuriating. I’ll also readily admit to using the exact same tactic on my own children later in life.

If you’re not overly familiar with the song, it’s basically a lament about all the bad things in life, especially with what was going on in the late 1960s, lost love, political unrest, death and growing old. Each verse begins somewhat optimistically and ends in disillusion at the inevitable reality. If that’s not 2020 in a nutshell, I don’t know what is.

It’s the chorus that really hits home, though, as the Stones unflinchingly remind us with the admonition “You can’t always get what you want” three times in a row before hitting us with the clincher, “but if you try sometimes, well you just might find you get what you need.”

Continued on Page 5 VIEWPOINT (cont.)

And I think that’s the lesson, if there is a lesson to be gleaned from a 52-yearold rock and roll song.

While we indeed can not always get what we desire, we can usually at least get the things that we require to get through this life we live.

I don’t really know that the Rolling Stones were trying for any sort of poignant message with this song. It’s just as likely they were simply writing another song they hoped would be a hit, much like Paul McCartney once admitted.

He said from time to time, he and fellow Beatle John Lennon would sit down and quip, “Now, let’s write ourselves a new swimming pool.”

But the message is there, and it’s one we could all learn from. This idea actually came to me Wednesday afternoon as I was watching the insanity unfold in Washington, D.C. One of the commentators, while the Capitol Building was being overrun by protesters mentioned the angry folks were “venting their frustrations,” and I remembered the second verse from the song: “I went down to the demonstration, to get my fair share of abuse… singing we’re gonna vent our frustration.

If we don’t, we’re gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse.”

I get it. There are a lot of people who are disappointed their guy lost the election. Unfortunately for them, that’s just the way it goes. Basically every election, half the people don’t “get what you want,” and it’s always been the case.

But this time, well, the losers decided to try and change the score through bullying and violence, led by a man in the White House who apparently never heard that song.

The last I heard, four people had died as a result of the violence in Washington. It reminded me of another song from that bygone era, the Neil Young song “Ohio” about the Kent State shootings in 1970.

“Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming, we’re finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming. Four dead in Ohio.”

The song centers on a president who was hailed by many as a savior as he was swept into office but did little to address the tensions brewing in society before leaving office in disgrace.

Sounds eerily familiar come to think of it…