Joan Baez banned from Walter Reed

I don’t usually comment on news about entertainers, but I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that Joan Baez stopped entertaining anyone about 40 years ago – so my self-imposed restriction remains intact. Anyway, the Washington print media are a-buzz about the Army denying Baez entry to Walter Reed to screech for the troops. From the Washington Examiner;

Folk singer and anti-war activist Joan Baez says she doesn’t know why she was not allowed to perform for recovering soldiers recently at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as she planned.

In a letter to The Washington Post published Wednesday, she said rocker John Mellencamp had asked her to perform with him last Friday and that she accepted his invitation.

“I have always been an advocate for nonviolence and I have stood as firmly against the Iraq war as I did the Vietnam War 40 years ago,” she wrote. “I realize now that I might have contributed to a better welcome home for those soldiers fresh from Vietnam. Maybe that’s why I didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation to sing for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In the end, four days before the concert, I was not ‘approved’ by the Army to take part. Strange irony.”

“Strange irony?” I don’t think it’s strange or ironic. For one thing, I don’t think most of the troops at Walter Reed even know what the ancient gasbag does or did. Other than playing for aging hippes who long for their wasted youth, what does she do for a living these days so anyone the age of our troops would recognize her?

For another thing, we know that the 66 year-old would feel a need to “speak truth to power” and what volunteer soldier who just sacrificed a limb or their youth for their country want to hear about how Baez thinks they’re babykillers and puppy-rapers?

From the Washington Post;

Reached by telephone yesterday at her home in Menlo Park, Calif., Baez, 66, said she wasn’t told why she was given the boot, but speculated, “There might have been one, there might have been 50 [soldiers] that thought I was a traitor.”

…or there could have been one soldier who actually remembered who the Hell you are. Maybe not that many, even. The fact that you contributed greatly to the disrespectful treatment of our troops when they returned from Viet Nam and the Army’s desire to comfort the wounded troops might have something to do with the Army’s decision. Think?

“One of my more cynical friends said, ‘They let the rats in, why not you?’ ” Baez said, laughing, referring to a recent expose of living conditions at Walter Reed.

I don’t know why you’re laughing. Do you and your friend think you’re better than a rat? Well, the rest of us don’t, ya old hag.

After the concert, Baez said, Mellencamp left her a message to say, “I hope you’re not mad at me.” Her response: ” ‘Of course not. It’s an honor to be turned down by the Army.’ . . . But I would have been happier getting in . . . I thought times had changed enough.”

You’re still living in the 60s and you “thought times had changed”? Remember the veteran who spit on Jane Fonda a few years back? What makes you think that there’s a statute of limitations on treason in the minds and opinions of Americans.

The fact that Baez thinks that it’s an honor to be turned down by the Army, as opposed to being ashamed she’s been rejected by the institution that defends her right to sing what she wants, is proof the Army made the right choice.

Personally, I applaud the Army’s decision. Usually, the Army makes the politically correct decision for PR purposes – this time they just made the right decision. Why give this brain-dead, crotch-rotted, screeching hag a platform from which she can bite the hand that feeds her?

Army Strong!

UPDATE: According to the Washington Post , “At Walter Reed, Mellencamp Shuts His Mouth and Sings”. You can bet that we couldn’t have counted on Baez to behave similarly.

Category: Antiwar crowd, Society, Walter Reed