Input from Richard Kearney

Librarian extraordinaire Richard Kearney sends these thoughts:

1) Pop/Politics - In the course of a recent interview, Le Tigre frontwoman Kathleen Hanna (perhaps better known as the former lead singer of arguably the arguably the best American punk bank of the '90s, Bikini Kill) was asked (once again!) about the view of morons who claim artists have no business making political statements, and delivered one of the most *punk* answers I've yet seen:

"Q: How would you respond to Americans who say artists/entertainers have no place in the political dialog?

Hanna: Well, we're citizens. Isn't it always ... y'know, the Pied Piper. He was a musician! [laughs] He led the rats out of the city. I'm just trying to pied pipe, man. I'm just trying to lead the rats out of my city. That's always been what art has been about. The artists are always the seers, they're always the people who figure stuff out before anybody else figures it out, and then it trickles down into culture. It's like, they want me to not do my job? That's what we're here for. We're here to say what we think. ... The whole "liberal media" thing makes me totally want to puke. I mean it's just despicable. A lot of times it's really anti-Semitic, it's like "The Jewish Liberal Media." I mean, what?!"

Full interview published here: http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/20128/

I love this: "I'm just trying to pied pipe, man." Cracks me up every time.


2) I was following up on your recommendation to read Seymour Hersh's "Chain of Command" by seeing whether a copy is available anywhere in my public library system, and came across this Subject Heading:

Iraq War, 2003 -- Juvenile literature

Of course! People are already writing books for children attempting to explain the war. There are seven titles in my county system alone, and probably more that can be found in WorldCat. It occurs to me that an analysis of these books would make an excellent paper topic for an education major taking your foreign policy course. Why not? Heck, I'M interested in seeing what is being written for kids about the war. And I guarantee you these titles will be on the shelves of public libraries for years to come.....