There it was again, this time in a takeout by Brooks Barnes in the arts section of the New York Times on October 1, that weasel-word phrase “ having had sex with a 13-year old girl.” The word “rape” didn’t appear until deep into the story, and then only from the lips of a couple of French cabinet members. I’d heard a similar “having had sex with” reference the day before on the radio, ditto for articles in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal earlier in the week. Did she “have sex” with Roman Polanski, or was she savagely raped?

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Old Gus Bevona would have been turning over in his grave, only he ain’t dead yet. There we were, rocking out to Motown sounds in the auditorium he’d built as a tribute to himself and using it instead to honor a young Indian woman who’s organized 11,900 New York City cab drivers, and a businessman who thinks we should deny pension and health care benefits to members of Congress until they guarantee all of us the same. The Hitsville show was emceed by Paul Butler and delivered exquisitely by musicians Ivan Bodley, James Dower, and Joe Goretti, and vocalists Bobby Harden, Michael James Leslie, Sherryl Marshall and Alice Tan Ridely (got to give credits in this business). But the real superstars of the evening were Bhairavi Desai, Tom Mackell, Jr. and Working Theater, an organization with a mission to produce plays for and about working people and charge $25 a pop for admission. (More)

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