OK, But Didn’t We Ban the “Peace Train” Guy?
Today’s Washington Post has another front-page story about the evil doers in China. This one focuses on speed skater Joey Cheek, who was denied a visa to attend the upcoming Olympics.
The implication of the story is that Cheek won’t be allowed into China because of his efforts to call attention to atrocities in Darfur.
Not great.
All of these anti-China stories should make us feel better about us and worse about them.
And I might, if only I didn’t know that we put Cat Stevens on our no-fly list.
Cat Stevens!
Yeah, Homeland Security actually diverted a London-to-Dulles flight to Maine and arrested Stevens just to keep the guy who wrote “Peace Train” out of the country.
And by “the country,” I mean the U.S.
Not China.
And nobody really gave a rip. (The Post’s story about the singer’s detention and deportation only got a few paragraphs on page A10.)
And I’d get more worked up about Joey Cheek if he could write a protest song that was also a pop hit.
“Now I’ve been crying lately/Thinking about the world as it is…”
5 Responses to “OK, But Didn’t We Ban the “Peace Train” Guy?”
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August 6th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Isn’t speedskating a winter sport?
I think you’re being a little misleading about Cat Stevens. Maybe the Post’s initial coverage was not 20 Point above the fold, but there was a lot of noise about that at the time (and since).
August 6th, 2008 at 10:14 am
I’m bein’ monitored by a moon shadow/Moon shadow, moon shadow
August 6th, 2008 at 11:38 am
“Cat Stevens”, now known as “Yusuf Islam” - how does one go from calling for the death of Salman Rushdie to becoming a “peace activist”?
August 6th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
What the US has done should change the standards we hold others up to. What is particularly upsetting about this Joey Cheek story is that his crime was trying to raise awareness about a genocide, and the financial relationships that enable it. Silencing a genocide, and criticism of it, is a bid no-no in my book.
Not that the US (and the US based olympic sponsor) have clean hands, just that this is an opportunity to do the right thing. Here is a campaign I started to boycott the opening ceremonies for this reason: http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/olympic-sponsor-speak-out-on-darfur
August 6th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
This is called hypocrisy. Imagine the US admitting into the country an outspoken critic of this administration. That would be a wild stretch. They won‘t allow the troublemaker into a bowling alley, let alone a major sporting event.
At least China had the decency to warn Mr. Cheek in advance thus to spare him the indignity of arrest, incarceration and deportation from the point of entry, which is a common practice on these shores.