HE said — SHE said

Bono issued a “a soft message,” which for this writer is all too soft and should not have earned that much social media space if not for the trolls, both yellows and all colors in the spectrum.

Written, spoken and sung words have always been one of the best forms of protest. They define a form of activism, too.

Poets used theirs in calling out kings, some of them have paid for it with their lives. But artists never ran out of words to say their piece.

Pardon me, but words are sweeter and better heard. Silent protests are equally — if not more — effective. But words, they send us to different places. They give us a better understanding of issues and things.

Martin Luther King was assassinated because of what he preached.

Jose Protacio Rizal was sent to Bagumbayan for his writings.

Recent Philippine visitor Bono Vox and his band U2 have long been a political as well as a top musical group.

There are and have been many political bands to grace the earth’s surface and filled our airwaves with songs about issues, most of which remain important to this day. The band U2 stands out among them.

But they are not the originators of using music — the art form — as a form of activism.

The earliest protest songs and the tradition of using music in this way goes right back to the founding of America.

It was Joseph Warren’s call to action song, “Free America,” which was credited as possibly the first political song to have been sung out by American soldiers. Warren was one of the original Minute Men, the first to fight in the American revolution.

Music as a protest form had grown since then.

Billy Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” from 1939 spoke about the black people’s struggle against racism.

blood on the leaves and blood at the roots

Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze

Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees

Them big bulging eyes and the twisted mouth

For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck

For the sun to rot, for the leaves to drop

What could be more powerful a message than that?

“Gimme Hope Joanna” was made a danceable tune by Eddie Grant, but it was actually a rebuke of apartheid, then existing in South Africa. Joana was Johannesburg, center of Zionism outside of Cape Town, South Africa’s other major city.

And then Bob Dylan, who sang about change and peace (“The Times They Are a-Changin’” and “Blowing in the Wind”) that became anthems during the fight for civil rights and against the Vietnam war. There’s The Beatles’ “Revolution”; Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen”; John Lennon’s “Imagine”; and Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way It Is.”

The Philippines is not lacking in this aspect. We have plenty of artists who have made political statements in the past and present.

Bono and U2 only came into the forefront of discussions about these when they called out President Duterte, and Bono issued a “a soft message,” which for this writer is all too soft and should not have earned that much social media space if not for the trolls, both yellows and all colors in the spectrum.

In 1995, when he accepted an MTV Europe Music Award in France then led by Jacques Chirac, Bono said: “What a city, what a night, what a crowd, what a bomb, what a mistake, what a wanker you have for a President,” referring to Chirac’s testing of a nuclear bomb in the Pacific.

In a 2005 magazine interview: “I’m the Imelda Marcos of sunglasses… Very sensitive eyes to light. If somebody takes my photograph, I will see the flash for the rest of the day. My right eye swells up. I’ve a blockage there, so that my eyes go red a lot. So, it’s part vanity, it’s part privacy and part sensitivity.”

“I’ve always believed in working across the aisle… but there’s a bully on the bully pulpit and silence is not an option.” That was Bono talking about US President Donald Trump.

So, about that soft message, that was Bono’s thing.

We should not be the ones fretting about it.

Northbound hell traffic notwithstanding — a carmageddon of immense proportions that got people leaving the metro soon after lunch even though the concert was at 7 p.m. — thousands of Filipinos trooped to the Philippine Arena in Bulacan on 11 December 2019.

U2’s The Joshua Tree concert had been talked about for months, the anticipation building in spite of the fact that there would be expected traffic from the simultaneous holding of the 30th Southeast Asian Games closing ceremonies in Clark, Pampanga.

The concert drew close to the arena’s 55,000-strong capacity, and lead singer Bono, visibly awed, said the concert would be the best for U2 in the Philippines.

It was a good thing the band had a set list of 24 songs that kicked off with the anthemic “Sunday, Bloody Sunday,” which immediately pulled the mood through the roof even though the show really started at 9:15 p.m.

The entire playlist of 1987’s “Joshua Tree” album, whose 30th anniversary sparked this world tour in 2017 got people standing and rocking along.

For close to three hours, the arena was enraptured and thrilled, the music bringing them back to a time in their lives that probably did not have much to do with the issues Bono raised even before the actual show.

Human rights were mentioned as the rock star’s “soft message” to the Philippine president.

As it turned out, the remark did not escalate into an “issue.” Those fearing repercussions from Malacañang were either disappointed (if they were expecting the reaction of a monster dictator) or relieved (if they were willing to gauge whether President Rodrigo Duterte was narrow-minded or not).

Bono was the picture of diplomacy — he expressed his views in a way that neither attacked nor pushed too hard.

And so the crowd that filled the concert venue, eager to see the famed Irish rock band in person, had their fill of U2 favorites: from Joshua Tree’s “With or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” to soaring beats and messages of “Elevation” and “Vertigo,” as well as four of Rolling Stones’ “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.”

Bono’s political correctness is also the reason his concert’s surprise highlight did not end up being divisive nor rankling the senses.

Just before he ended the show, Bono spoke about “women who light up history,” before the immense screen onstage (notably “the largest and highest resolution screen used on a concert tour,” according to the UK’s Guardian) showed photos of revolutionary Filipinas throughout history.

These included “Philippine Revolution heroine Melchora Aquino, zarzuela singer Maria Carpena, former president Cory Aquino, world-renowned singer and actress Lea Salonga, Senator Pia Cayetano, the #BabaeAko movement, the One Billion Rising movement, Grrrl Gang Manila, youth activist and typhoon ‘Haiyan’ survivor Marinel Ubaldo, activist Lidy Nacpil Alejandro, and environmental and indigenous rights advocate Joan Carling,” as a report from Rappler goes.

Although women from around the world were also highlighted in the female gamechangers portion, Bono’s singling out of Maria Ressa, Rappler chief executive officer, in his introduction of the number drew some murmurs of reaction.

After singing “Beautiful Day,” Bono said, “When journalists don’t have to worry about what they write, that’s a beautiful day. When women of the world unite to rewrite history as ‘herstory,’ that’s a beautiful day.”

The he said, “For Maria Ressa,” before launching into the band’s 1991 song, “Ultra Violet (Light My Way).”

If worship was for the Joshua Tree, it was for the music and visual magic that still powered the show, sending audiences to raptures and remembrances.