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Charity I Can Support in My Hometown
I admit to taking my time in writing this post. I went to this concert last month, February 27. But what are the odds of Editor @exjon letting a positive post about Bruce Springsteen stay up on the Member Feed, let alone be promoted to the Main Feed?
This isn’t a post about Springsteen’s performance, though he puts on a pretty energetic three-hour show for a 73-year-old. I’m not writing about his music, though I’ve been a fan of it for the last four decades. I want to write about a very small thing, but it does seem rather big in the current world of music and popular culture.
My wife, my son, and I went to Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena (yes, this is the worst name of any sports/entertainment venue, edging out Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago and the days when the Astros were in “Enron”.) Soon after we entered we saw people with a bucket and a sign for the West Seattle Food Bank. We soon found there were people collecting for WSFB throughout the building. I work with a Mission in downtown Seattle, so I know something about many of the charities in the area and I know that this organization does good work.
Toward the end of the concert, Springsteen took a moment to encourage people to give to the West Seattle Food Bank saying, “These people are doing God’s work.” I did a bit of research and found that at his other concerts on this tour, Springsteen’s people are teaming up with local foodbanks.
Now Springsteen is well known to be a political leftie. He was famously angry when the Reagan campaign used “Born in the U.S.A.” at events. He did fundraising concerts for Obama and many other Democrats through the years. I’m sure in interviews he is unlikely to say anything that contradicts the current leftist line.
But here is something I appreciate. I like that he isn’t using the fundraising opportunities on this tour to help any Democrat candidates. He isn’t letting people at concerts hold out buckets for Planned Parenthood, Black Lives Matters, or any pro-Trans organizations.
The buckets were out for an organization that most everyone across the political spectrum could support. It’s not much, but it’s nice in these divisive times to have something that we can agree about.
Published in Entertainment
I’m not much of a fan of Bruce Springsteen either, but I’m totally onboard with the idea of support for hometown charities. And I doubt Jon would, even in jest, proscribe such a worthy objective from advancing.
Yeah, don’t care for Springsteen or his music. I was a fan at one time but, unlike almost all other rockers of that era, I just got tired of his music. Saying that, I too have have to give him kudos for helping local food banks. It’s a good thing and we should be willing to support even those we don’t agree with when they do a good thing.
I like Springsteen’s stuff from ‘73-‘82, before his leftist manager Jon Landau gave him a bunch of poison to read and squeezed all the joy out of him.
But he’s always promoted food banks, so good on him.
And he usually puts on a great show.
Was at his concert in Milwaukee Tuesday night (very impressive show). Same thing, fundraising for Hunger Task Force. No political talk at all.
I think he got it from Harry Chapin. Harry was heavily involved with an organization named “World Hunger Year” and did a lot of work on the issue.
There was a tribute concert held after Harry died. Bruce Springsteen was one of those who performed and he talked about meeting Harry in a studio where they were both working, and how “Harry came smiling up to me and started talking, and 20 minutes went by…thirty minutes went by, and Harry kept talking. Next night Harry came up to me and started talking, and 20 minutes went by…30 minutes went by…”
Springsteen frequently raised money for the families of cops killed in the line of duty, way back when.
Good to know that Springsteen has opened up being a major support for local do-gooders helping to feed people.
That is very heart warming.
However how clueless was The Boss?
I’d feel better about him if he had not remained so enthused about Obama. He remained so enthused even as that guy partnered with Tim Geithner to slip some 16 to 32 trillions of dollars from Main Street over to Wall Street, from Jan 2009 onto 2012. If Obama had not been such a back stabber, a lot of Americans today would not need handouts. (BTW just as many in this group began to recover under Trump, the COVID lockdowns again pulled the rug out from under them.)
BTW there was legislation written sometime in 2012, or right after that, which decrees that should the US Banks and Financial Firms take another major tumble, another round of Main Street crippling Bailouts must again take place.
Given the troubling financial news of today, it looks like the numbers of middle class Americans needing handouts will be on the rise.
Liberal entertainers and celebrities who support the treacherous financial programs of their buddies including Obama, John Kerry, and Biden somehow have no problems singing about the angst suffered by Depression-era hobos. They can belt out these songs even as their political buddies create entire new waves of impoverished Americans.
Yeah credit where credit is due.
Incidentally, at my friends’s wedding a few weeks ago, the couple’s first dance was to a Bruce Springsteen song. Forgot that until now.
I hope it wasn’t The River…
Well the bride was 6 months pregnant 😁
It was Tougher than the Rest
There is some wisdom to the old saying, “the first baby comes whenever, the second takes 9 months.”
First time I ever encountered that was on the TV show Home Front [about vets returning after WWII], a neighbor commenting on a baby a newlywed had just had something like 7 or 8 months after the wedding – “7 pounds?, that’s pretty big for a preemie!”.
Full disclosure – my grandparents were married in June, and my father was born the following February.
I think that song was based on Springsteen’s sister’s marriage. Still married too.
He uses the name “Mary” in a lot of songs. (Just off the top of my head, “Thunder Road”, “The River”, “Meet me at Mary’s Place”, “The Rising”)