Joan Baez banned at Walter Reed hospital

[oberliner]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - Folk singer and anti-war activist Joan Baez says she doesn't know why she was not allowed to perform for recovering soldiers recently at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as she planned.

In a letter to The Washington Post published Wednesday, she said rocker
John Mellencamp had asked her to perform with him last Friday and that she accepted his invitation.

"I have always been an advocate for nonviolence and I have stood as firmly against the
Iraq war as I did the Vietnam War 40 years ago," she wrote. "I realize now that I might have contributed to a better welcome home for those soldiers fresh from Vietnam. Maybe that's why I didn't hesitate to accept the invitation to sing for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In the end, four days before the concert, I was not 'approved' by the Army to take part. Strange irony."

Baez, 66, told the Post in a telephone interview Tuesday that she was not told why she was left off the program by the Army. "There might have been one, there might have been 50 (soldiers) that thought I was a traitor," she told the paper.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070502/ap_on_en_mu/people_baez;_ylt=AqmpuXw0uuotbAxw5t30q0rMWM0F

[k8conant]

1. I heard that a while ago and it sucks...

"You haven't an arm, you haven't a leg,
"You're an armless, boneless, chickenless egg,
"Oh, Johnny, we hardly knew ya."

[marshall]

18. It could be a generational thing

I checked the article to make sure it was not a performance to aging baby boomer veterans--it's not. "Recovering soldiers" are for the most part in their early twenties. They also probably aren't interested in hearing the Rolling Stones, Peter Paul and Mary, the Monkees, Tom Jones, etc. Bring in somebody from the current century and they would probably be interested.

[captain jack]

2. It appears that Joan Baez would do more harm to the soldiers than walter reed has already done.

What a joke.

[Metta]

3. Her guitar kills fascists.

Without judgements and comparisons.

[ryanmuegge]

4. Hmm..What about Dave Mustaine?

[ryanmuegge]

5. Oops....sorry.

[ryanmuegge]

6. Hmm..What about Dave Mustaine?

[Amonester]

7. There is NO freedom to sing in the USSA...

That's one of the "lil' thingys" the whole PNAC criminal cabal is about:

$uppress all freedoms to talk, write, and sing what you think!

I M P E A C H

[StarryNite]

8. We don't have many freedoms

left for "them" to hate us for.

[MasonJar]

9. Why do the PUgs/military complex do such totally stupid things. The

satisfaction of putting down a lib could not possibly override the bad press and sneers from everyone else. A famous American singer wants to entertain the troops and the idiots say no. It is inscrutable where their brains are; we know they have no hearts.

[Sabriel]

10. Maybe she could offer to clean up mildew or do some painting

That might get her in the door.

[burrowowl]

11. Joan Baez is a wonderful songtress!

The Army is being represive. Are we surprised?!

[ProudDad]

12. Well, I don't "approve" of the Army... n/t

[ProudDad]

13. Baez AND Dan Rather

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/04/30/walter-reed-welcomes-mellencamp-snubs-baez-and-rather/

Screw the Army, Navy, Marines and bush.

[Rage for Order]

14. Who at Walter Reed would want to listen to Joan Baez's music?

She hasn't been popular for 30+ years, which is longer than most of the patients at Walter Reed have been alive. They may as well bring in a Big Band in zoot suits.

[oberliner]

15. Some of the folks at Walter Reed are so young

That they weren't even alive when John Mellencamp was popular.

Doesn't mean they wouldn't like to hear them play a few songs.

[mitchtv]

16. Believe me , when you're staring at a clock over the door

Any distraction is welcome. Her folk songs have survived for quite a while, some of them.

[area51]

17. Instead of banning Joan Baez...

... they ought to ban vermin who dodged the draft (Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh, Gingrich, etc.), yet send or condone sending our troops to their death.