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?
A loyal democrat over 65 who wanted to fight her illness to the end. Someone tell her president.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDelete-a progressive Minnesotan
Thank you for that insight.
ReplyDeleteI had the good fortune to meet Mary Travers in the 1980's when
ReplyDeleteshe 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.
ReplyDeleteMy 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.
ReplyDeleteThe 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.
ReplyDelete