[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [SRRTAC-L:15039] School Talent Show Draws Secret Service

[Alfred Kagan]

A sign of the times?

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>From: "Dana Lubow" <danalubow at hotmail.com>
>To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l at ala.org>
>Subject: [SRRTAC-L:15039] School Talent Show Draws Secret Service
>Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:54:00 -0800
>X-OriginalArrivalTime: 19 Nov 2004 16:55:04.0176 
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>fyi
>
>from ABC News
>
>School Talent Show Draws Secret Service
>Colorado Band Singing Dylan Song Seen as Threatening President Bush
>
>- Parents and students say they are outraged and 
>offended by a proposed band name and song 
>scheduled for a high school talent show in 
>Boulder this evening, but members of the band, 
>named Coalition of the Willing, said the whole 
>thing is being blown out of proportion.
>
>The students told ABC News affiliate KMGH-TV in 
>Denver they are performing Bob Dylan's song 
>"Masters of War" during the Boulder High School 
>Talent Exposé because they are Dylan fans. They 
>said they want to express their views and show 
>off their musical abilities.
>
>But some students and adults who heard the band 
>rehearse called a radio talk show Thursday 
>morning, saying the song the band sang ended 
>with a call for President Bush to die.
>
>Threatening the president is a federal crime, so 
>the Secret Service was called to the school to 
>investigate.
>
>Students in the band said they're just singing 
>the lyrics and not inciting anyone to do 
>anything.
>
>The 1963 song ends with the lyrics: "You might 
>say that I'm young. You might say I'm unlearned, 
>but there's one thing I know, though I'm younger 
>than you, even Jesus would never forgive what 
>you do ... And I hope that you die and your 
>death'll come soon. I will follow your casket in 
>the pale afternoon. And I'll watch while you're 
>lowered down to your deathbed. And I'll stand 
>o'er your grave 'til I'm sure that you're dead."
>
>'We Were Just Singing'
>
>The students told KMGH they never threatened the 
>president and never changed the lyrics to the 
>song.
>
>"It's just Bob Dylan's song. We were just 
>singing Bob Dylan's song ... If you think it has 
>to do with Bush that's because you're drawing 
>your own conclusions. We never conveyed that 
>Bush was the person we were talking about," said 
>Allysse Wojtanek-Watson, a singer for the band.
>
>"She never said anything about killing Bush ... 
>It's crazy, it's chaos. We have nothing in there 
>it says about killing Bush," band leader Forest 
>Engstrom told KMGH.
>
>The principal of the school said he stands behind the students.
>
>"Never was it rehearsed or auditioned with a 
>change of lyrics. I want to be very clear about 
>that," Boulder principal Ron Cabrera said.
>
>Cabrera said Secret Service agents questioned 
>him for 20 minutes and took a copy of the 
>lyrics. They did not ask to speak to any of the 
>students but they did question a teacher who had 
>supervised a student protest that was held at 
>the school last weekend.
>
>Despite the controversy, the Boulder School 
>District said it will allow the students to 
>perform this evening.
>
>"Boulder High School has expectations for the 
>appropriateness of talent show acts and those 
>expectations are communicated to the performers. 
>Over the course of the rehearsals, the faculty 
>has worked with the performers to create a show 
>that falls within those expectations. School 
>staff have monitored the performance and spoken 
>with the students and are satisfied that the 
>performance is simply student expression and not 
>a threat against anyone," Boulder Schools 
>spokeswoman Susan Cousins said in a statement.
>
>During the rehearsals for the show, teachers Jim 
>Vacca and Jim Kavanaugh played backup in the 
>band at the students' request but the teachers 
>decided not to perform this evening because they 
>don't want to detract from the students' 
>performance, Cousins said.
>
>The band had at one point considered calling 
>itself The TaliBand, but the students decided 
>against it after discussing with Vacca whether 
>the name would be offensive to some people, she 
>said.
>
>Promoting a 'Leftist View?'
>
>Vacca praised a group of 70 students after they 
>camped out overnight in the school library last 
>week to protest the results of the presidential 
>election and to announce their worries about the 
>direction of the country. The students wanted to 
>meet with Colorado's political leaders to get 
>assurances that they were being heard.
>
>The students said they worried about war, a 
>return of the draft and the future of the 
>environment after the election in which they 
>could not participate.
>
>"In an age where narcissistic college students 
>riot in an inarticulate drunken stupor, you have 
>students here at Boulder High School, 
>principled, thoughtful and yet scared of four 
>more years of pre-emptive war, the Patriot Act 
>and an increase in militarism at school through 
>the No Child Left Behind Act," Vacca had said. 
>But other people said they are upset students 
>and teachers are allowed to put on such a 
>performance, and some say the high school 
>students are being manipulated by the adults.
>
>"These kids are being used to promote an extreme 
>leftist point of view on the taxpayers' dime," 
>Boulder resident James Lemons told KMGH.
>
>He said other students who saw the tryouts and 
>were upset by the presentation discussed it with 
>their parents but are afraid of speaking up 
>because of the political environment within the 
>school and in Boulder, considered the most 
>liberal city in Colorado.
>
>The principal said Lemons' accusations and 
>allegations are untrue and unfounded.
>
>"I feel that the school and these students have 
>been accused without being able to confront 
>their accusers," Cabrera said, adding that no 
>student or parent had talked to him about the 
>allegations. "Why would someone do that?"
>
>Copyright © 2004 ABC News Internet Ventures
>
>
>*********
>Dana Lubow
>L.A. Valley College Library
>
>The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the 
>United Nations establishes that all people have 
>the right to self-determination and national 
>sovereignty.
>
>"Cuba seems to have the same effect on American 
>administrations that the full moon once had on 
>werewolves.
>Wayne Smith, former Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu