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John Lennon and Michael Moore
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marcus
Dec 3, 2011, 10:28:26 PM12/3/11
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Perhaps this is old news to some of you, but I just found this out
tonight.
I'm reading Michael Moore's latest bestseller, "Here Comes Trouble",
which is an excellent read about stories from his life.
In the chapter, "Raid", on pages 316-319, Moore tells about his phone
conversation with John Lennon in the Fall of 1980.
I won't quote the entire passage, but just to give you some
background. Moore was working on an alternative weekly newspaper from
Flint Michigan in 1980. The paper was called "The Flint Voice". The
paper had exposed the corruption of the mayor of Flint. The police
force, which was in the mayor's back pocket, conducted a raid of where
Moore's paper was published, seizing materials etc.
The case of the raid on Moore's paper gained national attention when
it found itself as part of a Congressional effort to pass a law
against this type of seizure (which had been made legal by a Supreme
Court decision in 1978, Zurcher v. Stanford Daily).
Lennon called Moore (at first Moore didn't believe it was John, and
hung up on him) but then a police friend of Moore's was able to trace
the number to actually be that of John's.
Lennon called Moore again. Moore apologized to John for hanging up on
him. Lennon said that he understood the suspicion as "I know a little
bit about police surveillance making your life a bloody hell."
Lennon went on to say that he had been following Moore's case against
the police, and asked if there was anything he could do to help, such
as do a benefit for the paper's legal defense fund.
Moore was overwhelmed. Lennon told him that he didn't have to answer
him right away as he was working on an album (Double Fantasy). They
had more conversation, and John went on to say, " I've been sorta
quiet for awhile....but I'm getting ready to get at it again...and
exercise my constitutional rights..."
Lennon gave Michael his number, and said to call him back.
In the next few weeks Congress passed the Privacy Protections Act of
1980, which basically said that raids on media centers were illegal.
And now I'll quote directly from Michael Moore's "Here Comes
Trouble".
"I never got to make that return call to John Lennon. Eight weeks
later he was gone. And the month after that, Ronald Reagan and George
H.W. Bush took the reins of the country for the next twelve years. A
Dark Age had begun. Few noticed at first"
What I find amazing about this call Lennon made to Moore is that it
flies in the face of all those who said that John was no longer
political by 1980, which has been an ongoing argument of those who
speculate what he would have done in 1981 and afterward, had he
lived.
The offering of help to Moore, and John's well-known offer of help to
the Japanese-American workers in California shows that John Lennon did
not plan on being politically apathetic.
Marc
http://marccatone.webs.com/lennon.htm
tonight.
I'm reading Michael Moore's latest bestseller, "Here Comes Trouble",
which is an excellent read about stories from his life.
In the chapter, "Raid", on pages 316-319, Moore tells about his phone
conversation with John Lennon in the Fall of 1980.
I won't quote the entire passage, but just to give you some
background. Moore was working on an alternative weekly newspaper from
Flint Michigan in 1980. The paper was called "The Flint Voice". The
paper had exposed the corruption of the mayor of Flint. The police
force, which was in the mayor's back pocket, conducted a raid of where
Moore's paper was published, seizing materials etc.
The case of the raid on Moore's paper gained national attention when
it found itself as part of a Congressional effort to pass a law
against this type of seizure (which had been made legal by a Supreme
Court decision in 1978, Zurcher v. Stanford Daily).
Lennon called Moore (at first Moore didn't believe it was John, and
hung up on him) but then a police friend of Moore's was able to trace
the number to actually be that of John's.
Lennon called Moore again. Moore apologized to John for hanging up on
him. Lennon said that he understood the suspicion as "I know a little
bit about police surveillance making your life a bloody hell."
Lennon went on to say that he had been following Moore's case against
the police, and asked if there was anything he could do to help, such
as do a benefit for the paper's legal defense fund.
Moore was overwhelmed. Lennon told him that he didn't have to answer
him right away as he was working on an album (Double Fantasy). They
had more conversation, and John went on to say, " I've been sorta
quiet for awhile....but I'm getting ready to get at it again...and
exercise my constitutional rights..."
Lennon gave Michael his number, and said to call him back.
In the next few weeks Congress passed the Privacy Protections Act of
1980, which basically said that raids on media centers were illegal.
And now I'll quote directly from Michael Moore's "Here Comes
Trouble".
"I never got to make that return call to John Lennon. Eight weeks
later he was gone. And the month after that, Ronald Reagan and George
H.W. Bush took the reins of the country for the next twelve years. A
Dark Age had begun. Few noticed at first"
What I find amazing about this call Lennon made to Moore is that it
flies in the face of all those who said that John was no longer
political by 1980, which has been an ongoing argument of those who
speculate what he would have done in 1981 and afterward, had he
lived.
The offering of help to Moore, and John's well-known offer of help to
the Japanese-American workers in California shows that John Lennon did
not plan on being politically apathetic.
Marc
http://marccatone.webs.com/lennon.htm
rwalker
Dec 4, 2011, 12:07:49 AM12/4/11
to
On Sat, 3 Dec 2011 19:28:26 -0800 (PST), marcus <marc...@yahoo.com>
wrote:
Seems to give lie to those rumors over on RMB that he had become some
kind of Reagan Republican.
wrote:
kind of Reagan Republican.
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