(note: the email below is from a person – their name was quite androgynous so I cannot say if this is a man or woman but from the venom, I suspect it’s a bloke- who emailed me today. I’m not listing their email address but it is worth adding the subject in the email that said “DO YOU HAVE A NEPHEW? For people who don’t know what an Uncle Tom is, please read “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” or just google “Uncle Tom”, for a more animated description…)

I’ve been a Love fan for a while and – by association – a Baby Lemonade
fan.
I saw you guys at the Grove in Anaheim on the Love/Zombies tour. I
haven’t
taken sides on the latest squabble you guys have with Arthur
Lee…until
now.

Well, SHAME on you! You should have taken sides like everyone else. I sure hope you’ve learned your lesson, ma’am/ mean sir.

Your diary entry lambasting Kanye West for exercising his 1st amendment
rights and calling out George Bush for what he is is nothing short of
right
wing reactionary politics on your part. What are you some kind of Uncle
Tom?
You sure sound like a Bush apologist.

Actually – and ask the band about this – I have an uncle named Sam. Yep, uncle Sam. Everyone laughs at that. The irony is that i used to argue with him (he was a Reaganite) until I was blue in the face. Now I think i’m a bit more moderate in my outlook and he’s more to the left. Go figure. And you know what? You have more in common with your hero than you might think. I wish you guys could hang out. Arthur Lee is the only person that has ever called me an Uncle Tom. No wait, you called me one so that makes two. Why? Because people would come up to me and shake my hand and they happened to be white. yep, so i am an uncle tom. And that 1st Amendment line is older than Martyn Samuel’s passport.

What I was getting at about Mr. West is that he didn’t have the common sense to make his political statements when it would matter the most, in a political envirement. Anyone who knows me knows i’m the furthest thing from what you acuse me of but, hey, i am known for calling a spade a spade (sorry ’bout that pun, Kanye) and if more people did that i think we’d all be better for it. If Tom Brady said it (which he wouldn’t!) i’d still think it moronic. I think we all want the Hurricane victoms to get help FAST. And yes, the Government f*cked up. Bush is WAY out of touch and even republicans are quietly starting to realise they’ve got a narcissist on their hands. Hey, my best mate’s family are from New Orleans. They lost EVERYTHING. They aren’t going back; there’s nothing left to go back to. But they, like so many, need help now. And the people aren’t just black people. When you are hungry, degraded, dehydrated, living among corpses, feces, urine, bacteria and without showers, toilet paper, privacy and losing your mind, that last thing you want is somebody on TV (who actually has said he thinks he’ll be the next Stevie Wonder!) offending people who may want to give to that cause. i’m not saying he shouldn’t say what he said, but i am saying it was completely inappropriate and illadvised on a fund raiser-telethon to help hurricane victoms. He was emotional, i understand that. We ALL are. But he does have a really inflated ego and maybe the root of my email is that i don’t have patience for ego maniacs, be they GW Bush, Kanye West or Your Hero, when it comes to people needing help NOW. There’ll be plenty of time for finger pointing.

If you’re not a right winger, then you are supremely naive if you think
that
those rich rebublicans give a shit about the poor, especially those who
are
poor and black. This adminstration has a whole track record the last
five
years proving just that.

I do believe the Bush Admin. are elitist and completely out of touch with reality. The fact that they hire cronies from college to secure America shows how daft they truly are. I may be a lot of things but naive ain’t one of ’em. Any administration that would give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the country at the expense of national security should be viewed with deep suspect and of course, contempt. My point about Kanye West wasn’t a stamp of approval of Dubya. I suggest you go read your back catalog of Mike Randle Diaries at www.thefreedomman.com to confirm how I feel about #43. And just like Kanye has his rights, so do I, partner. You don;t know squat about me and from your email I can tell you don’t know squat about Baby Lemonade or the people that make up Baby Lemonade, by “association” or not. You can burn the CDs for all I care. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.

I am curious though. Are you a sell out Republican or simply ignorant
and
gulity of exactly what you accused Kanye West of; opening your trap
when you
don’t have a clue what you’re talking about?

I am neither a sellout or a republican, although when i vote, i don’t exclusively vote democrat. I support the best ma’am/sir for the gig. And rest assured, i didn’t vote for GW. And I think i’ve expressed my disappointment at people in our government, both black and white. I don’t think my race matters when I write something. And besides, it’s for ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. Again, please check your back catalog.

What disappointed me about Kanye was that he was on a telethon. The point is to raise money. Remember all those people who need help? Pissing off people was not only stupid but irresponsible, in my humble opinion. I think he picked the wrong place and if you had seen him at the Grammy’s then you’d get what i was getting at, that KW think he’s a lot more important than he really is (like somebody else I know)

I was going to give the Love Band a fair shake but no longer. Arthur
Lee was
right for sending you guys to hell. It’s exactly what you deserve.

Your Hero DID send somebody to hell – and i hate to disappoint you – but it wasn’t us! And honestly, ma’am/sir, I could give a rat’s ass if you like me/us or not. i only play music because i love it and me and the guys in the band played it and dedicated ourselves because we wanted to bring that something special that you and so many others (born after the original band split) never really got a chance to see. In summation, I think you are a child and if you are blinded by your obsessions with Your Hero and Kanye West and your hate for Dubya (enough to venonmously and disrespectfully attack me) then, hey, nice knowing you.I thought i would have gotten the benefit of the doubt but it’s clear to me the Love Fan Base has been hijacked by clueless people like yourself.Oh, do me a favor and take the other knuckleheads with you.PLEASE. I think we are done with this whole jubilee, to be honest. I only wish all Love fans were like the wonderful, classy people we’ve met and known over the years. But the real cons have come to the surface more and more now and i find it sad. very sad. And as far as what anyone deserves, we DO deserve better. And I would hope even YOU had the common sense to feel you deserve better. And to be perfectly honest, i would have never addressed this email publically but I think there are sooooooooooooo many of you “Your Hero” A-holes out there that it boggles the mind. But if you want to throw the baby out with the bath water, hey, be my guest. Now please go find some other musician to bother.

all the best,

Mike Randle