She went on to explain, “It broke his heart, it really did.”
“He was almost a Quaker in his pacifism. He thought there was never a reason for war — and he had felt that way, he told me, since the Vietnam War.”
It seems John Rich knows as little about Johnny Cash as he does about war or John McCain.
Johnny Cash also involved himself with Native American affairs by speaking out against the mistreatment of the Seneca tribe through his Bitter Tears album. Some radio stations refused to play the album single, “Ballad of Ira Hayes” which tells the tragic story of Ira Hayes who enlists in the military to fight during WW2, wins medals for heroism, but faces racism upon his return from war. Cash was outraged and took action. They played his song.
"I dove into primary and secondary sources, immersing myself in the tragic stories of the Cherokee and the Apache, among others, until I was almost as raw as Peter. By the time I actually recorded the album I carried a heavy load of sadness and outrage; I felt every word of those songs, particularly 'Apache Tears' and 'The Ballad of Ira Hayes.' I meant every word, too. I was long past pulling my punches."
There are no legitimate comparisons between John McCain and Johnny Cash. The closest link between the two would have to be McCain's own involvement in Native American affairs during the Keating Five scandal for which he was soundly rebuked by the United States Senate and lucky to have escaped prosecution.
John Rich's flagrant and futile attempt to pull the reputation of Johnny Cash around himself and John McCain is a direct insult to an American folk hero who hated war and protested injustice. Where is the philosophical similarity between McCain and the man who fought against social inequality, fought for working people everywhere and sang about the plight of miners, a man whose wearing of solid black was not a fashion statement, but a statement of solidarity for the poor and the oppressed? Johnny Cash was an artist of integrity, not a shill for politicians, nor should his legacy be used or dishonored by shills.
He did not wrap his songs around a politician or the American flag in order to make a buck. As an artist and an American, Johnny Cash put patriotism and duty first when it came to uncomfortable truths, even at the risk of his own career. He was a hard core realist when it came to what poverty and lack of opportunity can do to our own feelings about our country.
“I don’t know how patriotic I’d be if I was poor and hungry." Johnny Cash, 1969
Johnny Cash was his own man, a man whose deeply held views against injustice and war cannot now be recycled by a country singer wanting promote his own career by selling us the politician he supports. The heart of Johnny Cash is uniquely his own and has never been for sale.
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