Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Good grief

Billy Bragg is immortalizing Rachel Corrie in song. If a song was ever eligible for a Darwin award, this must be it.
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6 comments:

Steve said...

Why is that Jeff? Because she died for something she believed in?

3:49 PM
Jeffrey Hill said...

My post was too harsh and not well thought out. I didn’t mean to ridicule her for dying for something she believed in, but for ending her life needlessly. That’s not non-violence. Regardless of her views, she had a better chance of improving the world by living instead of dying. I wish Billy Bragg would sing that song.

4:08 PM
Anonymous said...

Jeffrey, don't apologize. I think her action was 'too harsh and not well thought out'. She could have done a lot more to help bring attention and understanding to this horrible plight, but she chose, as youth often does, to take the dramatic, rash, and ultimately fleeting display of protest. Sometimes it's harder to live for what you believe in. It's too bad that singers/songwriters don't choose to immortalize those who do the hard, boring, unseen and thankless works of good to bring change to the world. I guess that would be too difficult and unpopular.

7:35 PM
Jeffrey Hill said...

duffy, I appreciate your comments and pretty much agree with what you say. Still, I don’t like feeling like that Calvin character pissing on somebody’s grave. The most frustrating thing about the Billy Bragg song is how misleading it is. For example, this line about how Palestinians are viewed by the media:

"….the Palestinian people/Who had become non-persons in the eyes of the media"

Non-persons in the eyes of the media? Who is he kidding?

11:51 AM
Wagstaff said...

I'll risk being a Calvin. I finally just listened to this song. Ouch! I guess Rachel doesn't rate her own tune. It's pompous bullshit. I wonder what Dylan thinks of this. I'll take Hattie Carroll or Neighborhood Bully any day of the week. I never much cared for Bragg. If I'm not buying the message he's selling, what the hell's left? Musical talent? I don't have to be a socialist to still enjoy Woody Guthrie's songs. This kind of lefty claptrap was more understandable back when times was different.

As for Rachel Corrie, I don't care if she believed in what she was doing or not. Suicide bombers are true believers. There's a million fucked up ideas in this crazy world, and I'll wager you can find a true believer for each and every one. Rachel Corrie may have meant well, but she was a sad, useful idiot. It's too bad she's even more useful dead.

4:19 PM
Wagstaff said...

P.S. There, that's my hate speech for the day.

4:23 PM

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