Two years ago I said I hoped the remark Mary Travers of Peter Paul and Mary had made about a Republican bone marrow donor was an urban legend. But according to the USAToday, it wasn't. Let's assume it was her disease speaking; or a very wry sense of humor intended to please her faithful fans.
My, hasn't it been a tough year for entertainers?
Thursday, September 17, 2009
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A loyal democrat over 65 who wanted to fight her illness to the end. Someone tell her president.
I was at the PPM concert at which Mary met her bone marrow donor. Mary talked about her donor onstage. Her (probably offhand, joking) "I hope it wasn't a Republican" comment seemed to evolve into a moment of humility and gratefulness for a woman who did an selfless thing for a stranger. Mary expressed incredible gratitude towards her donor, and acknowledged that human kindness transcends political affiliation. I would still get teary thinking about that moment, even a few years later. And now I am teary that another beautiful soul has left the earth.
-a progressive Minnesotan
Thank you for that insight.
I had the good fortune to meet Mary Travers in the 1980's when
she was the key note speaker at a fund raiser for the private school for learning disabled students where I was the art teacher for five years. Whoever booked her did not do their homework because she had a special needs child and hated special education teachers. Her message to the parents and
donors was not what the staff wanted the audience to hear. I got some one-on-one time with her as she waited on a taxi to take her somewhere else. We were sitting alone in the hotel lobby and she told me she was glad for the company. We all know that she was a very outspoken woman and I found out that she could also be very sad and angry. Although I did not agree with almost everything on her agenda she was after all the bluster just a mom trying to do the best for her child. It was a very interesting encounter.
I have a bit of an ear for music, and it's interesting that just out of the blue, spontaneously, after I had learned to strum chords on a guitar, I played and sung, "If I Had a Hammer," a fun song to sing on a guitar. I guess my favorite of theirs.
My brother had the album where their names are written in chalk on a brick wall behind them, and I played that album a bazillion times.
The song about the young woman who dresses in a man's uniform to join her beloved (I guess it would have been the Civil War?) used to slay me.
Very sad news today...
I love their music. I offer my prayers and condolences to the family.
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