Brittany Penland (Charlotte Observer) reports a protest took place todayin Charlotte's Midtown Park:
Wounded soldiers, politicians and local preachers were among the
crowd aiming to educate the public about undeclared wars, said Daniel
Rufty, a protest organizer. While the event targeted conservative
Republicans, it was open to all individuals interested.
“We are trying to put pressure on our representatives,” Rufty
said. “The goal is to bring soldiers back from the war...We’re not
against war, we’re against undeclared wars.”
Rufty defined an undeclared war as a conflict that lacks a formal
declaration of war by Congress. He uses the United States’ wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, as well as involvement in Libya, as examples of
conflicts fought without declarations being issued.
And it's good when any of these protests happens, especially one with a strong local turnout, it's a shame that so many on the left packed up their protests in the spirit of 'unity' with a killer. Joan Baez and others better accept the fact that when a Pakistani dies because Barack Obama gave the order, he or she doesn't get wings and float away on a cloud. He or she dies just as violently as the ones killed under Bully Boy Bush and Barack Obama is nothing but another War Hawk. Which makes Joan a very sad, a very old and a very tired whore. Like so many, I have no respect for her. Joan was too 'radical' to be a Democrat and avoided them her entire life but like so many Socialist and Communists she crawled across cut glass to kiss the groin of War Hawk Barack.
Joan is not about peace. You can't be about peace and refuse to call out the man responsible for murders. It doesn't work that way. She whored whatever was left of her name which is too bad because she was on the verge, before her endorsement of Barack, on a real comeback, something that had eluded for decades. The voice had morphed into something different but powerful in its own way and she had a history of standing for something.
She was the non-sitcom version of Friend's Phoebe.(Lisa Kudrow)
There'll be time when you get older
When you'll want to sleep with people
Just to make them like you
But don't.
Cause that's another thing
That you don't want to do
Everybody
That's another thing
That you don't want to do
From "The One After The Superbowl," written by Jeffrey Astrof and Mike Sikowitz. (And, FYI, on Lisa's Web Therapy next week, an important character -- and guest star -- to Fiona returns. Make a point to stream unless you're allergic to laughter.)
And that was Joan to so many kids and young adults who were discovering this woman who used her voice and guitar to call out corrupt regimes and War Hawks and she didn't care if they were this or that, she only cared about being the voice of the people.
Then Joan decided to endorse Barack and whore for him to play Kool Kid despite the fact that anytime she's ever attempted to be trendy it's worked out for her about as well as a bad perm.
And now she has nothing. A name that no longer stands for anything except someone who will gladly whore for a politician. To the children in Pakistan, in Afghanistan and around the world, Joan Baez has said, "Piss on you all, I love Barack!" And that was her choice to go out like some sort of 21st century Miss Havisham on some hormone regimen.
So now she stands for nothing and is about as relevent as Charo. Having destroyed her own legacy, she's just another over seventy woman with a cracked voice and no hit singles who can't get signed by a major label and whose post-inauguration album sold so poorly none of the minors even want to touch her.
I don't mean to imply there's nothing left for her. She could write another book -- one in which she gets honest about all her same-sex lovers. It was so humorous for those of who know Joan to read And A Voice To Sing With . . . as she found herself with Kim. And only Kim. No one but Kim. Kim was a fleeting, passing thing.
Now the reality is that Kim was sleeping with Janis Joplin when Joan Baez first decide she wanted Kim. The reality is there was nothing passive about Joan in that affair and she actively pursued Kim -- as she did many other women though that got left out of her book as well.
Joan could write the truth now. Of course, she wouldn't get applauded now. People would wonder why it took her so long. (It would also further water down the long standing lie of a the passionate affair with Bob Dylan which was, in fact, a very brief relationship lasting months, not years.) And I'm remembering Lily Tomlin's criticisim of Maria Schneider back in the seventies and have a feeling something similar (going out on the bisexual limb) would be said about Joan. People often end up with the lives they sentence themselves too.
Good for the Republicans who organized the protest today (and those who participated -- and hopefully not all participating were Republicans). Notice the ones who are silent and remember their silence the next time a Republican's in the White House when they suddenly care about the people the bombs are falling on, the ones targeted by drones. Remember their silence and their refusal to call out Barack Obama was because they only criticize Republicans. Remember that their silence on what was happening, their whoring for Barack, meant a lot more people died.
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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