Firstly, every prominent African-American (read Black) actor was out, starting with Denzel Washington and Jamie Foxx to Samuel Jackson, even Queen Latifah came in for some fairer sex relief. To top that though, they were even inclusive towards Hispanics and Indians with George Lopez and Kal Pen (Kumar from Harold and Kumar fame) on stage too.
Just about then though, my dad commented along the lines that the jingoistic Americanism was starting to grate; that every time he heard those lines about freedom all he could think about were the Palestinians. Right then and there though, Bono came along to save my evening.
Singing "Pride", the song about Martin Luther King Jr (Google the lyrics) he spoke to the world. As Bono sang the chorus "in the name of love" he stopped for some trademark preaching that warmed my heart. "This is not just an American dream, but also an Irish dream, a European dream, an African dream, an Israeli dream". My heart felt like it was going to break, here was Bono, the rockstar crusader for the people of the world, ignoring the Palestinians. He waited a few second as if wondering 'Just how much trouble am I going to get into for this' and then yelled "and a Palestinian dream". It was amazing, the crowd went wild as he said Palestinian cheering for a good minute as Bono bellowed "Let Freedom Reign".
Thanks Bono, for saving my night
