Immigration. Barely a day goes past without it hitting the news. I would link you to examples, but I’m presuming – if you’re the usual kind of wet liberal that I suspect visits this site – that you might wish to take a break from all of that for five minutes.
Take a listen, then, to the following jingle, from PAMS Series 28 – made for the radio station WABC in 1964:
Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t intend to draw lots of inadvisable comparisons between Britain in 2010 and New York in 1964, World’s Fair or no. The furthest I’ll go is to point out that it very deliberately evokes the American Dream – a beautiful thing in theory, whatever the reality is.
My point really is simpler. In a media landscape full of distrust, full of people yapping about anyone a shade darker than themselves – wouldn’t it be nice to have a few jingles on-air that sung of welcoming new people, and being happy about it? If New York in 1964 could do it, why can’t we?
Not pretending it’d change the world. Neither am I pretending it’s the big issue. Just saying it’d be nice… and maybe mean something, in its own small way.
(Oh, and WABC? Then, it was a famous and influential music radio station; today, it’s conservative talk radio, and the home of Rush Limbaugh. Sigh.)