At the beginning of this summer, Ringo Starr celebrated his 75th birthday in front of the Capitol, and everyone observed a minute of silence for world peace. I was there, not that I believe in this kind of wishful thinking but it was totally harmless and seeing Ringo was cool.
Now it is John Lennon’s turn, except that he will never turn 75 because he died 35 years ago. Never mind, Yoko Ono is here to remind us he is still alive, or at least his spirit is, and she wants to celebrate his 75th birthday on a grand-scale approach, she is planning to gather 6,000 to 10,000 people in Central Park on October 6th, in order to form the world’s largest human peace sign. She tweeted:
‘You don’t have to do much/ Power works in mysterious ways. Visualize the domino effect. And just start thinking PEACE’… ‘Be playful. Dance with your mind and body. It’s such fun that ‘They’ might start to dance with us, too.’
Wow, does she still believe in that kind of stuff or she is faking it? Does she really think that such an event can actually have an impact on world peace? In any case, an Eventbrite page has even been set up for the free event:
‘This is a free, all ages event. Registration does not guarantee entry. Entry is available for the first 10,000 registrants on a first-come, first-served basis. Please arrive at 10:00am to secure your place in the Largest human peace sign! On-site registration and peace sign placement will close promptly at 12:00pm. The aerial photograph capturing this historic event will take place at 12:30pm.’
It’s certainly not the most controversial thing that Yoko Ono has ever done but we can always go back to Ono and Lennon’s shady characters, to find the hypocrisy of the whole thing. it’s no difficult, you just have to find an old interview of Julian Lennon, John’s quiet and forgotten son, who has now a career in photography. He doesn’t come up as someone bringing the attention on himself, nor complaining all the time, so when he speaks, I tend to listen:
‘I have to say that, from my point of view, I felt he was a hypocrite. Dad could talk about peace and love out loud to the world but he could never show it to the people who supposedly meant the most to him: his wife and son. How can you talk about peace and love and have a family in bits and pieces – no communication, adultery, divorce? You can’t do it, not if you’re being true and honest with yourself.’
Of course, he said this in 1998, and has kind of reconciled with Yoko since but you can’t erase the past. Still, Yoko will go on with her world peace business to reinforce the Lennon myth,… all is forgotten, let’s have a Lennon world peace day in NYC.