Sarah Gallo
Period 6 and 7
September 28, 2005
My Irish Idol…
My hero is the lead singer of the rock band U2, Bono (born Paul David Hewson). One of the things I admire him for are his humanitarian efforts. Bono really and truly tries to make a difference in this world. For instance, Africa’s AIDS and extreme poverty has long been a social cause for him. He quotes, “Imagine if a third of the kids at your local primary school were AIDS orphans. That’s a reality in Africa where parents of 13 million children have been killed by AIDS.” Back in 1985 after U2 took part in LiveAid, Bono and his wife, Ali, went to Ethiopoia for five weeks and worked at some of the feeding stations there. He said that is was such a sad visit and he will never forget what he saw. And he didn’t because 20 years after LiveAid, this past July he was one of the main organizers and performers of Live8 (10 concerts staged around the world in order to raise awarness of the AIDS and poverty emergency in Africa ahead of this year’s G8 summit). Bono said in 2002, "I don't want my kids asking me, 'How did you let 25 million Africans die for the stupidest of reasons, money?'" Also, Bono is involved in many charitable groups. He has taken interest in Jubilee 2000, which supports third world debt relief, Amnesty International works to release political prisoners and aims to abolish the death penalty and end political killings around the world, Children of Chernobyl is an Irish charity responding to child victims of the Chernoble Nuclear Plant disaster in 1986, and the peaceful environmental group Greenpeace are just a few of the organizations he has given his support to over the years. Recently he has formed an organization with Bill Gates called DATA which stands for “Debt, Aids, and Trade in Africa,” came up with another of his own organizations called “ONE” to make poverty history, and has over the summer met with some of the G8 leaders of different countries to figure out how to provide more money and care to the 3rd world nations. Also, Bono and Ali started their own “Socially Concious” clothing line called Edun. In this 90% of the cotton comes from Africa and South America. It was started to help poor nations with “trade rather than aid.” Bono has been honored with many different awards for his humanitarian efforts along the years such as the European of the Year Award, Heart of Entertainment Award, Humanitarian Laureate Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Musicares Person of the Year. In a few days we will find out if he will be nominated for the Noble Peace Prize for the 4th year in a row.
Another reason I look up to him, is for his loyalty. He is still with the original members of U2 now for 29 years (September 6th was the 29th anniversary) and not one person has come or gone. In most bands these days, throughout the years, people come and go or the band just totally breaks up. So I really respect that they have stayed together for all these years. For nearly 30 years, U2 has been singer Bono, guitarist Edge, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and bassist Adam Clayton, no more, no less, no substitutions. There have been disagreements, but the band always found a way to work out its differences. Bono’s two best friends are the same ones he had growing up before he became famous and U2 has had the same manager the whole time, which is unheard of in the music business. He is one of the few celebrity’s that doesn’t want his bodyguards to follow him everywhere; he is all right with walking on the streets of New York just being himself without anyone following or protecting him. In Ireland outside the studio, if he sees fans waiting outside he will usually offer them a ride back to their hotel or things like that. Before concerts most of the time, he will come out and greet the fans and take pictures and sign things for them (unfortunately the one concert I went to was the one time that he didn’t come out). Lastly, Bono writes AWESOME music. He is so intelligent, articulate, and has a huge heart. When you put those together he makes songs with powerful lyrics. A lot of people turn to U2’s music for comfort in times of crisis. For example, their songs One and Walk On were played often after 9/11. Bono isn’t afraid of controversy, and I’ve seen 1st hand that he doesn’t shy away from it. He is not ashamed of his faith and beliefs. He writes songs about politics (ex. Sunday Bloody Sunday), religion (ex. Yahweh and Grace), and the dangers of drug addiction (ex. Bad and Running to Stand Still). These are beautiful songs about complicated, sometimes ugly issues. So for these reasons and many others, Bono is and always will be a true inspiration to me. If you’ve ever been to or have an opportunity to see a U2 concert, you’d understand why.