My Response Letter to my Crappy Campus Paper

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~LadyLemon~

I Serve Larry's Stick
Joined
Jul 7, 2001
Messages
7,392
Location
Akron
For those of you interesting in reading the letter I wrote to my campus newspaper as a guest column in response to their shitty U2 article, here it is. BTW, the last paragraph comes from something someone from Interference said, but I can't remember whom.
It just sounded better to say that I heard that info from a friend (but I really do have a friend in Australia!). Enjoy.
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Upon waking on Tuesday, I was reeling from the images on TV of the terrorist attacks on my country.
I was even more shaken when I learned that the PA plane crash occurred less then a mile from my
great-aunt's farm, and that the wreckage was littered all over her beautiful property. Thankfully, none
of my family or friends were injured in this tragedy.

I didn't want to go to my Tuesday classes, but I forced myself to go, where I had to sit through
classmates' tears, and more gruesome images from the television. When I got home that afternoon,
the first thing I did was to take comfort in my stereo. Music plays an enormous part in my life,
especially during last week. It keeps me sane and like a good friend, offers a shoulder to cry on. The
first thing I thought to listen to was John Lennon's "Imagine". Then I spent the rest of the afternoon
bonding with U2.

Unlike some of the BG News staff, listening to "Peace on Earth" and "Stuck in a Moment You Can't
Get Out Of" helped me to better deal with this situation. Why does it matter that Bono wrote the lyrics
of "Peace on Earth" (and "Sunday Bloody Sunday") about bombings and massacres in Ireland? When
observing both situations, what you come down to is that innocent people were ruthlessly killed, all in
the name of stupid and insignificant clashings of political and religious views. To say that these lyrics
do not apply to our situation is absurd.

"Peace on Earth" is a beautiful, but heart-wrenching plea to the world. It begins by stating, "Heaven
on Earth, we need it now". Then a later verse describes all too well what I've been seeing on CNN
lately: "They're reading names out over the radio/ All the folks the rest of us won't get to know/
Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann, and Breda/ They're lives are bigger than, any big idea".

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" also offers an alarmingly realistic description of Tuesday's events:
"I can't believe the news today/ I can't close my eyes and make it go away/ How long, how long
must we sing this song/ How long, how long?/ Tonight, we can be as one, tonight/ Broken bottles
under children's feet/ Bodies strewn across the dead end street/...This many lost but tell me who
has won?". These lyrics are precisely echoing everyone's sentiments throughout the country.

I don't think that this has anything to do with "how fair it is of us to grab that song for our own patriotic
profit." To be thinking of something as insignificant as that during this period of turmoil in the U.S. is
really ridiculous. Music brings people together, and music helps us to heal. Listening to the new U2
album now, the songs carry completely different meanings than they did for me last fall. But it is a
blessing, because these new double meanings have offered myself and many others, much comfort in a
time of crisis and confusion.

I leave you with something I heard from a friend of mine living in Australia. She was listening to the
radio after hearing about the attacks on the U.S. The radio DJ was very upset, and offered
condolences to our country. Then he said that he didn't believe in God, but that he knew of a song that
was as powerful, and as meaningful as God. He then played U2's "One".


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outta my brain on the 5:15

[This message has been edited by ~LadyLemon~ (edited 09-18-2001).]
 
Thoughts, comments, suggestions, insults?
Come on you guys are good at insults!!
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outta my brain on the 5:15
 
Well, you won't get an insult out of me, because I think your response was great
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And I completely agree!!!

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"If I am close to the music, and you are close to the music, we are close to each other." -Bono
 
LadyLemon, you put my own thought to paper and I thank you. Being a subpar writer, I'm always jealous of craftman's like yourself and your ability to state emotion and relevance so elequently. Cheers
 
great letter!

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"I can't believe the news today,
Oh, I can't close my eyes
And make it go away.
How long...
How long must we sing this song?
How long? How long...
'cause tonight...we can be as one."

Love to all of you,
Emily
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone--I appreciate it.

Danospano--thank you! My goal in life is to be a "real" writer (well, I'm in school working on that!) so I really appreciate what you've said.
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Foray--I really did want to be a nasty bitch
(it comes quite naturally to me,lol), but then they won't print this, and I'd really like to get this piece in the paper. It wasn't printed today, probably because I emailed the letter to them around 6 yesterday. If they don't do it tomorrow, then I'll give you guys their email, and we can all raise some royal hell!!!!

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outta my brain on the 5:15
 
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