We're happy to report some WONDERFUL news here at MwUSA.blgsptcom. Bono, lead singer of the band "U2," and Bobby Schriver, nephew of President John F. Kennedy, have both worked to start up an AIDS charity called, simply, "RED," a charity that allows European and American consumers to almost effortlessly make purchasing choices that automatically send funds to "Red," an global AIDS charity.
But what was exceptional about Bono and Schriver's efforts are not that they have launched a successful, life-sustaining charity... nor even that they are using the strength of corporate America (and Europe), and the marketing geniuses of those companies, to make the fundraising efforts a simple and rewarding part of everyday consumer life.
No, what was truly EXCEPTIONAL about the Bono-Schriver appearance on Larry King Live last night was that the two wealthy Irish descendents (Bono is still Irish) not only rekindled the appeal to AMERICA's GREATNESS as a warm, compassionate, and charitable nation, but also that they brought to our attention something that wealthy Americans tend to forget: that not only are we a nation of immigrants, but that many of those immigrants have been REFUGEES; and in the case of Irish Americans, refugees fleeing a BRTUAL FAMINE that was MAN-MADE as much as it was a result of the potato blight. Bono recounted the history: << as Irish people we faced a very brutal famine, which was not as people often describe as a tater blight. It was actually -- it was organized by the then oppressive British forces in Ireland that we couldn't get to the food. >>
BONO THEN RECOUNTS HOW TODAY, despite claims of Western "charity" to Africa, the fact remains that << Africa was PAYING MUCH MORE BACK TO the western world servicing OLD DEBTS than it was ever getting, receiving in aid monies and I thought this was mad.... >>
[note: this is EXACTLY the prescription for extornionate lending by Amerian and European banks as recounted in the New York Times' bestseller book, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins. Google has some pages of the book for viewer sampling, which of course is available at bookstores everywhere.]
IN CONFRONTING both a deadly disease (AIDS, and the greater epidemic of what Bono calls "STUPID, STARVATION POVERTY"), the tendency of America to wallow in resentment and lethargy and do far less than is possible to combat such dehumanizing blights; and as well the tendency of Americans to IGNORE OUR OWN history as descendents of peasants, persecuted minorities, and refugees, BONO and SCHRIVER SCORE A DIRECT HIT.
Much has been written lately about how the Democrats are known more for RETREATING and GOING PASSIVE on the issues than for fighting back. And much history has been written about how POLITICAL ACE and Senate Majority Leader LYNDON JOHNSON (regarded by some historians as sort of a "co-president," legislatively, behind the scenes of the Eisenhower White House, Johnson was that powerful when teamed up with his mentor, House Speaker Sam Rayburn, both of Texas).... how, despite his power, experience, and connections, Johnson was COMPLETELY FROZEN OUT of the Democratic presidential nomination by John F. Kennedy, whom the experienced Johnson considered a rookie, neophyte, and superficial, inexperienced playboy!
Well, the key to Kennedy's meteoric political rise, of course, was the wealth and "street smarts" of his father and dynasty patriarch Joseph Kennedy, whose "street creds" were so deep, that they were all but intertwined with some of the most powerful mobsters of the prohibition era. But as one political video (Leslie Stahl, in the Bill Moyers produced series?) observed, the Kennedy's political genius was in harnessing the family's wealth and vitality to America's modern production economic post-WWII corncopia... along with the majestic pagentry of ANCIENT CATHOLIC RITUAL.
John Kennedy of course resolved that HE WOULD NOT be a slave or subject to Vatican dictates while leading the nation of America as president.... a notion of fallibility of the Church, and separation of Church and state, that is QUAINT in today's overheated era of Bible thumping (that is so extreme that the nation that put man on the moon is, in so many states, trying to prohibit the teaching of evolution in public schools). BUT the Kennedy's were genuises as harnessing the pomp, majesty, and glory of ancient Catholic pagentry to a modern political campaign... giving up absolutely nothing to the British royals or any other monarchs in the "all business is show business" department.
And, we must recall, despite the Kennedy millions, the photogenic good looks of the Kennedy brothers and heroic WWII record of JFK; despite the legendary political experince of Lyndon Johnson and control by the Democrats of both the House and the Senate... despite ALL of that, it was still a very close election against Vice President Richard Nixon in 1960, and, ironically, many have held that it was the Democrat's use of "the MISSILE GAP" issue that determined the outcome. (After winning the election and being presented with the illustrations of America's actual nuclear arsenal, John F. Kennedy instantly realized that there had never been "a missile gap," but that Eisenhower and Nixon could not rebut the charge without disclosing classified secrets.) (On the other hand, there is NO substance to the rumor that the Chicago mob delivered the election to the Kennedy-Johnson team. A look at the electoral map reaveals the Democrats would have won WITHOUT Illinois.)
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http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0610/13/lkl.01.html
KING: We're back with Bono and Bobby Shriver. Bono, why do you do all that you do? What inspires you to do -- you raise more money probably than any single individual in the world, why?....
BONO: Well, you know, I'm sure there's a complicated response to that and that, you know, maybe I haven't had time to figure out. I started off during Live Aid in the mid-'80s. U2 played on Live Aid and I kind of got caught up in this and ended up in Africa working in an orphanage in Ethiopia during the famine there.
And, I certainly saw things there that I wish I hadn't and had experiences I wish I and my wife had not had. And, you know, you say you won't forget but we did. We got back to our lives. But always in the back of my head I kind of had a feeling that this kind of poverty is not there just by accident.
There's a sort of structural nature of this and I started to discover that, for instance, that Africa was paying much more back to the western world servicing old debts than it was ever getting, receiving in aid monies and I thought this was mad.
And, you know, we raised $250 million or something at Live Aid back in the mid-'80s. Well Africa is paying that every few weeks back to us. So, I started to see things through a slightly different prism, one that you might call justice rather than charity.
It offended my sense of fairness is probably the answer to your question. And we were talking earlier about this, myself and Bobby, him being a Shriver/Kennedy there's Irish blood there and me, somewhere in the back of your head there has to be a sense that as Irish people we faced a very brutal famine, which was not as people often describe as a tater blight. It was actually -- it was organized by the then oppressive British forces in Ireland that we couldn't get to the food.
And, I started, you know, any Irish person has this folk memory of famine and, you know, as a result of that famine, you know, you have, you know, you have all the policemen in New York now. SHRIVER: You have Shrivers in California.
BONO: And Catholics in office.
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