HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
http://www.omaha.com/
Bereuter one target of Bono's message
BY C. DAVID KOTOK
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
LINCOLN - Rock icon Bono wanted to raise awareness of the African AIDS epidemic last weekend, but there was more to his decision to stop in Lincoln to make his pitch. He also wanted to send a political message to U.S. Rep. Doug Bereuter of Nebraska.
The lead singer and writer for the Irish rock group U2 mixes irony, idealism and reality in his music. The same seems the case with his "Heart of America Tour."
What you don't know, you can feel it somehow.
Unlike most Nebraskans, Washington insiders know that Bereuter, a Republican, plays a key role in determining AIDS policy, debt relief and international monetary policy.
Bono's message to Bereuter was as subtle as a U2 lyric. Bono never mentioned him by name. But cards were distributed to the 2,000 people at the Lied Center for Performing Arts to send to their congressman.
Most in the audience were drawn to the Sunday event more out of hero worship than the cause.
Few probably knew that Bereuter, who declined to attend, was their congressman or that he had a leadership role on debt relief, said Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
"It was no coincidence Bono kicked this off from a stage in Lincoln, Nebraska," said Mara Vanderslice, an activist who is with Bono on the tour.
She and others "were amazed Bono and other didn't mention Bereuter directly."
Her organization, Jubilee USA Network, works for Third World debt relief but is not part of Bono's group DATA - Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa.
Bono has portrayed the Heart of America Tour as an effort to tap middle-America values and apply them to the AIDS battle.
"We hope and Bono hopes that people in every congressional district in America become concerned with the AIDS crisis in Africa," said Jen Bluestein, the DATA spokeswoman traveling with the tour.
You love this town, even if it doesn't ring true.
Not only the first stop in Lincoln, but the first three rallies on Bono's tour could have been planned by a political operative in full campaign mode. Bono appeared in Lincoln; Iowa City, Iowa; and the Chicago suburb of Wheaton, Ill.
For those calling on the U.S. government to do more to provide AIDS drugs to suffering Africans and to relieve the debt burden on their governments, these towns are significant.
Wheaton is home to U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, GOP chairman of the House International Relations Committee. Iowa City is in the district of U.S. Rep. Jim Leach, a leading Republican member of both the International Relations and Financial Services Committees.
Target No. 1 was the low-key Bereuter, chairman of the Financial Services subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade. Bereuter carries a lot of weight on the issues closest to Bono's heart.
In this year's effort to provide debt relief to the sub-Saharan African nations, "Doug Bereuter was the key to holding it up," Vanderslice said.
Bereuter, who has a reputation as a proponent of AIDS assistance and debt relief, said in a prepared statement: "I have no feeling that this was targeted at me or my constituents."
"It is very true that I have been active on debt relief issues," Bereuter said, "and I have been very active back into the 1980s."
The debt relief legislation supported by Bono and other groups was going nowhere, he said, because the Bush administration and leaders of other industrialized countries opposed it.
Bereuter explained how the House and Senate were unable to get together on AIDS and debt-relief legislation.
On the House side, any attempt to reconcile the differences depended on Hyde to take the different bills to conference, Bereuter said. "No motion to go to conference was ever made," he said.
As key senators pushed for a last-ditch effort this fall to enact some help, Bereuter said, he offered, to no avail, to put $250 million into the relief fund.
"We made a good-faith effort to move the process forward," Bereuter said, "and did not delay the progress of this bill."
You thought you found a friend to take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand in return for grace.
Lyrics: Bono "Beautiful Day"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bereuter one target of Bono's message
BY C. DAVID KOTOK
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
LINCOLN - Rock icon Bono wanted to raise awareness of the African AIDS epidemic last weekend, but there was more to his decision to stop in Lincoln to make his pitch. He also wanted to send a political message to U.S. Rep. Doug Bereuter of Nebraska.
The lead singer and writer for the Irish rock group U2 mixes irony, idealism and reality in his music. The same seems the case with his "Heart of America Tour."
What you don't know, you can feel it somehow.
Unlike most Nebraskans, Washington insiders know that Bereuter, a Republican, plays a key role in determining AIDS policy, debt relief and international monetary policy.
Bono's message to Bereuter was as subtle as a U2 lyric. Bono never mentioned him by name. But cards were distributed to the 2,000 people at the Lied Center for Performing Arts to send to their congressman.
Most in the audience were drawn to the Sunday event more out of hero worship than the cause.
Few probably knew that Bereuter, who declined to attend, was their congressman or that he had a leadership role on debt relief, said Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
"It was no coincidence Bono kicked this off from a stage in Lincoln, Nebraska," said Mara Vanderslice, an activist who is with Bono on the tour.
She and others "were amazed Bono and other didn't mention Bereuter directly."
Her organization, Jubilee USA Network, works for Third World debt relief but is not part of Bono's group DATA - Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa.
Bono has portrayed the Heart of America Tour as an effort to tap middle-America values and apply them to the AIDS battle.
"We hope and Bono hopes that people in every congressional district in America become concerned with the AIDS crisis in Africa," said Jen Bluestein, the DATA spokeswoman traveling with the tour.
You love this town, even if it doesn't ring true.
Not only the first stop in Lincoln, but the first three rallies on Bono's tour could have been planned by a political operative in full campaign mode. Bono appeared in Lincoln; Iowa City, Iowa; and the Chicago suburb of Wheaton, Ill.
For those calling on the U.S. government to do more to provide AIDS drugs to suffering Africans and to relieve the debt burden on their governments, these towns are significant.
Wheaton is home to U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, GOP chairman of the House International Relations Committee. Iowa City is in the district of U.S. Rep. Jim Leach, a leading Republican member of both the International Relations and Financial Services Committees.
Target No. 1 was the low-key Bereuter, chairman of the Financial Services subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade. Bereuter carries a lot of weight on the issues closest to Bono's heart.
In this year's effort to provide debt relief to the sub-Saharan African nations, "Doug Bereuter was the key to holding it up," Vanderslice said.
Bereuter, who has a reputation as a proponent of AIDS assistance and debt relief, said in a prepared statement: "I have no feeling that this was targeted at me or my constituents."
"It is very true that I have been active on debt relief issues," Bereuter said, "and I have been very active back into the 1980s."
The debt relief legislation supported by Bono and other groups was going nowhere, he said, because the Bush administration and leaders of other industrialized countries opposed it.
Bereuter explained how the House and Senate were unable to get together on AIDS and debt-relief legislation.
On the House side, any attempt to reconcile the differences depended on Hyde to take the different bills to conference, Bereuter said. "No motion to go to conference was ever made," he said.
As key senators pushed for a last-ditch effort this fall to enact some help, Bereuter said, he offered, to no avail, to put $250 million into the relief fund.
"We made a good-faith effort to move the process forward," Bereuter said, "and did not delay the progress of this bill."
You thought you found a friend to take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand in return for grace.
Lyrics: Bono "Beautiful Day"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
