1-THE DECEMBER 8, 1993 'BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS' BESTOWED THEIR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD ON ROD STEWART, NOTING HE DONATED ALL ROYALTIES FROM 'DO YA THINK I'M SEXY?' TO UNICEF....We now know that "if there is to be another war," it will be the last one.
Paul McCartney, whom i also contacted in 1978 (in fact
i contacted all the former Beatles on behalf of the U.N.) and
renewed contacts with more recently, recorded successive albums
titled, "Tug Of War", and, "Pipes of Peace".
Both of them contain duets between the former Beatle and black
entertainers (Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder).
Perhaps they are their subtle statements against racial
discrimination and even apartheid at times in past when it
wasn't yet 'fashionable' to make them. I'll ask them.
Similarly, the Rolling Stones recorded the old Temptations song,
"Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)", on their
"Some Girls" album--and more recently did their version
of "Harlem Shuffle"--after dealings with me in 1977.
Our mutual friend Rod Stewart1 included the old Four Tops
song, "Standing In The Shadows Of Love", on his
"Blondes Have More Fun" album--after contact with us in
1977. And he donated all the royalties to 1978's biggest
selling record (from that album), "Do Ya Think I'm
Sexy?", to the Year of The Child as he had promised
in 1977.
And our mutual friend Pete Townshend2 recorded an entire
album, "White City", as his reaction to apartheid.
Perhaps it was with his awareness of my work in mind.
All are obvious tributes to "the insights of art" that have
helped inspire and nurture the creativity in them which is so
popular today. Again, as they reflect 'debts' owed to black
people, perhaps they are acknowledgements that while politicians
may come and go...there are more important human feelings, not
governed by skin color, that must endure.
I'll ask them.
It would be "a dreaded thing and useless" if "another war" is caused by the same thing that claimed more than forty million human lives half a century ago: the crazy beliefs that human beings can be judged by their skin colors, their concepts of a superior intelligence and how they respond to it, and that war and aggression achieve anything more than that "people are shot and killed and tortured for nothing."3
Another bit of history i'd mention here is that while 1929 is likely most infamous for that year's record stock markets crash and the economic depression it created for years following...it's also the year, Bernard Grun's "The Timetables of History" records: "The term 'apartheid' (was) used for the first time"...
Science fiction is often termed "speculative fiction." Perhaps we should speculate about "our future just beyond this wall."
The statement i sent Ronald Reagan at the same as my
Christmas, 1988 submission to Mikhail Gorbachev had
reminded him of this statement by the then-U.S. President on
September 24, 1988 to the U.N. General Assembly:
"Perhaps the most graphic example of the relationship between human rights and peace is the right of peace groups to exist and to promote their views. In fact, the treatment of peace groups may be a litmus test of governments' true desire for peace."
...Reagan chose not to reply as requested before he
left office.
...Nor has Bush chosen to write or phone me since.
Everywhere i go i wear buttons reading "Hiroshima Never Again"
and "Kids For Peace"...
1-THE DECEMBER 8, 1993 'BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS' BESTOWED THEIR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD ON ROD STEWART, NOTING HE DONATED ALL ROYALTIES FROM 'DO YA THINK I'M SEXY?' TO UNICEF.
2-PLEASE SEE (AGAIN?) THE FOOTNOTE ON PAGE 2. OF 'SCIENCE FICTION'.
3-THERE IS ANOTHER LENGTHY FOOTNOTE ABOUT THIS THAT I WILL OPEN LATER IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM.