In Memoriam: Ronnie Spector (1943-2022)

Ronnie Spector delivered my first taste of socialism when she sang, “For every kiss you give me, I’ll give you three.”

I was just old enough to ask my Sunday School teacher if socialism wasn’t the most Christian of all economic arrangements, having heard the song Ronnie sang with The Ronettes, “Be My Baby,” on one of the pop radio stations I listened to at the time and being struck by the idea that if it was three times as good to give as to receive why wouldn’t it be better to give more, if one had more to give, or at the very least to share equally?

My Sunday School teacher at the time was a member of The John Birch Society. He believed most people in the government were Communists, that the media was controlled by leftists, and that the world was run by a secret cabal of wealthy Jews and other European aristocrats. Many of the people in my town believed as he believed, and many belonged to the John Birch Society and, consequently, were advocates of free-enterprise, conspiracy theories, and racism. And they were, in the early 1960s, all that would then be called, ‘good people.’

I can no longer remember what my Sunday School said in reply to my question, though I can remember the way he looked at me after I’d asked it; perplexed, taken aback, having no real answer.