Posted on 09/07/2002 6:06:10 PM PDT by eddie willers
Dave Mason is one of the people who haven't let the terror attacks of September 11 affect how he lives his life. With the one-year anniversary approaching, LAUNCH asked the Traffic singer-guitarist, who always seems to be on the road, how he's dealt with things like travel to and from gigs.
Mason said, "We were on a plane five days after that, playing shows in Florida. You know, the first thing I did was get on stage and just say, 'Here's the deal--we got on planes and came here to play for you people, so do not hide in your houses. Go out and shop--for America.' You know, I've spent 30 years on the road, and I don't know how many million miles I've flown and driven, but I can't...You know, if you think about all that stuff too much, you're just going to be immobilized or, with something like that, then they've won--then whatever it is they try, were trying to do, they've succeeded."
However, Mason told LAUNCH that his personal politics tend to the right, and he saw another, separate meaning in the attacks. "I just think that in a way, it was a wake-up call for this country. It's tragic, but...Freedom is a responsibility. Freedom's not unlimited choice to do whatever it is the hell you feel like. Freedom has a responsibility to it, and I see a lot of things socially that are just...just make me want to cringe in this country. I see a lot of old values getting chucked aside that a lot of people might call 'old-fashioned values'--I just think they're universal values. I see a lot of social etiquette getting tossed aside. I see things just done for the sake of being different. I don't agree with that."
Mason is on the road in support of two DVDs--Live At Sunrise, recorded last year, and Live At Perkins Palace from 1981--as well as a Live At Perkins Palace live album. He plays the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds next Friday (September 13).
In fact, you might say I'm...."Feelin' Alright".
I got this in my email from a guy who has been in the software industry a long tim and felt the need to tell us how he felt about the anniversary of 911...made my blood boil, but I read it right after I watched Black Hawk Down. Sent him a note, he didn't like it too much. He was postively hysterical last year at 9/11.
Scripting.com, home of Dave Winer.
Yesterday I dashed off some thoughts about Sept 11 on Scripting News [3], my web log, and have been getting lots of email on the piece. So I'm running it through the email channel. Let me know what you think.
***Lessons of 9-11 A week from yesterday is the one year anniversary of you know what. That day I'l l be speaking at Seybold in Moscone Center in San Francisco, about Web Services and Publishing with people from Amazon, Apple, Google and my colleague Jake Savi n from UserLand.
I was going to try to watch no TV related to the one year anniversary, but last night I saw there was a Frontline special [4] on the spirituality of the event, and given that Frontline is so excellent, I had to give it a chance. It was very stimulating, both emotionally and intellectually. Well worth a watch.
A common theme -- what kind of God lets this happen? I answer that with another question. What kind of a country is so selfish that it doesn't see that 9-11 was tiniest big tragedy viewed from a global perspective. What about famine in Afri ca? What about AIDs?
They wonder at the spiritual vision of a person who jumps from the World Trade C enter to certain death, but don't wonder about the millions of people who do the same thing with tobacco? It's out of balance. We're out of balance.
9-11 was, imho, a small upheaval in getting to some kind of equilibrium in how The US participates in the world, both from the US perspective, and the world's p erspective. That we got so much sympathy says how big the human heart is. That t here wasn't more celebrating in the streets of world capitals says that they for give us for our selfish attitude, which is back in force as if 9-11 never happen ed.
So what were the lessons of 9-11 that the US has failed to learn? I think it's t hat God doesn't think we're as important as we do.
The concept of national security is obsolete. We can't close our borders. We liv e on this planet with everyone else. Global warming, AIDs, terrorism, all penetr ate all borders. New York is a world city.
The last gasps of isolationism will be snuffed out by more humiliation, until we get the truth, we aren't above the rest of the world, but we /are/ part of it.
Dave Winer
perfect
His version of Sam Cooke's "Bring it on Home" from that album cemented my lifelong love of Sam's music.
It's a great album to put on for a party. I can't count the number of times I've had it on and people have sat down to listen to it, asking me "who's that?!".
And to find now, after all these years, that he was on our side the whole time?
Hot dang. I think I'm gonna go have a beer.
Saw him at the Allen Theater in Cleveland in 1974.
"Only You Know And I Know"
And he's talking about freedom and responsibility and values and etiquette.
Bravo, Dave Mason.
This guy preaches all this free speech crap, but he's just a stereotypical 60's lib.
One of the best albums ever recorded
(especially on "puke vinyl" like the one in my collection).
Definately a disc2die4.
I'm not sure where he gets this selfish and isolationist stuff...here's the exchange.
This guy is "big" in the weblog community.
-------------------------------------
Our borders are wide open.
Maybe you military guys ought to get on the ball and do your jobs instead of mouthing off.
Dave
----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael V Lang" To: Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 11:20 PM Subject: Re: Lessons of 9-11
> You are demented. Sit down and check out Black Hawk Down and get a clue about > how the damn world works. >
> Growing up in the 70's 80's, I hear all this hippy no border bullshit and it's a > huge lie. >
> People out there do bad things to each other, we can send them all the money in > the bank, it won't change their evil behavior, we can open our borders wide > open and even do away with the Constitution throwing the US into chaos (and the > rest of the US dependent world) and it won't change their behavior. >
> Get in the real world... >
> Best. >
So I turned around and forty thousand headmen hit the dirt.
Firing twenty shotguns each and, man, it really hurt.
But luckily for me they had to stop and then reload.
And by the time they'd done that I was heading down the road.
Heading down the road....
With forty thousand headmen on my trail...
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