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More About

• Moe Tucker
• Jim Leach
• London (England)
• Lou Reed
• Maureen Tucker

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Have you heard? Maureen Tucker — Moe — former drummer of the Velvet Underground, is in league with the Tea Party. That’s right: The woman who sang about heroin with Lou Reed in the 1960s is now attending rallies in Georgia and shouting about creeping U.S. socialism and “King Obama,” according to the Guardian (no, not that Guardian, the one in London). News organizations aren’t sure it’s the same Moe Tucker, but a lot of clues point to that being the case. (For one, she moved to Georgia in 1984.) Regardless, it raises the question: Who started all this? What happened to civility in politics and social discourse? There was a time -- several decades ago, in fact -- when political foes cooperated with each other (as much as possible, anyway) and worked toward the common good. A person who served in Congress when cooler heads ruled is Jim Leach, a 30-year veteran of Capitol Hill -- and a Republican from Iowa. He’s now the head of the National Endowment for the Humanities; restoring civility to public and political discourse is one of his top priorities. He warns that the state of communication has become a crisis, and it will damage our interests here and abroad if we don’t do something to change it. San Francisco is among the stops he’ll make in all 50 states on his “civility tour.” We hope Tucker goes to see him when he stops near her town.
Thu., Oct. 14, noon, 2010