Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Krystian Zimmerman is off his meds, or something
Krystian Zimmerman is a Polish concert pianist, and is considered to be one of the outstanding pianists alive. Sadly, like many other creative geniuses, he is a frickin' loon.
At the Disney Hall in L.A. on Sunday, he made an announcement from the stage that he would no longer perform in the United States as a protest against America's military policies, especially in Poland.
Huh? Poland?
"'Get your hands off my country,' he said, soft-spoken but seething. He accused the U.S. military of wanting 'to control the whole world,' and made a reference to the U.S. military detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."First of all, doesn't he know that President Obama is in the White House now, and it's all good? Come on, it was in all the papers.
Second, I will give him a dollar for every American citizen that he can find that actively wants the United States to assert any kind of military control over Poland. Cooperation with NATO (and really, it's only NATO, for cryin' out loud) that is favored by a majority of Poles doesn't count.
No serious American national politician since Gerald Ford has made mention of Poland in any kind of memorable pronouncement. In fact, as Werner Wolf used to say, let's go to the videotape (you might have to turn up the sound):
A good and decent man, Gerald Ford, but that faux pas might have cost him the election in 1976, and given us Jimmy Carter. The look on the face of Max Frankel, the moderator, was priceless. I remember watching that debate with my mother, who, less than three decades earlier, had learned that her family's home on Bezeredi Utca in Budapest had been nationalized and converted into a block of apartments for the Soviet bureaucrats helping to pull the strings of the communist government in Hungary. Needless to say, we were not amused. Years later, I almost accidentally ran over President Ford in a restaurant parking lot in Edwards, Colorado (it was a dark and snowy night...) But I digress.
Zimmerman is a great talent, a "magnificent obsessive," and has a legitimate axe to grind with the TSA (which could be a rather large club) -- one of his "piano(s) was destroyed by Homeland Security at JFK airport because officials were suspicious that its glue could be an explosive in disguise" -- but the United States really has no designs on Poland. Really. Zimmerman, in his early fifties, is old enough to know what a foreign power "having hands" on Poland actually looks like. Part of the reason that the U.S. spent gobs of money (well, at least back then it seemed like gobs) countering Soviet moves all over the world was so that one day, the countries behind the Iron Curtain could be free of Soviet domination and have a high degree of self-determination.
Hey, Krystian? You're welcome.
CWCID: BLACKFIVE
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Apr 28, 11:45:00 PM:
"No serious American national politician since Gerald Ford has made mention of Poland in any kind of memorable pronouncement."
Well actually, you forgot Poland. (Emphasis mine.)
Sorry, couldn't resist. Moving on.
By 
Escort81, at
Wed Apr 29, 12:29:00 AM:
Good one, Fnord, that one was quasi-memorable, and I forgot it. W in a 2004 debate mentioning the Poles for their contribution to the Coalition forces in 2003, dang.
Zimmerman is still a turkey.
By JPMcT, at
Wed Apr 29, 06:25:00 AM:
I guess he forgot about Hitler...
Typical European..."What have you done for me lately??"
By , at
Wed Apr 29, 10:59:00 PM:
'Come on' folks, Poland has been fighting beside us in Iraq and doing a good job. Are you as uninformed as the rest of the media.
I credit the fall of the Soviet Union to the Afghans first and then the Gdansk Poles. I think we owe each other thanks.
Maybe this guy is just a left over red diaper baby. Kind of like Bill Ayres, without the bombs. Same in Afghanistan some of the most educated and well trained were trained in Moscow. You just have to be aware of the complex history.
At the time, I thought Jerry Ford was trying to say something a little deeper about the situation in Poland, than fit the MSM cartoon wisdom. That he is still being hectored for being right about Poland says something about how failed and ruthless our media is. Ford was evidently trying to say that Poland was not completely under the Communist thumb and indeed Poland was one of the key places where Communism was broken. Hasnt anyone re-thought this media smear.
By , at
Thu Apr 30, 02:56:00 AM:
> her family's home on Bezeredi
> Utca in Budapest
Hello,
Welcome, fellow Hungarian. Do you speak any Hungarian? I am also from Budapest but from the Buda side.
Vilmos
