Category: Politics

World Affairs: Rock star Bono urges Americans to improve Brand USA

Rock star Bono urges Americans to improve Brand USA

Jonathan Blundell
Staff writer

DALLAS – In front of a mixed crowd wearing T-shirts, flip flops and business suits, U2’s lead singer, Bono, captivated a Dallas crowd Friday night at the Music Hall at Fair Park – without the help of his legendary rock band.

The event was a fund raiser for Dallas’ World Affairs Council, with tickets going from $25 to $500.

Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison introduced Bono and said she first met the Nobel Peace Prize Nominee at the National Prayer Breakfast, held this past February in Washington.

“He gave a spellbinding address,” Hutchison said. “He is an extraordinary man not easily forgotten. For sure he is a great singer, a true rock star and a man with heart and deeds to match his words.”

Bono, one third of Time Magazines 2006 Person of the year, was then welcomed to the stage with a thunderous standing ovation.

He assured the “loud ones in the crowd” that the rest of his band would not be joining him for the night.

“If you were expecting the band, I’m sorry to disappoint, I don’t even tell them that I do these things,” Bono said as he loosened his canary yellow tie.

Donning a dark grey business suit, his trademark sunglasses and flashing the UT “Hookem,” Bono told the crowd of 4,000 that he wasn’t accustomed to wearing a tie and joked that he didn’t wear ties for politicians — but only for the people of Texas.

Bono then recounted his journey to becoming “a rock star with a cause” and said he had been humbled in Dallas before.

“The first time I was in Dallas was April 1981 and U2 was double billed with a wet T-shirt contest,” the Irish rock musician said. “The tickets were only $1 and only 30 people showed up. The DJ then introduced us as one of the most promising bands from England.”

Bono said that as a teenager growing up in Dublin, he was impacted by punk rock bands like the Clash.

“The Clash was like a public service announcement with a guitar,” Bono said. “I took it at face value. But then I discovered they wore the boots, but they wouldn’t march. They’d break bottles over there head but they wouldn’t do the painful thing like attending a town hall meeting.”

In 1985, Bono became involved with Africa and politics at Live Aid, a multi-country concert and fund-raiser to raise awareness for problems in Africa.

“Shortly after Live Aid, Ali (Bono’s wife) and I went and lived in Ethiopia for a month,” Bono said. “The children there called me the girl with a beard. Ethiopia blew my mind. On the last day there a man handed his baby to me and said ‘please take him with you.’ We had to turn him down and it’s a feeling that hasn’t left me. It was then that I became the worst thing of all – a rock star with a cause.”

But Bono said Africa is more than just a cause – it is an emergency.

“6.5 thousand Africans are dying everyday,” Bono said. “There are 12 million AIDS orphans in Africa alone. When the tsunami hit Indonesia, it killed 150,000 people. In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. That’s one tsunami every month.”

Bono applauded American charity but said there was more to Africa that a need for charity.

“This is not about charity, it’s about justice,” Bono said. “And that’s too bad because we’re good at charity. But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our justice. We would never let it happen anywhere else. Where you live should not determine whether you live.”

With recent debt cancellation by western countries, Bono said that Uganda has used its money towards tripling the number of children in school. Polio, which was once a plague is now almost extinct. Bono also predicted that with continued funding and help, Malaria would be eradicated within five years.

Bono, the consummate politician, sang the praises of President George Bush, who has worked to triple American aid to Africa in the last few years, but said he was saddened by measures in the House this week to cut foreign aid by 10 percent, or nearly $2.4 billion.

Earlier this week, DATA Executive Director Jamie Drummand said, “This is more than a blow to the White House. This is a blow to the Republicans’ global compassion agenda. For House Republicans to shortchange the President’s foreign policy goals will result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives in the world’s poorest countries. The Senate must step up and the President must fight for his initiatives. They can still save these lives.”

DATA is an awareness organization founded by Bono in 2002 to reduce debt, AIDS and improve trade in Africa.

“The global war against terror is bound up in the war against poverty. Collin Powell said that. And when an American military man says the American military is not enough, we need to take notice,” Bono said. “Poverty breeds despair and despair breeds violence. Isn’t it cheaper to make friends of potential enemies than to defend against them later.”

Bono pleaded with the audience to encourage their lawmakers to improve “Brand USA.”

“USA is a truly great brand,” Bono said. “But in some parts of the world, brand USA is not at its shiniest. Never before have we in the West seen our values and credibility under such attack. I want people to know what America stands for. I’m a fan. I’m an annoying fan who reads the liner notes and asks the tough questions. Only I’m reading the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and saying, ‘Doesn’t it say this here?’ These anti-viral drugs are the best advertisement for brand America. I told the president to paint them red, white and blue. Just get them out there. Isn’t compassion one of the best ways to communicate your values?”

Bono added that he had not gone soft and he still preferred army boots over Birkenstocks.

