Colleagues, This evening I attended a performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem at the Orange County (California) Performing Arts Center. Written 50 years ago for the dedication of the new Coventry Cathedral, the Requiem is a major work of sacred music. This performance marked the centenary of Britten's birth, which was last week.
Before the concert there was an "academic" talk by some kindly but ill-informed Ph.D. who repeated the urban myth that Churchill let Coventry burn to protect the Ultra secret. Sadly, a rather large group of the OC's well-to-do had an "awkward" moment when I exploded and called the speaker out in front of the entire audience. The casual repetition of slander and calumny from an "academic authority" by way of explaining the deaths of 568 people and the wounding of more than 1200 more is where I draw the line between politely keeping quiet in society and loudly standing up for the truth. One person made a point of coming up to me and saying, "you sir, are an ass", but an elderly woman who told me she was from the Coventry area and remembered the bombing well told me that she admired my courage. KBO, David -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
