The Peace tour of the iconic John Lennon 'Imagine' piano has generated great press, until now.
Ward Larkin of Texas has written to Undercover with some disturbing allegations that beg the question ... are George Michael and Kenny Goss taking the piano on tour to really spread the peace message or is this one big publicity stunt.Larkin writes:
"I read your April 11, 2007 online article about John Lennon's Iconic "Imagine" Piano Project with great interest, for I was in Huntsville, Texas at the execution vigil where Lennon's piano was on display". (See http://undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=1885).
"As you provided, the mission of this project is to illustrate the sentiment of the first line of John Lennon's Imagine song: "Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one". The piano is being taken to various locations around the world to illustrate the horrors of violence. Mr. Clark's crime was especially violent, but so is his execution by the State of Texas. The project is a wonderful idea. However, as wonderful the idea, that's not how it was implemented in Huntsville".
"I was at the execution vigil because James Lee Clark, the man executed, was a close personal friend of mine. The crime for which Mr. Clark was convicted was most assuredly heinous, and I still cry for the young woman and young man who were murdered. Yes, Mr. Clark should have been penalized, and penalized severely. No, he should not have been executed. Like former U.S. Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan, I oppose capital punishment in all circumstances".
"Out of everyone at that execution vigil, I knew Mr. Clark the best. I had worked harder to keep him alive. I had written each of his Applications for Executive Clemency. I had helped his attorneys find and develop legal issues to overturn his death sentence to life in prison. Yet, I was the only person at the vigil asked by the people with the John Lennon Project to stay out of the camera angle of the piano".
"Even though I was the one imaging peace (and working for peace) more so than anyone else there, apparently I was the only one too ugly to be in any of the photos of the piano".
The John Lennon piano will next be on display at the Ford Theater in Washington, DC this Saturday April 14.
The Ford Theater was where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.
