What's Going On?

By Tony Farmer
Director of Development, The Inkandescent Group, LLC
July 2020

On May 21, 1971 singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye released his eleventh album entitled What’s Going On. In 1985, writers on British music weekly the NME voted it best album of all time. In 2004, the album’s title track was ranked number four on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. A 1999 critics’ poll conducted by British newspaper The Guardian named it the “Greatest Album of the 20th Century.” In 1997, What’s Going On was named the 17th greatest album of all time in a poll conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV Group.

What is less known about the album are the personal trauma’s that Marvin Gaye was dealing with at the time. He had recently lost his good friend and song partner Tammi Terrell to cancer. He was reading letters from his brother who was serving in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. In addition, there was social unrest across the country as the civil rights movement fought for equality. One of Gaye’s good friends had witnessed a clash between police officers and protesters that history refers to as Bloody Thursday.

He was cautioned by his record label that the song was too controversial. They tried to impress upon him that he was an artist, not an activist. We know how that played out.

Fast forward to nearly 50 years later. “What’s Going On” is as relevant as ever because the issues that plague our communities are the same.

Here’s the good news: While the song laments the challenges that our country faces, it also offers the solution. “War is not the answer, only Love can Conquer Hate.” And, as of July 2020, there has been a calm in the newly energized civil rights storm. Worldwide protests have ceased, the Black Lives Matter Movement has slowed down — and also cases of COVID-19 have skyrocketed.

How do we recover? What are the next steps? How do we heal from hardships that we are have been experiencing for the last 4 months?

As we ponder these difficult questions, more questions than answers come to mind.

  • Do I send my child back to school?
  • When will there be a vaccine soon?
  • How much longer do we need to practice social distancing?

Here’s what I know:

  • It’s easy to succumb to our fears and resist the “new normal.”
  • We must prepare ourselves for reconciliation.
  • We must learn to be comfortable with discomfort.
  • We will be forever changed by COVID-19 and the death of George Floyd — and we must be brave enough to call out injustice when we see it.

Love is the salve that will heal us. Love seeks to understand, love desires connection and love demands honor and respect. America will recover and me must be prepared to heal and help others to do the same.