Re: Madonna calls for peace at Los Angeles concert

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

>Dan B wrote--
>I wonder if Madonna will find herself dropped from playlists due to comments
>made at her concert in Los Angeles last night.  I'll resist the temptation to
>offer my take on her words, but I do remember a lot of stations dropping Cat
>Stevens for comments her made.

At the risk of watching the list veer back into politics, last time I 
checked, this is still a free country.  Not everyone wants war.  There have 
always been pacificists, and there have always been religions like Quakers 
and Jehovah's Witnesses who do not believe in war under any 
circumstances.  I read Madonna's comments, and beyond the fact that we in 
the media should never ask athletes or musicians for opinions on the 
problems of society (not because they are stupid, but because it's not 
supposed to be their area of expertise), I don't see how what she said was 
so awful.  Too many of us have knee-jerk reactions after a tragedy.  I'm as 
patriotic as the next person, but when I heard some of the anti-immigrant 
comments being made on Howie Carr's show today (I don't know if he was live 
or if it was a re-broadcast, but the name-calling and demonising of Arabs, 
liberals, Clinton, and various other people did not serve any useful 
purpose as far as I could tell.  On the 700 Club, two days ago, Jerry 
Falwell said we should blame feminists, gay people, and the ACLU, so I 
suppose there will be a long line of people to blame before the week is 
over...), it made me nervous.  What happened in New York and Washington was 
horrible, and somebody should pay for it.  But encouraging the audience to 
hate entire groups of people doesn't give me a warm feeling at all.  So 
Madonna said she is opposed to war.  Okay fine.  Now, let's talk about all 
of the talk shows that are encouraging looney-tune callers to vent their 
rage on whoever.  I commend David Brudnoy, with whom I do not always agree, 
for at least having some real genuine experts who could shed some light on 
various sides of the issue, rather than just name-calling.  As for Madonna, 
she oughta stick to making disco records, but at a time like this, calls 
for peace don't bother me as much as some of the vile rhetoric I am 
beginning to hear...