PRESENTS

Welcome to the Grapevine News. This section of the Mathis Chronicles contains my views about anything I find or am sent about Johnny Mathis on the Internet and elsewhere, that had been overlooked by the "official" sites. Occasionally, I report on things not directly related to Mathis but have a connection, may even make up a question to ask myself and try to answer. Readers are welcome to share their experiences here also. So enjoy and thanks for coming.

VOL. 3 NO. 2 - FEBRUARY 14, 2004

RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS: When I started The Mathis Chronicles six years ago today, it was literally one of a kind. In 1998, nobody had any website of any kind that was dedicated to Johnny Mathis. It was a couple of years before any other sites of real value came on the scene, and once they did, I was free to focus my personal home page on the things that I cared about. As The Mathis Chronicles evolved, so did I. I started to care less about the usual fanclubby fluff. One of the things I wanted to do was to be very vocal about the things I noticed regarding the career, the music, and yes, the personal life of Johnny Mathis, that you wouldn't find on the "official" sites that rely more on "spin" than I do. I felt that there were things that simply needed to be said, especially since nobody else seemed to be saying them. You can imagine this did not sit well with those for whom I was somehow removing the fantasy, as well as those who would try to control my editorial output.

I remember once a few years ago Maria Niemela, then the director of the Johnny Mathis International Fan Club, asked me if all I cared about was my own rights. At the time, I believe I wrote back that of course it's not ALL I care about, but that I certainly will fight for them, and wonąt have mine trampled on because someone feels the rights of Johnny Mathis, or anybody else's, are more important than mine.

Rights ARE important. It's important that everybody has the same basic civil rights, and that the rights of no one group supercedes those of others. Without being a professional historian, it seems to me that this one principle has been fought and died over in this country more than any other. Whether it's the right to say whatever you want to about public figures, whether it's the right to be considered a human being, whether it's the right to be able to choose who represents your views in government, or whether it's the right to be able to create a family unit, someone or another has always had to fight for their most basic rights in this country, and every excuse in the world has been given at one time or another to deny them.

My nation's current president has sent several hundred of our people to their deaths overseas, and has killed more people overseas than were killed on one day in our country, and plunged the nation into unimaginable debt, under the ruse of securing freedom for the people of a third-world country. At the same time, he seems oblivious to the lack of freedom for some of the people in the country he serves. He's not the first government leader to wear these blinders, of course. Ask any African-American in my family and they are unanimous that America is free, but not THAT free. Not yet.

And now, there is a movement in the works today where a people finally seem ready to fight for their right to be considered human beings, to choose who represents them, to be able to create a family unit. And if history serves as the best teacher, it's going to take several years, and it's going to get very ugly before it gets better. Just like 40 years ago. Just like 80 years ago. Just like 140 years ago.

I personally couldn't give a flip about the marriage issue one way or the other. For me, there are nasty community property issues, not to mention a certain loss of identity involved that I am not prepared to accept. On the other hand, as an unmarried woman, I do know that the government punishes me because of my marital status. So it could be that the current brouhaha could eventually improve things for everybody.

For example, if the government is going to step in and try to define marriage, I of course have a suggestion or two. First of all, let it be something ordained not by God, but by CHURCH. Then if a guy wants six wives and some concubines on the side, or a wife wants six husbands, or a woman wants a wife or a man wants a husband, it would be up to the individual's religious organization whether or not to sanction it. Anything else would have to be carried out by a non-religious organization, such as a county clerk's office, and would still be legal, with all the inherent benefits involved, if not technically a "marriage".

Which leads to my second suggestion which I believe is the source of all the controversy. I would propose to repeal all the benefits the marrieds get that we singles don't get. I would vote to fix the tax laws so that nobody gets special treatment solely due to marital status. Remove the box to check single, head of household, filing joint, all of it. The only special consideration would be for people raising children, whether they live together or not, whether married or not. But I feel the government needs to get out of the business of rewarding people for this thing called "marriage". If we remove that one condition, then I feel all domestic partnerships, whether marriages or the enigmatic "civil unions", will be on the same playing field. Hospital visitation rights, organ donorship and matters of inheritance would not be questioned, insurance benefits, and all the other government-supplied rewards currently given only to marrieds would be available for everybody.

So, yes, I'm all about rights and freedoms. The Mathis Chronicles and especially the Grapevine News & Views never has been, and will never, ever be standard fan-club fluff. I enjoy giving people stuff to think about. The Mathis Chronicles is not for those who prefer to live in an imaginary world where it's still the fifties and nobody's making waves and everybody hides their sexuality or their religion and just appears to be either white or a Protestant and if it's not possible to hide not being either of these things, at least go somewhere to not be seen and dealt with. That's a world for those who prefer not to think.

Since I started The Mathis Chronicles, I admit that I've begun to wonder if Mathis himself, safe in his money and his golf courses, doesn't live in that world, too. 40 years ago, a young and idealistic Mathis went to the South and fought for not only his rights but those of others, not with clenched fists and signs but with his wallet and his singing. In my mind, I like to think he'll be an armchair general in the war that's getting ready to break out in this country, sowing the seeds of winter wheat for those who will one day be able to enjoy what he could not. But Mathis is one of those who is good about not letting the left hand know what the right one is doing. He does not do his alms before men, to be seen by them. So his views on the matter are doomed to remain a mystery.

There's always going to be those who will wish this whole thing would just go away. Escapism has its place in society. However, the bad part about escapism is, Monday morning still comes every week. People just this past week are still being spat upon for standing up for themselves, and I'm supposed to care about how nice Mathis' hair still looks and what he was wearing at a concert?!

Of course, what I think on the marriage issue or any other issue is neither here nor there in the great scheme of things. After all, I have the choice of either marrying or shacking up or neither. I have the ability to speak up about it. The important thing to remember, in my opinion, is that in the world I live in, the fact that there are people in my country who are not yet free to do the things that I can do is the REAL threat to my freedom, more so than any one Middle-Eastern dictator and his followers. And if these people are not free then I'm not free, either. And if I'm not free then nobody is free. Not even Johnny Mathis.

CLIVE'S PARTY: I think this past Grammys show was the best I'd seen in years. And I noticed that this year's Lifetime Achievement Awards recipients were actually in the audience, where people could at least catch a glimpse of them. Wouldn't it have been nice, not to mention respectful, for them to have done the same thing for Mathis and company last year? Oh well. I still wish PBS would pick up the pre-Award and highlight the folks and categories you don't get to see on network TV, the way they used to do with the Tonys. In the meantime, I hear Johnny Mathis got to enjoy himself, as well as perform, at Clive Davis' big Grammy bash the night before the show. Please, Mr. Davis, please, please rescue Johnny from Columbia and do something for his career, the way you did when you took him away from Mercury Records so many years ago!! You can save him!! Ahem. I'll stop groveling, now.

UNTIL YOU COME BACK TO ME: I've gotta say it: wasn't it great to see Luther again?! It brought tears to my eyes! Join me in sending love his way. He believes in the power of love, and so do I!

TOUR BUS: The bus stops next in Palm Desert, California and Prior Lake, Minnesota. Visit See Mathis Live! for details.

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