“For the believers in the room, I say that I’m not a very good example,” Bono said. “But we should see this as obedience. A pastor once told me to stop doing things and hoping God blesses them. Find out what God is doing because it’s already been blessed. I’m deeply convicted that this is what God is doing. God has a special place for the poorest of the poor. I believe God is in the slums and God is in the cardboard boxes.”

And Bono compared American foreign aid to church tithing.

“It’s always amazed me how much of Americans tithe 10 percent,” Bono said. “But how does that compare to the federal budget. How much do you tithe as an American family? The number is less than one percent.”
Bono said he realized that while one percent was an extraordinary amount of money, it would make a world of difference in Africa.

“The last time I was in Washington I asked Congress, ‘Is giving one percent more really such a crazy idea?’ It’s got to be a good idea. One percent is a girl in Africa who gets to go to school. One percent is not redecorating a palace, its digging water holes to provide clean water. I know you’ve been through a lot with Katrina and Rita and the War in Iraq. But every generation has its defining moral struggle. This is our Omaha Beach. This is our moon shot. Our one true grab at greatness.”

Bono ended his address with a story about Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Fransico.

Lantos grew up in Hungry and was sent to a concentration camp during World War II.

Bono recalled that the thing Lantos couldn’t get out of his head were the faces of those who watched in silence as people were being boarded onto the trains.

“He said that people just stood by and watched in silence,” Bono said. “The holocaust is not an analogy anyone can use lightly. So I asked if he felt the same thing was going on in Africa.”

Bono said the congressman told him, the only difference was, “we know where the trains are going.”

“We will not stand in silence,” Bono charged the crowd. “We will go and lay down on the tracks and stop them.”

—
For more information visit:
www.data.org
www.one.org

Colbert at the White House Correspondants dinner

Stephen Colbert at White House

Stephen Colbert roasted the president and his staff last week at the White House Correspondant’s Dinner.
Here’s what one blogger wrote about it:

Bush glowered. Laura looked confused. Scott McClellan was like a dead deer caught in the headlights. Many of the journalists, celebs, ranking generals and other ‘notables’ at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner laughed openly, albeit uncomfortably, as Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report” just made himself about 500 times more of a national treasure and cemented himself as one of the most fearless satirists of this generation (instantly outpacing Jon Stewart, who, you get the feeling, wouldn’t have had the nerve to go as far as Colbert did) by way of a savage and hilarious roast/takedown of President Bush, who was seated not eight feet away.

It’s hillarious. If you haven’t seen it or hear it, do so.

Watch on Google Video

Letter from friend


A local artist and art teacher sent me this email today. Thought it was worth sharing.

This is a letter of mine that my daughter put on her blog.
As a mother, teacher, artist, and citizen I feel very strongly about this issue. Would you be comfortable passing it along? You could present it with a full disclaimer so you don’t have to take any heat from it.
If this makes you uncomfortable in any way, please know that I am WAY OK with you refusing to do it. I have other ways of getting the message out.
In case you can’t open the attachment, I’m including the letter in the body of this email below.
—
An Open Letter:
Estos palabras de mi corazon son para mis mijas y mijos,
These word from my heart are for my daughters and sons, of all races, all countries of origin, all socio-economic groups, and all cities in all states who protested the new laws about illegal immigration, I am so proud of you. In your youthful enthusiasm, idealism and courage, you did what “We The People” have forgotten how to do. Like the forefathers of our forefathers, you protested.
By the thousands, in high spirits with endless possibilities shining in your eyes, you made the pilgrimage to City Hall. You know that this country is the land of milk and honey, the place where dreams come true. Your parents brought you here, mostly at great risk to themselves, knowing that if you are born in this country , if you are willing to work hard enough can make a good lives for yourselves. As soon as you were old enough to understand they told you, “Get an education in this country, my love, and the future can belong to you.”
Your parents have worked hard ever since they entered this country. They have done whatever they had to to keep you healthy, fed and in school. Sometimes that means you don’t see them often; sometimes that means you have to grow up too fast and do the things they would do if they only had more time at home.
In History and Civics classes you learned what the spirit of this country is all about, and that was inspiring. Though you may be young, you already have learned the lesson that in many places in our world, there are no inalienable rights. Speaking one’s heart may be rewarded with torture, jail or death. There is no right to congregate or bear arms. Anyone seen in the streets after curfew can be shot. There is very little health care, education, programs to provide food for the needy. In an economy where the needy serve as the foundation upon which the country operates, there are simply too many for whom to provide. You read about the Tea Party held in Boston and you were excited. You read about the protests in the 60’s, the sit ins and marches that erased forever the notion that this country was only for a certain few. And perhaps you thought, “If ever I saw injustice, that’s what I would do.”
And then injustice invited itself right into your home and sat right down with your family as if it had the right to participate in your goals and dreams. This government is trying to pass laws that will affect your family and your future without even consulting you – without even understanding your situation. Your parents may be legal or illegal aliens, but you are citizens. And in this country citizens have rights.
So you came by the thousands to protest without weapons or fists, just your amiable willingness to engage in dialog.
In the news I heard about the principals of your schools punishing you by eliminating prom. Freedom is never achieved without consequences. And it is those consequences that make it such a sweet reward. But I believe we missed a huge opportunity to show you the importance we place on the traditions that in the past won for us our taken-for-granted freedoms. The consequences could have been that you were charged to create art, poetry, drama, and music about this dilemma. You could have been taught a universal socially acceptable voice.
We have forgotten that our country was built on the right to protest. How have we have come to regard protesters as fringe lunatics?
We are so comfortable in the illusions we have built on credit so we can appear like we belong to the ruling class, that we have forgotten to keep our eye on the ruling class.
If protest were part of our active vocabulary of responses to governmental interference with our inalienable rights, we would have turned out en masse the day after George Bush, Jr. won by thievery his first presidential election. We would have raised our voices and let them know that we won’t tolerate any more funny business. No Nepotism. No hanging chads. No Polling improprieties.
If we weren’t afraid of awakening out of our sleepwalk, we’d protest. But we seem to have forgotten that if we are subjected to no shrill actions, then we are merely reciting out of our hypnotic trance.
If we weren’t logey with excess, we’d have noticed by now that what we thought was merely the nibbling of mice at our core values and rights, is really the work of large deforestation equipment. We turn over in our complacency and pull up the cozy covers while our standing in the world community goes into the wood chipper, piece by piece.
If we weren’t so self absorbed, we might wrest our gaze from the mirrors and looked out the window, noticing that the mountain tops are being lopped off and the rivers are running red with the blood of our mother earth. The glaciers are melting. Our four legged brothers and sisters are fleeing their homes only to find that there is no where to go. With out knowing which species hold the cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s, AID’s and other human health maladies, we stand by and even invite industry to decimate scores of species a day. A DAY! All so we can hold in our sweaty grasp a fistful of freshly minted, newly designed dollars.
We are distanced from the ones who speak out.
We think of ourselves as too fragile and sensitive to bear the truth.
We don’t even vote. Is that apathy or what?
I want you to know how much I admire your action. You will make great citizens and I hope in the coming weeks we respond to your protest in ways that encourage you. We need your fresh perspective and your passion.
Write poems and songs about your families that came here for better lives. Paint you ideals in oils and acrylics and hang them on our walls so all may have the privilege of seeing the world through your eyes. Write and perform plays about how the government of this country sometimes looks frighteningly like the ones your parents fled. Show us, please, with your idealism and enthusiasm, what we no longer have the innocence and objectivity to perceive. Make us angry; make us feel guilty; make us remember what it feels like to be alive and belong to the family of man.

