Inför sammetsrevolutionens årsdag

Många jubileum denna höst - och imorgon är det dags att minnas hur sammetsrevolutionen tog sin början för 20 år sedan. Václav Havels gamla kompisar påminde honom på en konsert i Prag häromdagen, och jag kan inte låta bli att saxa ur ett amerikansk-tjeckiskt nyhetsbrev:

»Reap what you sow

Freedom was the recurring theme at Václav Havel's lovely concert in
Prague on Sat. in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.

There was no mistaking the vague political message of Joan Baez's rendition of "We Shall Overcome," but what in the word {sic} was Lou Reed trying to say? His opening tune, "I'm Waiting for the Man," could be understood as an allegory for the arrival of Havel two
decades ago to save the day, until one recalls that it's about a drug
addict waiting for his dealer. His second tune, "Dirty Boulevard," is about the ugly
underbelly of freedom: "Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor, I'll piss on
them."
Even Lou's "Perfect Day," made more perfect by the incomparable Renée Fleming, is
about suppressing our darker side.

If Lou Reed had a message, perhaps this was it: We have only ourselves to blame if we allow freedom, once gained, to be taken away from us.«

Extra intressant om Suzanne Vega, som också närvarade på konserten, synade den feministiska situationen i Tjeckien och kanske lite statistisk över kvinnomisshandel innan hon gick upp på scen. Jag har dock inte sett spellistan.