The Wisdom of the Boss

The Boss, aka Bruce Springsteen, played to a full house last week in the UBS Arena on Long Island during a stop on his Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour. The crowd got everything they’ve come to expect from the 77-year-old legend, including a more than three-hour performance with the Boss and his E Street Band. Estimated count of the audience? 20,000. Estimated age range? 40s to 70s, with a decent smattering of those in their 20s and 30s, including parents with their grown children.

Talk about someone who knows how to bring people together!

The great songwriter and performer took a break in the middle of the music for a five-minute-plus impassioned speech about the state of the state, eliciting raves almost as big as those for his tunes. In part, he said,

We have our young men and women’s lives at risk in an unwise and illegal war which is happening now. The Supreme Court just gutted the Voting Rights Act, and historically set back our hard fought war for civil rights. The Civil Rights Movement. This is happening now. There are immigrants being held in for-profit detention centers around the country. Being deported without due process. To alien countries and foreign prisons. This is unAmerican and this is happening now. Our justice department has completely abdicated its independence and it takes its marching orders directly from a corrupt White House. They prosecute our president's perceived enemies. I mean, uh, don’t go to the beach and play with any seashells. They cover up for his misdeeds and they protect his powerful friends. And this is happening now. The richest men in America have abandoned the world’s poorest children to death and disease…That's not on the front page anymore, but that is happening. We threaten our good neighbors and our allies. We threaten Canada…and Greenland…Yeah, they're real trouble…But we threaten them with predatory annexation of their land.

Our museums. Our museums are being told to whitewash American history of any unpleasant or inconvenient facts like the full history of the brutality of slavery. You want to talk about snowflakes. We have a president who can’t handle the truth. This is happening now. While Americans struggle, our president and his family enrich themselves by billions of dollars trading on the people’s office. This White House is destroying the American idea and our reputation around the world. We stood AS a beacon for hope and liberty all over the world. An imperfect but a strong defender of democracy. Standing for the global good. And now many see us as this reckless unpredictable predatory nation. That will be this president’s and this administration’s legacy.

Honesty, honor, humility, character, truth, humanity, thoughtfulness, morality, true strength, and decency. Don’t let anyone tell you these things don’t matter anymore because they do. They are at the heart of the kind of men and women we are. The kind of citizens we want to be. The kind of country we’ll be leaving to our children. So many of our elected leaders have failed. That this tragedy can only be solved by the American people. So join us. Let’s fight for the American land we love. Are you with us... Do you hear me? Will you join us? Do you hear me? Are you with us? Let’s go!

The same day, Donald Trump, 79, trumpeted about Operation Epic Fury on his Truth Social platform. His pronouncements, which admittedly received a boatload of likes, claimed that the war in Iran was close to over but not done yet. He planned to keep the blockade in place. Missiles were in the air and commercial Iranian ships carrying oil were still being bombed. His statements stood in stark contrast to words spoken by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a press conference at the White House hours earlier. “The Operation Epic Fury is concluded,” Rubio said. “We achieved the objective of that operation.” As MSN writers concluded, "Analysts described the rapid reversal as head-spinning, underscoring the administration’s struggle to maintain a consistent narrative on the war.” Ya think? Sounds like a nice way of saying the man in charge has no consistent game plan and doesn’t share his whims with his teammates.

Associated Press

Newsweek

So, which septuagenarian, Springsteen or Trump, do you think would score higher on a cognitive functioning assessment? Or a psychological test? Or even a physical fitness exam? Most importantly, whom would you trust more to make decisions that would better the lives of people throughout the world?

We’d go with the Boss every time. Hands down.

But given that Mr. Springsteen is bound to stay in his lane and stick to music venues over political stages, we hope he will continue to inspire us with his clear-eyed distress and understanding that America can and should be better than it is right now and that improvement will come from the demands and work of the people. That’s the message of the Boss’s Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour. Sure sounds better than the fury nonsense.

Therese (she/her/hers)
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Leading Ladies Executive Team
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