Word: lennon
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Lennon expressed interest in partaking in fund-raising, voter-registration anti-war rallies and concerts, which would take place in many of the 1972 primary states. With the full protection of the First Amendment (which protects citizens and noncitizens alike) Lennon's intended actions were completely legal...
...some Republicans worried that the popularity of John Lennon could help galvanize the anti-war movement and result in a massive vote against Nixon. On February 4, 1972, Senator Strom Thurmond sent a secret memo (later brought to light via a Freedom Of Information Act request) in which he railed about Lennon and the danger he could cause the President's 1972 reelection campaign. The proposed solution? Revoke Lennon's visa. "If Lennon's visa is terminated it would be a strategy (sic) counter-measure." But, Thurmond noted, "caution must be taken with regard to the possible alienation...
...result? John Lennon was on the receiving end of a four-year campaign of FBI surveillance and INS harassment. In 1975 the INS chief counsel on the case resigned his position, telling Rolling Stone that the U.S. government was being more vigorous in its attempts to deport John Lennon than it was in its attempts to expel Nazi war criminals...
...hard to think of a single artist or entertainer prior to, or since, John Lennon who had that kind of impact. No other creative artist has ever induced that level of fear in a man who is ostensibly the most powerful man in the world. Ideas, honesty, passion, humor and brilliant empathetic songs it seems were more powerful. Just imagine that...
...that is why today my eyes are red. My heart is heavy. I will play John Lennon music today. I will watch the video of Lennon insouciantly chewing gum as he sang "All You Need Is Love" live to 400 million people by satellite in June 1967. I will laugh as I watch him tweak stuffy pomposity again and again: "Those in the cheaper seats clap. The rest of you just rattle your jewelry." And I will weep still more tears at the loss of a man who inspired me in my childhood - and who inspires me to this...