![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan1.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/paice2.jpg)
Coming home
Globe and Mail writes that Bob Ezrin has renounced his U.S. citizenship and returned home to Toronto from Nashville. The paper quotes his motivation:
In the last few years, it seems as if America is split in half. The voices of a radical right have become so much louder. Conspiracy theories abound, people are armed to the teeth, and it’s just a different place than the place I went to.
Ezrin moved to Los Angeles with his family back in 1985. He became a U.S. citizen in 1990 in order to vote.
I was very engaged, very involved, very committed. I believed in the country and I believed in the American people, in spite of things like the Iraq War and the income inequality I saw growing, and in spite of the racism that was knitted into the fabric of American life. I still believed the goodness of the majority of Americans would prevail.
The paper notes that Ezrin had already made his decision to return to Toronto before Trump declared a trade war on Canada and insinuated about making Canada the 51st state, insulting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “governor” in the process.
The article also lists Ezrin’s charitable activities — helping to distribute food from the basement of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in LA; serving as chair of the California Mentoring Partnership and Los Angeles Communities in Schools; co-founding with Edge (of U2 fame) Music Rising, an initiative to replace musical instruments lost in natural disasters. After the 2005’s Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, he produced the concert for reopening of the city’s Superdome. In a recent announcement of the Governor General’s Award, Ezrin was cited as “a generous philanthropist and a passionate advocate for music education”.
Thanks to The Globe and Mail for the info and quotes, and to Gary Poronovich for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
As a fellow Canadian this makes me so happy. Way to go, Bob!
February 28th, 2025 at 23:44I can perfectly relate – my son whose been living in the States for quite a while now (and to reassure Max: is NOT a raging lefty like his dad and even found Trump entertaining once in a while) says that the atmosphere has changed for the worse since the last election and has become histrionic and simmering.
The spectacle we just saw in the White House with the two leaders of the world’s most powerful nation ganging up on a little guy whose nation has been at war for the last three years (again: I’m not saying that the West did not also contribute to what happened in the Russia-Ukraine conflict nor that a peaceful solution will not need to be found because military history has shown again and again that there is no winning against Russia in a land war) would a few years ago have been discarded as an overblown scripted scene from a Netflix or HBO dystopian series. Yet here we fucking are.
The amount of vitriolic tribalism on social media has become unbearable. The art of compromise is a four-letter-word now and it seems to be the new etiquette that the other side of the political aisle might not just be wrong or misled from your point of view, no it has to personify ultimate evil. I find that type of discourse extremely tasking and disheartening.
I go out of my way to say nice things about even Led Zep sometimes. 😁
March 1st, 2025 at 00:25This site is a refuge from the troubled politix and toxicity of the outside world. For now I will refrain from making any comment beyond applauding Bob Ezrin for his public stand. As for any pot shots I might make, I am with you Uwe…..Zeppelin is fair game and is such an easy mark! I’m not sure though that I can be as charitable as you!! 😅
March 1st, 2025 at 14:47I recall that in more peaceful times, DP played a private concert for one Dmitri Medvedev, former Russian Prime Minister, who now entertains himself by behaving despicably towards the people of Ukraine. I would be interested now to hear what the band members think of the behaviour of their erstwhile sponsor and apparent fan.
March 1st, 2025 at 17:24Don Airey sent a medal he had received from him back, very shortly after the attack, didn’t you know?
March 1st, 2025 at 22:18“Uwe Hornung says:
Don Airey sent a medal he had received from him back, very shortly after the attack, didn’t you know?”
Thanks Uwe, indeed I either did not know or had forgotten. Well done Don, good for you.
March 2nd, 2025 at 07:19I know no one wants to get political but let me say one thing and I will forever hold my tongue. As an American born and raised here 66 years ago I would just like to make one comment about this country. The problem here is people can be very easily taken in by the government. People seem to rally around the con man that screams and shouts the loudest. Unfortunately we are currently stuck with someone who only cares about himself and screw everyone else. I am not a republican nor am I a democrat. I am independent, I actually have a working and functioning brain unlike a lot of other people. I think for myself. I don’t let any one con me.People need to start voting for the person and not the party. We are in a bad way right now but I agree with Bob Ezrin ” I still believe the goodness of the majority of Americans will prevail ” At least I hope so. Time will tell.
March 2nd, 2025 at 17:38George, I’ve never doubted the inherent goodness of Yanks, I’ve lived long enough among you to know that. The old adage, credited to Winston Churchill, is very true: “Ultimately, you can always trust the Americans to do the right thing – after having exhausted all other available options of course.” 😁
That is why I found the whole White House scene so grotesquely un-American – it is not something you could have imagined Jimmy Stewart or Tom Hanks as icons of American decency doing.
March 3rd, 2025 at 15:54# 8
March 3rd, 2025 at 17:56Uwe, I just wanted to let everyone know that most Americans are embarrassed and ashamed of our government. It was not meant to be like this. My father was badly wounded and lost an eye in World War II and I can only imagine if he were still alive today how he would feel about this.
I don’t know what else there is to say.
@9
George, there are nice, friendly, kind, decent, sincere, funny, humble and good people all over the world 😊🤗
We know that not one person decides the picture of everyone else.
March 4th, 2025 at 12:34