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Bono's musical message
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Musicians with a message were as ubiquitous during the last presidential campaign as bumper stickers - and often as mindless. But U2 legend Bono is, well, a thinking fan's musician.
After all, this is the guy who accompanied a former Bush administration Treasury secretary to Africa, played a tribute to our own Sen. Edward M. Kennedy during the Democratic National Convention here, and was even mentioned as a possible contender to head the World Bank.
The message he delivers during his current concert tour - including his sell-out concerts this week at the FleetCenter - is a pitch for his One campaign, dedicated to ``ending extreme poverty in our lifetime'' and fighting AIDS around the globe. Earlier this week he spoke of the legacy of John F. Kennedy and the kind of leadership he exercised that led to an American being the first to walk on the moon.
"We are so much more powerful when we work together as one,'' he said before launching into his song with the same message.
The One campaign is a diverse group of faith-based organizations, anti-poverty groups, charities like Oxfam and Bread for the World, media organizations which have donated on-air time and Sun Microsystems.
Bono's current focus is to direct attention to the G-8 nation's Africa Summit this summer, to increase aid "to help the world's poorest people help themselves.''
As another famous song-writer once wrote, ``Imagine.''