Any thoughts?
I still laugh when I think that 63 percent of Israel turned out to vote in their latest election. Over 75 percent of Iraqi’s voted – with bombs going off around the country. We think we need to bring democracy to the U.S.? They should be bringing it to us.

Students protest

Students from Irving, Dallas, Plano and Mesquite ISD protested at City Hall for a 2nd day today.

The students were protesting new measures discussed by the House to make helping illegal immigrants a crime.

Many Hispanic leaders are asking the students to remain in school now, after two days of walk-outs and protest on Saturdays and Sundays.

After thousands of North Texas students left classes for a second day in response to proposed legislation that would make it a felony to enter the country illegally or to help illegal immigrants, community leaders issued a plea Tuesday afternoon for the students to take more “constructive” action.
In a quickly-arranged news conference in City Hall’s Flag Room, the leaders talked about the need for students to end the walkouts, and gave several students the opportunity to speak about their feelings.
“The walkouts have been very effective, but it’s time for everyone to go back to school and start writing letters and making phone calls to your senator or congressman,” said Domingo Garcia, a Dallas lawyer and current National Civil Rights Chairman for LULAC.
Garcia said a civil rights march will be held in Dallas on April 9, and encouraged students and others who felt strongly about the issue to plan on taking part in that event rather than missing additional classes.

I wonder how much of the protest was heard about in Washington. And sadly I wonder if it has made any difference.

An interesting sidebar: KTVT had video of several students saying they were organized by using Myspace.com. Makes you realize how powerful a tool it can be if used properly. Several thousand students organized the rally on Dallas City Hall with Myspace. It’s a powerful tool for sure.

E-Medicine

Joe Barton

, chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee is working to create a new national health records database.

The system would allow medical records to be stored electronically and transferred from doctor to doctor or hospital to hospital for efficiency and cost reductions.

But Dr. Deborah C. Peel with Patient Privacy Rights is concerned that too many people will have access to a patient’s records without their knowledge or consent.

I think both are very important. I want the doctors who need access, to have every bit of information they need, but if I had a medical condition that did not concern them, I’d prefer to keep those issues private as well.

I wonder what the future of medicine will look like.

Should a psychologist be able to see that I have an STD or an addiction? Should my dentist be able to see that I visit a shrink?

Of course security around the system is important as well. You don’t want some teenage boy to be able to hack into the system through Google.

Firewalls and encryption must be a top priority as well.

But where do you draw the lines and how do you allow limited access?

Hopefully Congress will find the answers before the bill passes.