Rock 'n' roll and tragedy
don't mix
Ellen Simonson
I have a great idea. Let's have a concert.
Let's get all the protest singers of old together to sing their anti-war
anthems once more. Bob Dylan can sing
"Blowin' in the Wind," Neil Young can sing "Ohio," Country Joe can sing
"Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag." We
can all mourn once more the devastation the Vietnam War wreaked upon
the world.
And I propose we should hold this concert
directly in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Come on, really — what better place could
there be? The names of 58,000 people who died in the only war we
ever lost are a fitting backdrop indeed
to a rock 'n' roll show. We'll sell Miller Lite and tie-dyes and make a
mint
while we're at it. And we can watch the
audience gyrate and frolic in front of that flat black expanse.
Does this idea sound absolutely repugnant
to you? Me too — so what the hell was U2 doing performing before
the names of the Sept. 11 dead at a football
game halftime show?
The word is often overused, but what happened
on Sept. 11 utterly qualifies as a tragedy. The people who died
that day did so needlessly, unfairly and
too young. Are their names now in the same category as pyrotechnic
shows and fiery guitars — a visual spectacle
to get the audience excited?
I know the performance was supposed to
be a tribute. I know we were supposed to be celebrating the lives of
those who perished that day. But there
are better ways to honor someone's sacrifice than by flashing the camera
back and forth between the names of the
dead and the audience members gyrating joyously.
The commercialization of American culture
has been well documented, and even "underground culture" doesn't
stay underground for long before it's
snapped up, packaged and sold back to you by those big, mean powers that
be.
So I guess it's not surprising that something
that impacted every American so deeply is now being exploited for
commercial gain.
But that doesn't make it right. Those people
didn't die to become the backdrop for a rock concert. To use their
sacrifice so selfishly is crass, disturbing
and shameful.
The end
Well, this is it: the end of my career
as opinion columnist. I'm going to try my hand at news. This has been a
whole lot of fun, and I'm going to miss
it.
But I have one thing to say before I go.
Writing opinion does not mean ranting. This section is not a forum for
unsubstantiated condescension or preaching-to-the-choir
smugness.
If you want to write opinions, you should
honestly want to influence people's thinking on certain matters — not
further ignorance among those who agree
with you while angering those who don't. And while nobody is perfect,
especially me, respect is a worthy goal
in any honestly intellectual debate.
Take it easy, everyone.
