Two well-known female anti-war activists met up last week. Yoko Ono was the featured interview on the weekly podcast "Cindy Sheehan Soapbox" show last week. On the show, Ono answered questions from Sheehan and talked frankly about the antiwar movement and politics.
Sheehan asked Ono if she thinks the peace movement is failing, and Ono said it wasn't. "Many, many people have joined the movement and we're very very strong together. I think that maybe 99 percent of the world is really wishing for world peace and the one percent is still a bit naughty. But that's going to change. That's going to change very soon, I'm sure," Ono said.
"It's a very difficult time and it's very easy to get disappointed and depressed. But we just can't do that. We just have to stick together and try to imagine peace and bring peace together," she told Sheehan.
Sheehan asked Yoko how she withstood all the attacks lodged at her through the years. "That was the only thing I could have done," Ono said. "I mean there was no choice. I was up against this whole thing about people hating me for what I haven't done. And so in a way it was a very good education."
At one point in the interview, Ono was asked about the repeal of the U.S. military policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and, from her answer, got lost in thought or didn't seem to understand the question. But on her Imagine Peace website, she addressed that omission and posted this answer: “I think 'Don’t Ask Don’t Tell' is a very shameful suggestion made by the authority which will go down in history to show where we were at the time. I am sure that each state will notice that very soon, and give the gay population the same human rights we all have, without buts.”
Sheehan also asked Ono how John Lennon would feel about what's happening in the world today. "He was an activist before we used the word 'activist.' He was really very very saddened by the situation in the world, the violence, the wars. And now I think he'd be furious. But you see at the same time, he believed in taking sad songs and making it better."
Ono also indicated he would have been a big fan of the internet. "And I think luckily we have this thing called the computer. And you know the power of understanding and communicating with each other is very very strong now. And I'm sure he would have used that and communicated his thoughts."
You can download the full interview at this link: http://sheehan.streamguys.org/SoapboxInternet01092011.mp3
Have a comment? Leave it below. And be sure to subscribe by clicking the button at the top of the page. You won't want to miss any of our Examiner.com columns. We have new stories and reviews with fresh, original news on at least one of these columns every day --
Beatles Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beatles-Examiner
Paul McCartney Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/x-34954-Paul-McCartney-Examiner
Vintage Rock 'n' Roll Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/x-19248-Vintage-Rock-n-Roll-Examiner
TV on DVD Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/x-10254-TV-on-DVD-Examiner
Please join us on Twitter: @stevemarinucci and @beatles_news (RT's are much appreciated!)
Add us as a friend on our Beatles Examiner page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beatles-Examiner/372042379525
Make us a favorite here on Examiner.com.
Get our free Beatle news widget: http://tinyurl.com/2dan6jx
Get our complete Examiner news widget: http://tinyurl.com/275ge6w
If you like this article, please share this article on StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter, or Facebook!
© COPYRIGHT STATEMENT: This article is the original work of Steve Marinucci. Under no circumstance may any portion of this article be broadcast, copied, published, rewritten or used without the permission of the author. To purchase this or any other article by Steve Marinucci, please email beatlesexaminer@gmail.com.
Comments
good for Yoko that she is still speaking out!
It is one of the few artifcles I read about her where she doesn't piss me off and I actually admired what she said.
John on the internet? He'd be banned from every forum for starting arguments and he'd be posting dirty doodles on the slash groups
It's interesting how she used Paul's lyrics to describe what John believed in: "take a sad song and make it better." That was nice to hear, as not too long ago, she was trashing Paul's lyrics as moon/june. But times change, and people (finally) grow up and bury the hatchet.
Interesting piece. Sometimes I get impatient with Yoko's idea of being activist because she never gets specific. She never says what she thinks about specific issue and instead prefers to talk in vague, "give-peace-a-chance" jargon. She doesn't seem comfortable talking about specific issues like don't ask, don't tell. Perhaps that explains her confused answer. She's kind of a pollyannish activist who doesn't really get her hands dirty in actual politics, unlike Cindy Sheehan who dives right in. Two different approaches, I guess. But Cindy's is more direct, and definitely easier to understand.
Now she's trying to discredit McCartney by saying John believed in "Taking sad songs and making it better"? What's next? John believed in "Silly Love Songs" and they smoked "Pipes of Peace". Geeesh.
What do you mean "discredit" McCartney? It was a sign of her respect for McCartney that she used his words. Sorry I don't see your point at all.
What silliness. Cindy Sheehan got her 15 minutes of fame exploiting her son's death, and Yoko's "peace activism" consists of bumper-sticker sloganeering. Why is there war? Sometimes because there people can be evil, and sometimes because major ideas are at stake; and nothing these two "activists" do affects either.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!