{"id":31154,"date":"2025-01-06T21:02:31","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T21:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/u2s-bono-pens-essay-on-freedom-following-presidential-medal-of-freedom-honor\/"},"modified":"2025-01-06T21:02:31","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T21:02:31","slug":"u2s-bono-pens-essay-on-freedom-following-presidential-medal-of-freedom-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/u2s-bono-pens-essay-on-freedom-following-presidential-medal-of-freedom-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"U2\u2019s Bono pens essay on freedom following Presidential Medal of Freedom honor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Leigh Vogel\/UPI\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

U2<\/strong> frontman Bono<\/strong> received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Saturday, and in honor of the occasion he\u2019s penned a new essay for <\/span>The Atlantic<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>, titled <\/span>The Gorgeous, Unglamorous Work of Freedom.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom is a word that turns up with embarrassing frequency in rock-and-roll songs,\u201d he writes. \u201cHow we love to free-associate about freedom. On occasion, we\u2019re good for a ‘Chimes of Freedom’ (at least Bob Dylan<\/strong> is), but if we\u2019re honest, the freedom musicians are most interested in is our own.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRock and roll promised a freedom that could not be contained or silenced, an international language of liberation,” he adds. “The freedom songs of the folk singers went electric, the coded messages of gospel music burst into the full flower of funk and soul.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Bono writes about the activist work he\u2019s done over the years and ponders the state of freedom now, in particular in\u00a0the\u00a0U.S. after the recent election, in Ukraine,\u00a0in the Israel\/Gaza conflict and more.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIs the Medal of Freedom a nostalgia act? Is freedom itself a nostalgia act?\u201d he asks. \u201cMaybe the idea of freedom as a guarantee. But not freedom as a mighty, worthy struggle.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bono\u00a0also writes of\u00a0working with then-senator Joe Biden<\/strong>\u00a025 years ago on canceling developing-world\u00a0debt, noting, “<\/span>That\u2019s the kind of fighter you want on your side.” He adds the fight for freedom needs\u00a0\u201cfaithful, stubborn, unselfish effort.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLincoln spoke of a ‘new birth of freedom,'” he concludes. “I think he meant that freedom must be re-won by each generation. That is a fine call to action for a new year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leigh Vogel\/UPI\/Bloomberg via Getty Images U2 frontman Bono received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Saturday, and in honor of the occasion he\u2019s penned a new essay for The Atlantic, titled The Gorgeous, Unglamorous Work of Freedom. \u201cFreedom is a word that turns up with embarrassing frequency in rock-and-roll songs,\u201dRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,43,4],"tags":[7,134,317,114,315,316,142,106],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}