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July
30, 2003, 8:45 a.m. By Kevin M. Cherry |
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year ago, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band began their tour in
support of The
Rising with a public dress rehearsal in their adopted hometown
of Asbury Park. This event brought out not only rock critics but mainstream
television — The Today Show dedicated an entire morning to
covering the band — and news (Ted Koppel's Nightline). With
the release of the 9/11-themed album, Bruce Springsteen was more popular
than he had been since the "glory days" of 1984-85, when Born
in the U.S.A. reigned supreme.
Now, that seems all but forgotten: The RIAA overlooked Bruce for the major Grammy awards (all won by Norah Jones), and The Rising has dropped off the charts. Seats are still available for concerts in many cities. And yet, as Bruce and the band concluded their sold-out seven nights at Giants Stadium Sunday night, the crowd could have time-traveled from 1985.
Of course, there were serious differences from the earlier shows (which I reviewed here). The concerts are now more of a celebration of Bruce's entire catalog, rather than being tied directly to the most recent album. While last year's shows often featured ten songs from the new CD, this year's drew as heavily on the classic albums Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A.. "Into the Fire," the celebration of the heroism of the NYC firefighters, had closed the main set almost every night of the tour; Sunday night, it was nowhere to be found.
This new set list offered something for both the casual and hardcore fan. For the less obsessive, hits like "Born to Run," "Dancing in the Dark," and "Bobby Jean" made the trip worthwhile. For the aficionados, as Bruce once called them, the band pulled out tracks from the lesser-known albums — including the legendary "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)." Sunday night, the fans were surprised by "It's Hard to Be a Saint (in the City)" from his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N. J. and the jazzy "Kitty's Back" from the sophomore release, The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle.
The show opened with video screens following their approach to the stage, and the audience roared as each band member took his place onstage. Finally Bruce himself appeared, and he immediately set the tone for the night: "Somebody please murder that beach ball!" It soon became obvious that the band was as enthused as the hometown crowd. The energy level remained at fever pitch till the last notes of the last song, a cover of the great Moon Mullican tune, "Seven Nights to Rock." Given the seven nights in Jersey, it was perfectly appropriate. The crowd screamed along with every chorus: "Saturday, Sunday, everybody rocks!" And rock they did.
Except for one brief moment, when Bruce introduced what he likes to call his "public-service announcement." Early in the tour, it was about the "rollback" of our civil liberties; it then became about an insufficient debate about going to war with Iraq. Now, the question he thinks we need to ask is "whether we were mislead into the war in Iraq." For Bruce, this is not "a liberal or conservative, or Republican or Democratic question, it's an American one."
Two things should be noted immediately in Bruce's defense. First, he was quite clear that "both the Republican and Democratic administrations in the past" have been less than forthright about our foreign policy. Perhaps more importantly, he dedicated the next song for the safety of the soldiers in Iraq and peace for the Iraqi people. Both of these separate him from the knee-jerk left attacking President Bush.
Bruce is, of course, right that we need to demand "accountability from our leaders"; it is, as he says, "our job as citizens." But that, too, ought to hold true for members of both parties. So, one might assume, we should ask about the recent DNC ads that provide a misleading, partial quotation from President Bush's State of the Union.
The investigations into the infamous 16 words in that speech, however, is incomplete so long as one focuses solely on memoranda exchanged between Foggy Bottom, Langley, and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. For the truth — the whole truth — to out, we must wait to see what we learn on the ground in Iraq about Saddam Hussein's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. We must wait to see what we learn about his contacts with foreign governments. There is much we do not yet know.
By all means, of course, we ought to look into the matter. Were our fears about the threat Iraq posed to us exaggerated? Was Saddam less of a menace than he was portrayed to be? Although the historical record would seem to be on the president's side, perhaps Hussein did turn over a new leaf. But it took a high-level defection to learn about the previous extent of his arsenal; it may take a similar break to discover what he possessed up until quite recently.
Springsteen put on a great show, and he raised important and legitimate issues. I believe his questions are sincere. My fear, however, is that many people will ask these questions not out of sincerity or to receive answers, but to cast doubt on the president and his policies. For them, the questions are asked only because they have already settled upon their chosen answers. For them, the important question seems not to be whether Saddam was pursuing weapons of mass destruction, but whether the CIA had approved of the president's speech. (It is curious that the intelligence agency under much fire for its pre-9/11 work has become the arbiter of the facts about the international order.)
If we take Springsteen's words at face value, they do serve to remind us of our duties as citizens, duties perhaps shirked by too many in both parties during the past decade. Questions need to be, ought to be asked. However, as Socrates says in the Gorgias, the necessary preconditions for asking serious questions are candor, intelligence, and good will. It is not at all clear that these are as present in the questions being asked of President Bush as they ought to be.
— Kevin Cherry is a graduate student at the University of Notre Dame in political science and a frequent contributor to NRO.