The Honesty of Sinead O'Connor

 

Until the philosophy,

Which holds one race superior
And another inferior,
Is finally and permanently
Discredited and abandoned,
Everywhere is war.

Until there is no longer first class
Or second class citizens of any nation.
Until the color of a man's skin,
Is of no more significance than
The color of his eyes,
I've got to say "war".

That until the basic human rights,
Are equally guaranteed to all,
Without regard to race,
I'll say "war"

Until that day the dream of lasting peace,
World-citizenship and the rule of
International morality will remain
Just a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never obtained.
And everywhere is war.

Until the ignoble and unhappy regime
Which holds all of us through,
Child-abuse, yeah, child-abuse yeah,
Sub-human bondage has been toppled,
Utterly destroyed,
Everywhere is war.

War in the east,
War in the west,
War up north,
War down south,
There is war,
And the rumors of war.

Until that day,
There is no continent,
Which will know peace.

War -- Bob Marley (see below as well)

When the rock musician Prince died seven years ago I was reminded of his immense talent even though I was never much of a fan -- I'm not sure why. When I heard of the death of singer Sinead O'Connor a few days ago it was much the same. Great voice and a huge hit in Nothing Compares 2 U, which it turns out was written by Prince. 

I was more aware of how odd O'Connor seemed to be with with her shaved head and performances which poked various institutions in the eye. The most provocative I recall was on Saturday Night Live in 1992 when she sang a striking version of Bob Marley's War to close out the show. She replaced some lyrics with the words "child abuse" and held up a photo of Pope John Paul II and tore it into pieces, looking straight into the camera. "Fight the real enemy," she said. Apparently this gesture earned her a ban from Saturday Night Live and there was no end of backlash. I naively thought she was rude and perhaps unfair to the pontiff. 

Here's the reality. She was correct. Unbenownst to the world the Roman Catholic Church had been covering up tens of thousands of abuse cases in Ireland alone by that time. In the past year concerns have been expressed that John Paul II covered up paedophilia when he was a cardinal in his native Poland. It is the terrible blight of Roman Catholicism and it was hidden for far too long. Although Pope Francis has moved toward greater honesty and accountability he has also made some egregious errors, for which he has apologized personally and repented for on behalf of the church. 

O'Connor was also open through the years about her struggles with mental illness, and she once posted a suicide note on Facebook, although she was found and received medical assistance.Last year she lost a son to suicide, a terrible blow. She died suddenly at age 56 without a cause of death established, so far. Some of her friends have called out the hypocrisy of some of the tributes, including musician Morrisey:

The press will label artists as pests because of what they withhold … and they would call Sinead sad, fat, shocking, insane … oh but not today! Music CEOs who had put on their most charming smile as they refused her for their roster are queuing-up to call her a 'feminist icon,' and 15 minute celebrities and goblins from hell and record labels of artificially aroused diversity are squeezing onto Twitter to twitter their jibber-jabber … when it was YOU who talked Sinead into giving up … because she refused to be labelled, and she was degraded, as those few who move the world are always degraded."

Children, children.

Fight!
We find it necessary.
We know we will win.
We have confidence in the victory
Of good over evil

Fight the real enemy!