I am sitting at my desk with our dog curled up on his bed, lying next to me, as I write this brief blog today. I’m safe. No one is knocking on my door bothering me. I have no child in my house crying because of lack of food. All of my family are in pretty good health. Lastly, my wife and I have ample clean drinking water. The only thing keeping me up at night is my career or lack of it. For Bono, it’s different. He hears those cries of need in his head and has to extinguish them. As a young man, he decided to take on the world and make change. He’s non-stop in his beliefs of getting the world on a better track, even if it is at the cost of a few sleepless nights.
A couple Sundays ago was John Lennon’s birthday and I have always wondered what would have happened if John had lived to see Bono’s good deeds. John, in some ways, was a mentor to Bono. The “Give Peace A Chance” movement was one that Bono has clung to. Even though the real humanitarian in the Beatles was George, it was John who had the most profound impact, I think, on our Irish rocker. The difference between them is John was more of a pacifist in some ways where as Bono has been more in your face. I think it ‘s the difference of where they are from to be quite honest – Bono being Irish and John being English. There heritage is neither here nor there in this discussion what is up for discussion is how the nay sayers completely do not understand how Bono has made a dent in the world as they, those nay sayers, have done nothing but sit on their hands.
If Bono wasn’t in a rock band, would he be down at Wall Street? Hell yes! He would not only be marching with them but designing the flag and carrying it. I believe he would find a common theme about the disgrace of corporate greed and get everyone to rally. One would argue he is the part of the issue as he, and the band, have move all of their finances off the Emerald Isle, but I said he’s taking up Wall Street as a citizen. The question would be if he could be the loudest to garner the attention. I believe so and in his current status of rock star, he is doing just that with the One campaign.
As I look at the picture shot of him in the Paris office of the One campaign yesterday, I see that same man I saw singing his heart out on the Joshua Tree in 1987, only much tamer and mature. The pensive look in his face, as he looks out the window, tells me that he still has much more work to do, but is satisfied with what he has done so far. He’s taken the plight of the humankind; much like Atlas has carrying the world, without abandon. He’s tireless in making change and for that, there’s hope we will have a better world.
