Punk and Politics
“I’m a musician,” D.C. punk legend Ian MacKaye testified yesterday at Councilmember Jim Graham’s roundtable on minors and nightclubs. “You may not know me. You may not even recognize my band Fugazi.” But many music fans across the world do, he said. And “I knowingly have not played a show that was not all ages.”
Addressing Graham and fellow councilmembers, MacKaye spoke passionately and provocatively against any action that would prohibit people below the age of 21, or even 18, from attending venues where music is played and alcohol is served.
“Obviously, this place that you’re talking about is insane. It’s insane,” he said, referring to Smarta/Broadway, where 17-year-old Taleshia Ford was shot and killed early in the morning of Jan. 20. D.C.’s Alcoholic Beverage Control board summarily suspended the club from operating Jan. 24 and a hearing is tentatively scheduled for Monday.
“The problem is the gun. The problem was that club,” MacKaye said. The problem was not the music or the age of the patrons, he said. In fact, he pointed out, venues that provide a gathering place for young people serve an important function, particularly in D.C. “I come from a community of musicians who have worked with venues like the Black Cat, the 9:30 Club,” he said. “Over the years, we’ve really tried to make music accessible.”
Then the punk star got personal. Over the years, MacKaye said he participated in a variety of benefits, some at all-ages venues. He even played a benefit for Whitman-Walker Clinic. “And you, sir, received a check,” he said to Graham, who served as the clinic’s executive director from 1994 until he was elected to the Council in 1998.
“I understand people are scared,” but “teenagers are human beings, and to treat them like fodder for predators or business people is insane,” he said, referring to earlier testimonies and councilmembers’ comments about the dangers of mixing minors with older patrons.
Also at yesterday’s hearing, Black Cat owner Dante Ferrando said he would consider selling his club if the council moved to prohibit underage kids from attending. “At least, I’d have to consider [that] if there were no other options licensing-wise.”
Graham said he would be working with the alcohol board to look at new license classes that would exempt certain music venues from a ban on underage patrons.
January 28th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
The United States of America and its states were at its best when lawyers did not swell the ranks of our executive and legislative branches of government.
When farmers, teachers, doctors, business owners, mathematicians, salesman and others were our elected officials, America saw its best days of industrial growth, social justice/progress and more. Whereas America started its decline, losing ground to Asia and Europe and more when lawyers started seizing control of our political landscape.
Why are lawyers bad for America and the District of Columbia?
Simple, they are ideologues not realists, they are known to be the worse business minds, they have the highest rate of business failure, highest rate of suicide, highest rate of divorce, highest rate of substance abuse and more. So is it any wonder the likes of Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and others constantly warned of to be on guard and wary of lawyers?
The corruption among our elected official in DC who are mainly lawyers is routed in what our prophets/God(s) have warned us about; namely, lawyers who will place burdens on our backs that they would not want to carry.
Lawyers have seized control of our government(s) because like the Mafia, in that, they have created a system that affords them some of the highest salaries in the country and they have taken the surplus to create an environment that insures that their power overlaps into every aspect of our lives and gives them the ability to reach that point of control over us.
Shakespeare may have been right when he said in King Henry VI, Part II, (Act IV), Scene 2, “”The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Lawyers”. While some may argue that Shakespeare’s statement was taken out of content, it was not, but a reflection of the times and how corrupt lawyers were, and how they patronized those in power vs. those who were not and the end results of pain and suffering lawyers inflicted upon the common man.
The arrogance of lawyers is easily reflected in the way they ask to be treated especially when they become elected officials or judges whereby you are asked to kiss their ***** and refer to them as “Your Honor”.
In the District of Columbia to insure fairness, we have allowed for all political parties to be afforded a chance at seeing it members being elected when we created the situation where non-Democrats had a shot at at-large seats on our city council. Maybe we should also ad to that, that a certain number of seats on our city council be guaranteed to non-lawyers.