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Title: Has-been old hippy Baez b**ches about Barry
Source:
The Politco
URL Source: http://www.politico.com/click/stori ... _at_70_ever_the_activist_.html
Published: Mar 17, 2011
Author: PATRICK GAVIN
Post Date: 2011-03-17 09:09:17 by Happy Quanzaa
Keywords: Obama-doma-ding-dong
Views: 10451
Comments: 17
Amnesty International will mark its 50th anniversary this weekend at its annual gathering in San Francisco. Friday’s kickoff event is a tribute to folksinger/songwriter/activist Joan Baez, recognizing her longstanding work on behalf of human rights. Baez helped start Amnesty chapters in the Bay Area in the early 1970s and has served on the national board of the organization, which has activists in more than 150 nations. Grammy winners Steve Earle and Saúl Hernández will perform at Friday’s tribute, at which Baez will receive an award named for her that will be given annually to an artist who has helped advance human rights. Former President Jimmy Carter will address the anniversary conference via video. “Whether marching arm in arm with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or stuffing envelopes at our first home office in San Francisco, Joan’s commitment to human rights has known no bounds,” Amnesty International USA Executive Director Larry Cox said in a statement. “It is no exaggeration that many attending this annual conference are direct descendants of a human rights family that Joan created. Her devotion is a constant reminder of what can be accomplished when one will put herself on the line to effect change. We are grateful for her lasting legacy.” POLITICO spoke with Baez about her work and legacy. POLITICO: What is the current state of affairs with regard to human rights around the world? Baez: We're in terrible shape in this world, and I think that, when things happen for the better, they happen thanks to organizations like Amnesty. There's so much going on in the world that the awareness that Amnesty International has brought about is just huge. ... It used to be that human rights abuses weren't on anyone's agenda. Amnesty made it compulsory to bring it out. In any country, you're going to have to discuss it. POLITICO: What issues are most important to you right now? Baez: I feel very strongly about immigration. That's something we need to work on. This country has so much and people say, "Oh, they're going to take [our] jobs away."... The fact is, there are very few American citizens who would be willing to do what the farm laborers are willing to do. ... To be a nonwelcoming society just seems bizarre to me. POLITICO: Amnesty International has been very outspoken in denouncing military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, and just this month the president announced that those trials would resume for detainees, ending a two-year hiatus. What was your reaction when you heard that news? Baez: It's a sin. There's no excuse for it in the first place. To have people detained there for nine years without having a trial boggles the imagination. I'm not sure why it stays open. POLITICO: The president campaigned on the promise of closing Guantanamo. What does this move mean to someone like yourself, who supported his candidacy in 2008? Baez: Part of that stuff comes from just being in office. I'm not defending him at all, but I know that people with those ideals and dreams, once you get into office, your hands are tied by so many people. My concern with Obama is, I don't know who he listens to. He's a Nobel Peace Prize winner — as kind of silly as that was and premature — but he could meet with Nobel Peace Prize winners who have moved mountains and he could do extraordinary things by not falling into the trap that I think he is: of waking up in the morning and meeting with the military. So that's all he gets for input, unless we can make ourselves heard somehow. 
'My concern with Obama is, I don't know who he listens to,' said Joan Baez. | Photo by AP
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 10.
#10. To: A K A Stone (#0)
Another fake title from Happy Racist, Stone. You really ought to do something about this.
#11. To: Skip Intro (#10)
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Replies to Comment # 10. Another fake title from Happy Racist, Stone.
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