I had the pleasure of working with Joan Baez. My perceptions are as follows: Joan is a fun-loving person with a terrific sense of humor. She was brought up as a Quaker (or at least with the same values of non-violence). She is not at all anti-American but might be a better American because she would like to see improvements made in her country. As to the comment about the "Golden Triangle" she was dead-on. There is a missile business left in this country. There are those who are capitalizing on it today.

It's difficult for me to hear people trashing her views and the song We Shall Overcome. I think it was OK, though, for Al Capp to do his take-off and Joan should be complimented. It was a kind of compliment, that she was such a socially forceful figure at the time. I feel that her idealism is something to be respected even when you don't agree with it. I respected Jane Fonda as well even though I thought that she may not have had a clear view of the Hanoi regime. At the same time, her view was not entirely without merit. We didn't belong in Vietnam.

Joan has never been about making money on her ideals. She never needed to. If she is out of fashion, now, well that just speaks to the shallow trends of the music business. As for her singing and playing, well, I believe that her best songs are the ones in Spanish. She has a real feel for this music.

Please don't trash We Shall Ovecome. It was an important part of American history as a catalyst for a significant movement.

Frank