I decided to sew last and skipped President Obama’s address about immigration. Later when I sat down in front of the TV this ad from values.com was what I saw first.
What if we imagined a world where children never sit alone at lunch, students in a library worry more about turning in a research paper than being gunned while they study, where people earn enough money to have a little left over at the end of the month, where we inspire people rather than building fences.
I had a few ideas on the poem I would carry today, but after Monday’s heartbreaking tragedy in Boston, I returned, as I have many times, to John Lennon’s Imagine.
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace
You, you may say
I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world
You, you may say
I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
I plugged in my iPod on my way into work this morning, and was surprised to see that Jay Bookman’s column today is all about what I listened to while I drove.
I owned a small market radio station and on September 11, 2001, ABC Radio told affiliates we shouldn’t play John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Well my station did play it.
As the Iraq War began, comments by Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks, weren’t well received when she criticized the President (she named W, but should have added President Cheney too).
Male country musicians in particular were among the worse in condemning Maines.
Did that embolden the public to go so far as to threaten her life? It sure didn’t help.
In my family, we bought two copies of “Taking the Long Way.” We went to hear the Dixie Chicks in Atlanta when they toured to promote the CD. And I have the DVD “Shut Up and Sing” for good measure.
We also went to hear Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young tour after Neil Young released “Living with War.” In the documentary about that tour, fans in Atlanta, where we heard CSNY sing, left the concert because they were singing war protest songs.
Hello? Anybody in there? Did they think those four got a different religion on the way to Phillips Arena? (“The Cost of Freedom” was sung with a slide show of soldiers lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the audience came silently to our feet while they performed.)
Oh yeah, we didn’t stop playing the Dixie Chicks at WJFL anymore than we stopped playing John Lennon. We could all use a little more “Give Peace a Chance” too.
