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From '60s 'Yippee' to senior citizen activist, Judy Collins, who performs in concert at the University of Mary Washington Saturday night, exemplifies learning from the past, but always looking to the road ahead Date published: 4/20/2006
By MICHAEL ZITZ Judy Collins doesn't want to talk about protest music. She doesn't want to talk about parallels between Vietnam and Iraq or about President Bush's role in the war. And she certainly doesn't want to talk about folk music contemporary Joan Baez's loss of faith in the concept of changing the world through political action. Collins--who appears in concert at the University of Mary Washington on Saturday night--wants to stay positive. She wants to talk about her friend Bill Clinton and all the things she says he's been doing to make the world a better place since he left the White House. Collins says she's all about positivity, about spirituality, about making people feel hopeful and empowered through her music and her own record label. She says the best way to effect positive change in the world is one person--or perhaps one concert hall--at a time, adding a bounce to each listener's step and a sense that they can do something as individuals to make things better. All the woman who was reprimanded by the judge for singing on the witness stand at the Chicago Seven trial will say about Iraq is that Americans don't seem to pay much attention to history. "Why don't we learn from the past?" Collins said this week in a telephone interview with The Free Lance-Star. "Why is the world in such a terrible place?" Answering her own question, she said: "Some people are less bright than others. Some people don't learn the lessons of the past." Is that a slam at President Bush? She wouldn't say. Instead she praised President Clinton's "sterling" work in private life. She sang at the former president's first inauguration. And Chelsea Clinton is said to be named for her cover of the Joni Mitchell song "Chelsea Morning," a favorite of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Collins has a perspective on music, politics and history few can match. The woman who began her career in 1961 with the album "Maid of Constant Sorrow" is still going strong 45 years later, releasing "Portrait of an American Girl," and she still deals with important issues in her songs.
Date published: 4/20/2006
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