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Me#1You#10
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Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 6503
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 Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 3:41 pm Post subject: "Joan Baez Unwelcome At Concert For Troops" |
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Apparently Joan Baez was recently told to take her brand of "troop support" elsewhere...
| Quote: | Joan Baez Unwelcome At Concert For Troops
Singer Was to Perform With Mellencamp at Walter Reed
By Teresa Wiltz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 2, 2007; Page C01
Inset Photo Caption: "I have stood as firmly against the Iraq War as I did the Vietnam War 40 years ago," Baez writes.
When rocker John Mellencamp performed for the recovering soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Friday night, a couple of things were missing. He squelched his typically blistering rhetoric against the war in Iraq. Also MIA, as it turned out, was folkie and antiwar activist Joan Baez, who says she was disinvited from the event by Army officials.
In a letter that appears today in The Washington Post, Baez says Mellencamp had wanted her to perform with him and that she had accepted his invitation.
"I have always been an advocate for nonviolence," she writes, "and I have stood as firmly against the Iraq war as I did the Vietnam War 40 years ago. . . . I realize now that I might have contributed to a better welcome home for those soldiers fresh from Vietnam. Maybe that's why I didn't hesitate to accept the invitation to sing for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"In the end, four days before the concert, I was not 'approved' by the Army to take part. Strange irony."
Reached by telephone yesterday at her home in Menlo Park, Calif., Baez, 66, said she wasn't told why she was given the boot, but speculated, "There might have been one, there might have been 50 [soldiers] that thought I was a traitor."
<snip>
Walter Reed officials did not respond to several requests for comment yesterday. But in an e-mailed statement published Monday on RollingStone.com, spokesman Steve Sanderson said the medical center received the requests for participation by Baez and broadcaster Dan Rather just two days before the concert. (Rather now works for HDNet, which broadcast the Mellencamp concert.)
"These additional requirements were not in the agreement/contract and would have required a modification," Sanderson told the magazine's Web site.
<snip>
Mellencamp's manager, Randy Hoffman, did not return calls requesting comment, and Mellencamp was ill and unavailable yesterday, according to his publicist. But Mellencamp told RollingStone.com: "They didn't give me a reason why she couldn't come. We asked why and they said, 'She can't fit here, period.' "
"One of my more cynical friends said, 'They let the rats in, why not you?'" Baez said, laughing, referring to a recent exposé of living conditions at Walter Reed.
<snip>
An HDNet spokeswoman said Rather had planned to interview Mellencamp at the hospital, but "schedule-wise we couldn't make it happen."
After the concert, Baez said, Mellencamp left her a message to say, "I hope you're not mad at me." Her response: " 'Of course not. It's an honor to be turned down by the Army.' . . . But I would have been happier getting in . . . I thought times had changed enough."
So what exactly happened?
The answer -- since Walter Reed's officials aren't talking -- is blowin' in the wind. (Sorry, we couldn't resist.)
Washington Post - cont'd |
"So what exactly happened" Ms. Wiltz? How 'bout righteous indignation and good sense prevailing?
Kudos to Walter Reed. |
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LewWaters
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Joined: 18 May 2004
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Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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As has always been said, what goes around, comes around.
My only question, though, is why allow Mellencamp? Although not as old, he is as anti-war left as any of them today.
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Harvuskong
Seaman
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Posts: 174
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| Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 10:14 pm Post subject: |
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| LewWaters wrote: | As has always been said, what goes around, comes around.
My only question, though, is why allow Mellencamp? Although not as old, he is as anti-war left as any of them today. |
Looks like I learned something new today. Was not aware about Mellencamp's views. |
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LewWaters
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| Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 12:57 am Post subject: |
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To Mellencamps credit, or whoever told him not to, he did not sing his anti-war, anti-Bush songs at Walter Reed. As I understand it, he did a concert of his less controversial music strictly to entertain the wounded Troops there.
Mellencamp was a supporter of John Kerry, writing and performing the song 'Texas Bandido' at a fundraiser for Kerry. He also released the song 'Rodeo Clown.'
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GenrXr
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 05 Aug 2004
Posts: 1720
Location: Houston
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| Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 12:04 pm Post subject: |
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She is a disgusting human being.
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"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy |
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Navy_Navy_Navy
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Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 5777
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| Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 6:33 pm Post subject: |
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Hard to believe, but she used to be my very favorite singer. What a voice she had/has - oh my, you could just close your eyes and fly away on it.
Nowadays, I can't even listen to her - just another shrieking harpie.
The world isn't paradise and utopian methods reap chaos and destruction for those who are "good" and enable those who are "bad."
I know that concepts like "good" and "evil" are contrary to some relativistic moral codes, but much to my surprise, they really do exist.
Grow up, Joanie. Quit acting like a flower child.
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Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
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Me#1You#10
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| Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 6:53 pm Post subject: |
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| I wonder at the psychological underpinnings and long-term ramifications of viewing life through Ms. Baez's dark prism. |
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BuffaloJack
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1637
Location: Buffalo, New York
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| Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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Joan Baez in the late 70s or early 80s apologized to the troops and said that she'd been completely wrong about them and regretted it.
Her actions and statements since then have only shown that she didn't mean a word of her apologee. She's been an anti-military anti-war harpie and hippie her entire life.
Her recent words have been that she was opposed to the Vietnam war and now opposes the Iraq War. What a sack of decrepit slime.
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