Pearl River This is one of those multiple degrees of separation things that takes twists and turns between politics, conspiracy, and the general bizarre linking Andrew Breitbart, the rightwing provocateur, whose name survives still in a whack website he founded, Saul Alinksy, the legendary community organizing icon, and, as it turned out, someone caught in the net, Pam Dickler.
Here’s how this story goes. I got an email a couple of weeks ago from someone named Pam Dickler, who I hadn’t known previously. I get a lot of random emails from members, writers, musicians, and even organizers, so I check for phishing and open them dutifully. Pam’s was an interesting note thrown over the transom. She was writing, because she had read a blog I had done years ago about a play called the “Love Song of Saul Alinksy.” She had directed that play, she said, and appreciated my bringing attention to it at the time, and wanted to tell me that there was a follow-up that might interest me as well, and it mentioned ACORN of course. She had written and was going on stage with a show called “I Killed Andrew Breitbart”, about a series of crazy events that happened after the “Love Song” ended. Here’s what she said,
I Killed Andy Breitbart is an insanely true and funny story. In 2012, I ended up being talked about on Sean Hannity’s radio & TV shows and by Ben Shapiro for the most ridiculous reason: Shapiro claimed I had a video that would help prevent Obama’s reelection, but refused to release it. As a state senator in 1998, Obama had spoken on a post-play panel for my theater’s production of The Love Song of Saul Alinsky. On March 1, 2012, as Obama ran for reelection, Andrew Breitbart blasted Obama for having done that years earlier. That night, while walking home from a bar, Breitbart dropped dead at 43, making it his last blog entry for Breitbart.com, published posthumously. Breitbart’s followers then came after me, searching for the non-existent tape of this panel, going as far as to imply that I might have had something to do with killing the man in order to protect Obama, calling me a “Treasonous Obamabot.” Even US Rep Steve King later had the poster of the show on his wall (inclusive of Obama’s embarrassingly misspelled name as BARAKA), so my name ended up on the wall of an anti-immigrant, anti-abortion, white nationalist US Representative from Iowa. And there was nothing I could do about it.
Yeah, you can’t make this up. Talking to Pam on Wade’s World, it was clear that she may have found the humor in it, but had hunkered down during the episode in reaction to the conspiracy mongers and clear threats to her safety. The play is running in Chicago at the Apollo Theater through the 17th, if any of you can see it for yourself.
Those were wild times. Breitbart was in the crowd when I was doing a book thing at Writers and Poets in DC for Citizen Wealth, and asked an innocuous question, I thought I handled easily enough. He was a contradiction. Who knew what he really believed having at one time been with the liberal Huffington Post and learned enough to make his own website in another direction that he thought would pay off more? He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, just for the record, and Pam has a perfect alibi. As for Saul Alinsky, the love song was about his commitment to people’s empowerment and well-being.
It’s not like anyone is going to apologize for any harm they’ve done, particularly on the internet. We all have our stories to tell, some of us, like me and Pam, more than others. The best course may be Pam’s: add time, inject humor, take the lemon and make lemonade.