I originally planned not to post anything today so I could enjoy our (or mine to my foreign friends) nation’s birthday. But last night I was wondering around the web last night when I can across a site blog last night that had some bad things to say about the Live 8 and its message. As a fan as the show and the cause (scroll down to the next post to see my review) I was a little unhappy with this dude’s assessment of the concert especially since he didn’t do he research on the subject and printed some straight up lies. So I decide to write him a little comment setting things straight. Of course a little quickly turned to a lot as I wrote for about an hour. Then when I went to send my comment only to find out as I wrote, the dude turned off his comments. Hi received what he called “comment terrorist.” Apparently there were people leaving vulgar comment. Granted, I just call these people idiots as I fell terrorist is a little harsh. So instead of wasting my comment, I decided to post it here, so if you would please, hop over to Sanity’s Bluff and read Been to a Wild Part Lately? And read his original post than come back here to read my comment in its entirety. And feel free to leave you opinion on the subject in my comment section about either his post or my reply.
A Letter to Sanity’s Bluff
There are a lot of holes in that post. First off, Africa was invited to the party as there was a concert held in Johannesburg. The face of Africa, Nelson Mandela was there. Also Bob Geldolf brought a woman to the stage that was given 10 minutes to live 20 years ago and thanks to money raised by Live Aid, the young woman is now in college in Ethiopia. I dare you to watch this moment and not cry like a little girl. But apparently help did get to Africa.
Secondly, yes Africa is worse off then they were 20 years ago, but this due to years of civil war that make it hard to import humanitarian aid. Read Black Hawk Down to see exactly how hard this can be. Also high tariffs hurt the local economy on the continent.
And how exactly do you know that Bob Geldolf is “much richer” now than he was twenty years? Geldolf runs a non-profit organization and I can’t imagine that the residuals from his Boomtown Rats days to really bring in too much money these days. As for the other artist, I haven’t even heard from must of them since Live Aid except for episodes of Where Are They Now, and let me tell you, none are “much richer than they were back then. Now if you wrote that without knowing the facts, you are no better than Dan Rather.
Thirdly, it is very wrong to pigeonhole the people involved as liberals. I am a conservative, and I support their case. If you have seen the commercial for The One Campaign, you would also see Pat Robertson along side Brad Pitt and Bono in the ad. It doesn’t get more conservative that Pat Roberson. Bill Gates was at the event and nothing says corporate domination like the dude who runs Microsoft. They also brought in such “red state” acts as Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, and Mr. Courtasy of the Red, White, and Blue himself, Toby Keith. So to call these people (including myself) liberals is just plain ignorant, not to mention the “liberals” are already one step ahead of you on recruiting “conservatives” to their cause. Instead of suggesting that the liberal recruit conservative, have you ever thought maybe about joining the liberals on this issue like me and many other conservatives already have?
Fourthly, when you wrote, “aging rock stars, hungry for one more spotlight, and an assortment of dogooders” is doing a diservice to many of the acts that showed up. Members Pink Floyd have not taked for about thrirty years let alone performed together over that time. They did not get back together for big payday/reunion tour. They didn’t even get back together for “one more spotlight” when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They got back together, as Rodger Waters said, because it was the right thing to do. Kanye West, at the risk of being sued, played the Live 8 even though he had an apperence in New Orleans on the same day.
Fifthly, saying, “more money was spend (Scooter’s note: actually I think spent is the correct tense, not that I’m a English teacher or anything, but anyways) pampering the millionaire musicians and their friends, than the total given by the 160 'artists’ participating in the L8 concerts, but they demanded charity from everyone else” is a diservice to everyone who donated their time to help make sure the consert ran properly. Also they did not demand charity from anyone as all the tickets to all the event were free.
Also you should suggest that Africa should turn to faith based charity. To take a page out of your ignorant page book: I got two words for you – James Baker. So how does it feel to be pigeonholed? I really doubt that a faith based charity will be able to raise enough money to settle the billions of dollars they are indebted with. And they defiantly cannot end the civil wars and economic turmoil that plagues the continent. The only people that can do anything substantial to help are the politicians. That is what Bob Geldolf and the people of his ilk learn from Live Aid and that is why Live 8 focused on encouraging those who can actually make a difference to do so.
In the end, Bob Geldolf and his ilk can go to sleep knowing they tried to help the continent of Africa. It may not be much, but at least it was something, which is at least better than just sitting at a computer and complaining about people who actually try to help. So what I would like to do now is to invite you and the people of your ilk to hop over to my website and click on The One banner and join myself (and like I mentioned ealier, even conservitives including Pat Robertson) to encourage the G8 to end poverty in Africa because liberals cannot do it on they own and neither can conservatives, everybody needs to help off. (Unless you don’t care that a child dies every three seconds because of poverty, then in that cause, just ignore this whole comment.)
Note from Scooter: As of 1:00 EST, Sanity's Bluff has put his comments back, so you can leave your thoughts about his post over there, but please, don't be a comment terrorist, or as I like to refer to them, idiots.
No comments:
Post a Comment