Ah, but the press have no trouble whatsoever discussing completely meaningless music like that of Britney spears, or fascinating subjects like Mariah Carey's latest emotional problems, do they?

The press is a thinly disguised mechanism for marketing a high-consumption lifestyle, and maintaining the status quo.

Uncle Jacques - Every politically motivated American, including Joan Baez, thinks of him/herself as a patriot who is defending what is good and right in America. If this leads some of them to disagree with an American government's foreign policy, does that make them "anti-American"? No. It just makes them anti-administration. If it causes them to consider the human rights of other people on a par with those of American citizens, well, that does not constitute anti-Americanism either. It might constitute anti-militarism...or it might not. Depends on the circumstances.

During the US Civil War there was a huge antiwar movement in the North, opposed to continuation of the war. Why? They were opposed to the draft, and they were upset over the oceans of blood that were being spilled, by incompetent commanders, in a war that appeared likely to drag on indefinitely.

They were opposed to the incredible corruption in the northern draft system...the sons of the rich were enabled to purchase draft deferments, or to buy the services of recently arrived (and wretchedly naive) poor European immigrants to serve in their place, and a host of other sneaky tricks to avoid exposing themselves to the risks of battle. Yet these same pampered fellows were the ones yelling loudest for others to go and bleed in their place.

There were draft riots in New York City which terrorized the city for 3 days, and resulted in the deaths of 400 people! The rioters

burned homes, public buildings, churches, police stations, stores, factories, saloons, even an orphanage, murdering Negroes, and battling police and soldiers hand to hand in the streets or from behind barricades, driving draft officials from their offices and wrecking draft apparatus, the rioters exploded in a fury of resentment against "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight". (this excerpt from the book "The Wars of America - Volume I - Quebec to Appomatox" by Robert Leckie.

Now, you haven't seen anything in the 60's to equal this degree of protest, have you? 400 dead in the streets of New York. And the fact is...those rioters fully believed they were defending the values most dear to America...freedom, equality, and the pursuit of happiness. And, of course, so did the soldiers who fought them. Patriots one and all!

All this has been conveniently forgotten by a nation that prefers to remember Appomatox or the Gettysburg address.

So who is the patriot? The one who wants to "win in Vietnam"...or the one who wants to "bring our boys home"?

It's strictly a matter of opinion, and we all know that everybody's got one... In their own minds, they are all patriots. Joan is not anti-American, she's anti-administration...when she disagrees with their policy.

- LH