2005-03-10
Why Bono Should Win the Nobel Peace Prize
Reasons why I want Bono to win the Nobel Peace Prize:
1. That's just cool. Admit it.
2. My undying devotion to most of U2's career. It started when I learned that my 7th grade crush, Mike DePaul, was a die hard Joshua Tree guy and lo and behold, the band was good.
3. Bono is good luck. One time, I won a tee shirt from WCIL FM's Pepsi Top Five at Nine. You had to listen to the top five requested songs of the day, in ascending order, then be the fifth caller on the rock line with the correct list: Song title and artist. When I won, the number one song was Where the Streets have No Name. Vicky Selkowe actually won the tee-shirt for me. She had some kind of spell over the timing of dialing. I could track the top five songs, I mean - duh. But it's all in the dial and that girl was a professional. She had won so many times that she wasn't allowed to win anymore, so she'd win for her friends. Later, that same song would define another very different night with Vicky Selkowe. She and I ended up at the same private college in Wisconsin, Beloit, and one night she told me that I had been a bitch to her for all the time that we were friends as children. I realized then and there that nobody is what they seem. I thought Vicky and I had been true friends. I moved away, she became friends with some of my other Carbondale friends and Vicky and I didn't maintain a friendship. Of course there were little girl meanie words between us at one time or another. By the time I got to college, I no longer held a grudge for little girl meanie things that had been said to me by people like Chirsty Fligor and Jeanie Rich. Vicky clearly had some issues that I didn't know about and I suspect that she may have actively contributed to the misery that was undergraduate school for me. I didn't have a whole lot of friends and I have to wonder if someone who had held that long of a grudge over very minor elementary school indescretions, I HAVE to wonder if that person didn't belittle me to some of the women I tried to befriend. It's just a hunch. At any rate, the joke's on Vicky Selkowe - I live in sunny Tucson and dated a famous trangendered folk-singer and am still super-cute so HA!
No seriously - if you're reading Vicky, you own me an apology for the way you treated me in college. I was never deserving of that crap.
Clearly I digress.
The same sng, Where the Streets Have No Name, kind of fit that night I mentioned. I was at C-Haus, the campus bar, or the bar on campus if you prefer. Vicky had just told me that I was, and always had been, a selfish wench and that I had never been her friend. I was vulnerable in college and totally taken aback by her harshness and by her perspective. I went over to the frat house where I spent much of my college time getting stoned with the Eastern students. This one guy, the son of the Nepalese Ambassador to the US was at home, along with his team of Olympic Champion stoners. They were all in his room, I was kind of reeeling, and I remember that the only light was a red light. Upon smoking pot that was laced with opium, the only words spoken were U2 songs. Where the Streets Have no Name was played over and over and every time, I felt like I was living in the song. I was flashing on all kinds of childhood memories; from the elementary school I attended, to the bus ride out to Vicky's house in the country, to her smelly dog, to the other friends I'd had, to WCIL fm, to my dad who by then was already dead...
I don't remember going home that night but I'm sure I did and I think that was the night that I gave up. I was vulnerable enough to have believed her - the only person for miles who had known me for any length of time and the only person for miles who had been a friend to me for at least some part of my life.
And she hated me and apparently had hated me the whole time I thought she was my friend.
When I hear that song, I feel very painful memories of self-loathing and yet still in that song, there's this possibility for me to SOMEDAY find the place where I do belong.
Fuck you Vicky!
Go Bono!
4. That snapshot in time when I couldn't help but refer to Chelsea and I as Bono and The Edge. She was The Edge and I was Bono. I can't even remember how that started except that I think I was into U2 around the time Beautiful Day was on the radio 19 times per day. I think I called her and was all, "Hey The Edge, what are you doing this weekend." Since my best friend is phenominally quick-witted, she replied, "I don't know Bono - any ideas?"
5. He is fantastically dedicated to actually solving problems and does not force any kind of pseudo-political shit down the throats of his fans. Although I'm sure some fans wouldn't mind, I would mind and Bono's work as a humanitarian would not be as significant if he was using U2 to promote his person al agenda. Thumbs up for compartmentalizing, dude!
In summary:
Go Bono!!!!!
I'm holding up a lighter for you during the decision making process!
arizonasarah at 1:33 p.m.