How Minnesota Public Radio subtly and brilliantly slammed this administration

Every day I listen to YourClassical MPR. It's a commercial-free classical music station that's part of Minnesota Public Radio, along with MPR News and The Current. Most everyone my age listens to The Current, since it elevates current indie music and cool Minnesotan musicians. But I'm over here stanning YourClassical MPR. I love it. I'm likely the youngest person in their listener-base by 30 years, but I'm perhaps the most fervent: fan-girl-ing over the hosts, tuning in for specific programs, and generally being a superfan.

MPR is politically neutral. It's no secret which way they L-L-L-Lean, particularly as they lost all their federal funding this year, but on air (at least on YourClassical MPR) they are strictly apolitical. 

And yet this morning the drive-time host, a jovial, but mild-mannered man with a soothing baritone and dry wit, delivered an absolute zinger if you knew what to listen for.

​Every Friday at 7:04am (yes I know this down to the minute... I told you I'm a superfan) they play a chorus by Handel called Happy We. It's not well-known, but it's a cheerful tune with lyrics that are almost entirely the words "happy we." The hosts indicate it's how they say, "happy weekend." This takes place reliably after the news is piped in from NPR from 7:01-7:04. 

This morning, two days after Renee Good's murder and a month into ICE occupation of the Twin Cities, there was no cheerful Happy We. Instead another Handel song played: Largo from Xerxes. It's one of those songs you'd know if you heard it... typically a soprano aria (historically performed by a castrato 😱). Fine, that's nice.

The husky-toned host returned on air to tell us about what we heard, as is tradition, and one of the reasons I love this station. He explained that it was Largo from Handel's Xerxes, and that the arrangement cast the cello in the traditional vocal role. He said (and I'm paraphrasing based on memory,) "Xerxes was a king who was actually singing that aria declaring his love to a tree, thanking it for casting shade. As a side note, Xerxes was a tyrannical despot, demanding everyone bow to him and everything be covered in gold." He paused before intoning a polite, "hm." 

I shrieked. It was so subtle. But on the first Friday after our despotic ruler glorified the violence against Renee Good here in Minnesota, directly after the news covered the murder, the set-your-watch-by-it airing of a bubbly Handel piece was replaced by another Handel work, one that's much more melancholic. And the friendly educational content reflected a dictatorship at the hands of a gold-loving tyrant.

You had to know to know.
I knew. And I loved it. 

I don't think anyone will read this. But I didn't want it to go unrecognized: the brilliance, the subtlety. Even if it is remembered only by me and my tiny corner of the internet. So this is my contribution (or hopefully one of many) to the annals of history and how people are using the platforms they can to fight back, even when it needs to be quiet enough to speak only to the handful of people who are ready to hear it.

Thank you MPR.