[sixties-l] giuliani doesn't get it

From: Ron Jacobs (rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu)
Date: 12/08/00

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    http://www.cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/Music/12/07/lennon.vigil.ap/index.html
    
    Mayor says Lennon vigil will end at
                   1 a.m.
    
                   December 7, 2000
                   Web posted at: 4:36 PM EST (2136 GMT)
    
                   NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani
                   refused to suspend Central Park's 1 a.m. curfew to
                   accommodate hundreds of John Lennon fans expected at a
                   memorial vigil on the 20th anniversary of the ex-Beatle's
    slaying
                   Friday. 
    
                   "That's plenty of time to have this celebration or memorial,"
                   Giuliani said Thursday, rejecting a plea from the lord mayor of
                   Lennon's native Liverpool, England. "It's dangerous for a
    lot of
                   people when you keep the park open, and it requires a
                   tremendous amount of additional security." 
    
                   Giuliani was derided by at least one Lennon fan as "Mean Mr.
                   Mustard." Each year since Lennon's slaying on December 8,
                   1980, fans have gathered in the park opposite the spot where
                   he was shot five times by a deranged fan. Lennon's widow,
                   Yoko Ono, would leave a single lighted candle in her window at
                   the Dakota apartments as a sign of solidarity with the fans. 
    
                   The vigil would typically last into the morning hours, with
    fans
                   singing Lennon's songs and remembering his message of peace.
                   But the Giuliani administration began enforcing the park's
                   curfew. Last year, police were already in Strawberry Fields --
                   the section of the park renamed for the Beatles song -- to
                   remove fans at 1 a.m. 
    
                   This year, Giuliani was unbending even after the Lennon-ites
                   invited him to spend the night with them. "We want to invite
                   the mayor to come down and sing with us," said a pony-tailed
                   Tom Leighton of the Memorial Committee. "We hope he
                   wakes up from his 1950s coma and realizes December 8 is a
                   significant date." 
    
                   "C'mon, man. This is not a parade, this is not a party," said
                   Eric Paulin, 45, who turns out with his five-piece band to play
                   Beatles music every December 8. "We'd rather not be out here
                   singing. We'd rather have John Lennon alive.
    



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