Letter to Cynical Bitchy People Who Complain about John Lennon's "Imagine":

Dear People:

Yeah, John was a bitch sometimes. It's the truth. But he didn't sit around on his ass just talking about peace, like so many people do today. He DID STUFF. He and Yoko bought tons of bulletproof vests for the NYPD while they lived there, they donated a lot of money from record sales to charity, they staged protests, the Bed-in...

Yeah, he had a lot of stuff. But that doesn't mean he was a greedy Scroogey person. He genuinely cared about peace until the day he died, and he was pretty generous with his wealth.

No, you don't have to like John. (I personally love him, and if I had the chance, I would go back in time and save him, even if it cost my own life for his.) No, you don't have to like "Imagine". "Imagine" isn't my favorite John song, either (that's Instant Karma! which is my favorite song, period).

But I would like you to stop whining that "Imagine" was so OMG SIMPLE and not COMPLEX like the other songs--that's the point. Simplicity.

I would also like you to stop whining about how he had a lot of money. Come on, folks--he was a Beatle and a highly successful man in his own write. There isn't really any way he could have dropped from sight like Jim Morrison to live in a cardboard box to promote peace.

You don't have to be a poor leper on the streets to preach peace. It works for some of us. Some of us could do without money and material things. Some of us use our money for good--like bulletproof vests for police officers who keep the peace, or organizing large protests, or saving forests. Yeah, John made a few frivolous expenditures (renting out an entire airplane for himself and Sean so that Sean could set up his model train set... *facepalm*), but hey, are you Mr Sensible ALL THE TIME?

In short--John might've been rich, but he put his money where his mouth was. Stop saying he was a hypocrite who only wrote peace songs because it was IN at the time. You don't have to love John, or the Imagine record, but Jesus, get off your high horse--I imagine it's pretty cold up there.

Shine on!

Leiko