The Wavelength
Monday March 8th, 2021 with Joe Reilly
Dr. Seuss and Bunny Wailer and rest in peace Richard Hache

On the show tonight we open with some music tied to the legacy of Dr. Seuss. Recently, the work of Dr. Seuss has been re-evaluated due to racist images that appear in some of his books, and as a result his publishing company has made the decision to stop publishing 6 of his books. This is a good call, as the images in the 6 books are offensive. There are some who now argue that all of Dr. Seuss's books should be removed from libraries and that they should not be read to children. But those folks may be missing that Dr. Seuss also wrote and illustrated some important books that spoke out against racism and discrimination, that defended marginalized communities, that encouraged environmentalism and cautioned against arms races. Then of course we have the right leaning people who want to defend the status quo and never want to question images and ideas that have been around for years. These people accuse those who call for change and a more inclusive culture of promoting "cancel culture" and being "politically correct." These are terms that should always be questioned because they are generally used by people who don't want to move towards more egalitarian societies and cultures and they simply want the same old power structures kept in place - because they tend to be white males who have benefitted the most from these old structures. These people try to equate a publisher ceasing to produce 6 books by Seuss that contain offensive images with book burning by the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s. Of course this is nonsense and these are not comparable events if you look deeply at the issues involved. We need to have nuanced discussions around issues like the racist images in the Seuss books and see that those images are not acceptable and should not be promoted while at the same time many of Dr. Seuss's books remain appropriate and may be good ways to teach children important lessons. You can read some interesting arguments about this using these links: https://philnel.com/2018/03/02/what-to-do-with-dr-seuss/ After playing some music inspired by Dr. Seuss, we play some music created by the late and great Bunny Wailer. Bunny Wailer was an iconic figure in the early days of reggae music as he worked alongside Bob Marley and Peter Tosh in the original Wailers. We play some music Bunny recorded with Marley and Tosh and some of his solo music as well, paying tribute to his contributions to reggae music. Bunny Wailer died on March 2, at the age of 73. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Wailer#The_Wailers And finally we wrap up the show today paying tribute to one of the finest sound techs I had the pleasure of working with for 8 years from 1993 until 2000 at the National Gallery of Canada. Richard Hache worked on the outdoor music series at the National Gallery with me and played an important role in making sure so many awesome concerts in the Gallery's amphitheatre sounded so good. Richard was always a calm and thoughtful person - and both traits served him well often working in frenetic and chaotic situations to make sure concerts happened on time and sounded terrific. Richard also worked on other concerts around the region and on productions at the National Arts Centre. We play music from five of the most memorable shows Richard helped produce at the Gallery. Sadly this is to mark Richard's sudden death last week, on February 27th, from a heart attack. He was only 57 years of age and leaves behind his wife (Susan) and two children (Laura and Andrew.) We send out our condolences to them and thank Richard for all his great work on music concerts in our community over the years. https://ottawacitizen.remembering.ca/obituary/richard-hache-1081718277 Stay safe and stay well out there.