Joan Baez' Farewell Tour

Last night she came, she sang, she made us remember. She says it is her farewell tour.

Is it farewell because she plans to retire, to end her performances? Or is it Farewell to a time when we could stand up for the good and protest with heart and dignity?

Her performance last night made me wonder.

Yes, she has aged since I first heard her on college campuses and coffee houses in the 60’s. Her gorgeous clear soprano is but a memory, yet her musicality, her ability to project a song, a mood, and move an audience is as good, if not better than ever.

She made me remember what seems to be another time. We were young, naive, and optimistic. We thought we could right wrongs with protest and song. We thought we could end segregation and injustice to Blacks with protests, voter registration drives, and marches in the South. We thought we could end an unjust war with yet more protests and sit-ins. We had hope and vision. We really thought “we shall overcome.”

Maybe this is because we were young, we were students, and all our friends had the same optimism about our abilities to fix the world.

Yet everything seems so different today. Is it because we are older?

Have we lost the optimism of our youth? Or, has the world changed.

To me, it seems such a bitter place today. All around the globe one can identify areas where groups of people are being mistreated (minimized, ignored, tortured): in Myanmar, Syria, Sudan, Mali, Nigeria, El Salvador, Venezuela, to name a few. Pockets of poverty have grown and there is little way out for so many human beings. Immigrants from the middle east stream to Europe trying to save themselves. Immigrants to the US stream in because, despite the problems we have here, matters are far worse in their home countries.

In our own country, founded on democratic principles, we are divided. Some of us hate and fear the immigrants. Others want to help. We call each other names and distrust the motives of those we oppose. So many want to have wealth and seem to value this over human kindness. Some believe that those who want a universal medical system support handouts to deadbeats rather than healthcare for those who are in need. Some believe that guns which have caused so many deaths in recent years should be outlawed/regulated; others believe the right to own a gun is but the hallmark of freedom. Some believe a woman should have the right to choose for herself whether or not she gives birth; others oppose abortion as “murder.” In the Congress Republicans and Democrats vote for their respective parties rather than the principles that are before them. And, our divisiveness seems to be filled with bitterness and hatred and with few hopes for reconciliation.

So I return to my original question. Is this tour a farewell to a wonderful singer who feels she must retire, or, is this a farewell to another place and another time.