[Mb-hair] Good press

[Charles Preston]

I am right behind both of you.
Way to go Robin and Way to go Katie
HAiR is a piece of American Culture and should stay that way. HAiR really 
tells things like they are so everyone can understand if they will open 
there minds. It is also a lot of  FUN and goodness. You know HAPPY along 
with some sad. There is that Message that gets but across.

Peace, Love, & Blessings
~~Charles ~~
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robin McNamara" <olhippie at tampabay.rr.com>
To: <mb-hair at islandlists.com>
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 4:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Mb-hair] Good press


> Congratulations Katie, sounds like you did a wonderful job & yes a show 
> should go on the road, that way through press & interviews we could 
> articulate how relevant Hair is today in contemporary times instead of 
> changing it like they did in London. In my opinion Hair is a powerful 
> period piece in American Culture & should stay that way.
>
> Love forever
> Robin
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Katie Kasben" <katiekasben at hotmail.com>
> To: <mb-hair at islandlists.com>
> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 3:24 PM
> Subject: [Mb-hair] Good press
>
>
>> Hey Kids,
>>
>> I wanted to share with you a great letter to the editor of the Raleigh 
>> News and Observer (our state capitol's paper, and about 4 hours away from 
>> here):
>>
>> *the last two paragraphs are my favourite...
>>
>> Mark Schultz
>> Orange County editor
>> The News & Observer
>> Chapel Hill News editor
>> (919) 932-2003
>>
>> Now is the time to act
>> Perry Young column for September 05
>>
>> A few weeks ago, a very nice lady organized a genteel gathering at
>> the downtown post office in support of Cindy Sheehan's anti-war
>> protest outside the President's vacation ranch in Crawford, Texas.
>> I hung about the edges, expecting to be bored by the usual liberal
>> speeches.  But, no, this woman said there would be no speeches, just a
>> quiet show of support.  And, so, for several long minutes, we just
>> stood there.
>>
>> I finally wandered off, frustrated that nobody was saying anything,
>> nobody was doing anything.  More to the point, why wasn't I doing
>> more?
>>
>> After witnessing the obscenity of the senseless slaughter in Vietnam
>> as a correspondent, I came back and joined in every major peace march
>> on Washington.  Then, as now, our President showed a profound
>> indifference to poor people in this country and the devastation we
>> were causing half way around the world.  As we sang, "All we are
>> saying is give peace a chance," armed troops surrounded the White
>> House and turned the tear gas on us.
>>
>> Now it seems one pathetic Gold Star mother has finally aroused our
>> outrage about the lies that led to the current quagmire in Iraq.  Ms.
>> Sheehan's courageous and timely stand was pushed to the back pages by
>> hurricane Katrina and  the unbelievable pictures of the needless
>> suffering and dying of people not in Somalia or Iraq, but in our own
>> backyard.
>>
>>
>> We looked in the mirror and were appalled by our own self-image.  The
>> richest country the world has ever known was simply incapable of
>> taking care of its own people in a time of crisis.  The Bush
>> administration was suddenly exposed for what it has been all along:
>> an incompetent bunch of ideologues who are simply not worthy of the
>> high offices they've been pushed into.
>>
>> It is one thing to giggle and grin about the sport of hardball
>> politics; it is quite another when these kinds of self-serving
>> decisions result in the loss of lives and livelihoods of hundreds of
>> thousands of people.  The President is guilty of criminal neglect on a
>> scale never before seen in America.  We are left with the indelible
>> images of the poor people in Louisiana and Mississippi crying out for
>> help while Condi Rice gads about New York and Bush blithely flies off
>> to San Diego for another multi- million dollar fund raiser.
>>
>> It is eerie to watch; as Bush actually seems to look more and more
>> like Nixon with his weirdly inappropriate facial gestures and that
>> loony giggle that often follows even the most solemn words written for
>> him to mispronounce.
>>
>> But in this moment of our country's dire need, some rays of hope
>> shine through.  The glamorous stars of television came alive as never
>> before and proved themselves worthy of the profession of Edward R.
>> Murrow.  For once, the administration could not put a happy face on
>> yet another catastrophe.  This time, their lies could be proven by the
>> pictures, live and in color from the battlefront.
>>
>> And in spite of our leaders indifference, the American people have
>> responded with an outpouring of love and generosity unparalleled in
>> our history.  People aren't just giving money, they're offering up
>> their times, their homes, their very lives to help.  Maybe we are
>> finally overcoming the greed and selfishness of the 1980s and 1990s.
>> As if in answer to my personal yearning for the 1960s, I was recently
>> invited back to Asheville for a new production of the rock musical,
>> Hair.
>>
>> Now, if you think nothing could be more dated than this show which I
>> first saw as a cabaret skit at Cheetah discotheque in New York in
>> 1967, you are dead wrong.  As I sat listening to the joyful music of
>> protest to war, to racism, to the destruction of the environment, I
>> realized that every word was just as relevant today as it was 40 years
>> ago.  Tears flooded down my face as an Asheville delegation of
>> Veterans for Peace staged the last scene in this version of Hair,
>> bringing in the flag-draped casket of the young hippie who got drafted
>> and killed in Vietnam.  I urged the incredibly talented young
>> director, Katie Kasben, to take the show on the road.  All America is
>> ready to renew those anthems of peace and  "let the sunshine in"!
>>
>> Just as I remembered from the 1967 show, there were  "peace and love"
>> people outside the theater getting signatures on petitions and signing
>> people up for the bus ride to the next big peace march on Washingtron.
>> It'll be on Saturday, September 24.  I plan to be there; I love the
>> smell of tear gas in the morning.
>>
>>
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