Posted on 05/25/2020 6:13:54 AM PDT by DallasBiff
Along with perms, mix tapes and denim jackets, the mid-1980s saw a rash of celebrity activism against hunger. From Band Aid to Live Aid, musicians around the globe lent their voices to raise money for famine-stricken Africa. After USA for Africa garnered $53 million with its 1985 supergroup hit “We Are The World,” the organization’s president, Ken Kragen, cast his charity attention homeward.
Kragen proposed an audacious plan—called a “stunt” by United Press International—to raise between $50 million and $100 million for hungry and homeless Americans by enlisting 6 million people to form a coast-to-coast human chain on May 25, 1986. The undertaking was so great that it required nine months and a staff of 400 to plan it
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
Can't do this today, gotta be six feet apart, with all that fake social distancing.
I also bet that the homeless got very little of the money.
It was called Hams Across America.
I saw it as a stunt to discredit Reagan. So many Americans starving. His fault.
Well, it solved the hunger and homeless problem, didn’t it?
No, but it gave the Ethiopian Communists plenty of money to steal.
Remember when Bart Simpson tricked Sting into coming to Springfield to record (with Krusty and other Springfield celebs) a charity song for “Timmy O’Toole” who’d “fallen” down a water well (it was actually Bart’s Mr. Microphone) - and that was in turn based on the Jessica McClure drama in TX that ended happily thank God.
I remember this. I wondered how holding hands was going to do anything to help hungry people, but I participated. Unfortunately, the chain of people didn’t go through my area. From what I remember, a few people gathered on a grassy area near where I lived and that was it.
Everybody needs community and virtue signaling is part of it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WZorfXa5pBc
Look for Kenny Rogers, “Miami Vice”, Lily Tomlin, Yoko Ono & Sean Lennon etc
Ha, a remember a cartoon in National
Lampoon that showed people on top of a
landscape, their bare butts sticking out and it said Hams Across America.
Hands Across America raised $34 million...down to $15 million after operating costs.Celebrities took part along the route including Harry Belafonte and Liza Minelli in NY; Pres Reagan and House Speaker O’Neill in Washington DC, Robin Williams in Long Beach and Fred Rogers in Pittsburgh.The song for the event was played at the same time by hundreds of stations (backing band:Toto) at the same time and hit #65 on the charts.
“”Can’t do this today, gotta be six feet apart, with all that fake social distancing.””
Except the brainwashing is the same. I can’t hear one cotton pickin’ TV commercial about “we’re in this together” without thinking of that time and song. People in the country haven’t gotten any smarter since then, have they?
As a poster said earlier, it was really an anti-Reagan stunt, you know when all the homeless and hungry magically showed up.
If you read the article Ron and Nancy participated and it pissed off the liberals.
The funny thing is that homelessness is biggest in blue run states, CA, NY, WA.
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