The article examines a 1924 study by two researchers at the University of Chicago who went door to door “to provide a ‘preliminary approach to the study of political motives,‘“ Pew senior editor Jodie Allen writes. They targeted the 50 percent of the city’s voting-age adults—yes, 50 percent—who didn’t cast a ballot in the April 3, 1923, mayoral election.
The researchers weren’t targeting women specifically, but what they found can teach us a lot about why women weren’t coming out to the polls in force after winning suffrage in 1920. And they weren’t: 65 percent of eligible women didn’t vote in the mayoral election, only three years removed from their gender’s successful conclusion of a 70-year journey to the ballot box.
Why?
The third-most common reason women gave for failing to vote—behind general apathy and illness—was their own disbelief in women’s right to vote. One and a half percent reported that their husbands objected to them voting.
Those reasons seem so inconceivable in America today. But look again at the list of reasons women gave for not voting: Disgust with politics. The belief that one vote counts for nothing. Neglect and/or ignorance of the election. Even congestion at the polls.
Sound familiar?
You know that old saying: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.“
I’m not sure whether the opening of Major League Baseball this week was the hook, but TIME magazine’s Dan Fletcher has compiled a list of the Top 10 worst renditions of the National Anthem. Famous people are listed alongside regular Joes and even still-unknown singers, but leading them all (or is it bringing up the rear?) is a former television star who infamously added two particular gestures to her song.
Ugh.
The National Anthem is a difficult song to sing, but it’s beautiful. It has a soaring melody that stands on its own. Most singers get themselves into trouble because they don’t realize—or won’t admit to themselves—that the song is challenging enough as it is without their unnecessary additions of flourishes, sustained notes and key changes—most of which end up poorly done, anyway.
The one exception to this is the incomparable Whitney Houston. Who can forget the incredible version she belted out at the Super Bowl in 1991? Get this: It was so popular and made such an impression, it was sold AS A SINGLE for a while. (I know, because I owned the tape—ha ha.) I was 13 years old, but I remember it distinctly, and even all these years later, it still puts chillbumps on my arms.
For my money, give me straight and simple, a strong singer (or singers—like these) at ease with simplicity and appreciative of the song for what it is: A testimony to this country, not the singer himself.
Now, forget all the worst renditions of the Anthem and enjoy one of the best: Whitney, one of the country’s best singers, singing from her toes about the country she loves.
Remember a few months ago when I told you about the launch of Big Hollywood?
There’s a piece up right now that drew my interest because it deals with Eagles crooner and rock standard Don Henley.
It seems that Chuck DeVore, a California assemblyman and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010, penned a parody of Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” called “Hope of November.“
The short of it is that Henley didn’t care much for DeVore’s work.
DeVore details Henley’s lawyers’ (successful) efforts to get YouTube to remove the parody from its web site. Of course, the parody is up elsewhere, as DeVore believes it is within the fair use bounds set by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1994. And DeVore is now on the hunt for more Henley tunes that he can parody—partially to continue to spread his political message, but at least partially now to tweak the overly sensitive singer.
Here’s the thing: I don’t get why Henley would even care. It wasn’t even about him. And a lot more people are going to hear about DeVore’s parody since Henley objected to it (and got lawyers involved). It spawns interest (like this post, for example) which wouldn’t have existed without Henley’s objection. As someone who has made quite a bit of money pillorying political figures himself, Henley sure didn’t display much political sense when playing this card.
Check out the comments below DeVore’s article. Some of them are actually quite funny. And for the record, yes, that was my suggestion to use Henley’s “Dirty Laundry” as a jumping-off point for a parody of U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd and his travails with AIG.
I know. It’s funny.
I love listening to Henley. He has a voice tailor-made for rock & roll. But I love parody—and the First Amendment—more.
