peace on eartha

eartha kitt is remembered, if at all, as an eccentric stage performer who had a hit with "santa baby." but kitt, as her star was rising, did something much greater than sing songs and act in plays. in 1968, kitt was invited to the white house by the first lady, lady bird johnson (what the hell kind of name is lady bird? what is this, a disney movie?) for what was supposed to be an apolitical gala. kitt however, had other ideas. the sultry songstress (flowery, but true, no?) confronted lady bird, and spoke words of profound truth. i leave you with those words, as well as commentary on the passing of eartha kitt. eartha kitt, while dead at 81, left us an example of standing up for the truth that lives on.

"You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed," the singer told the First Lady and the 50 other women at the luncheon. "They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."

The First Lady reportedly burst into tears.

The president was furious.

Kitt was blacklisted. She was investigated by the FBI and CIA, and ended up on the "Enemies List" of Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon.

Kitt spent the next decade performing mostly in Europe until, in 1978 -- after a triumphal return to Broadway to perform in the musical "Timbuktu!" -- she was invited back to the White House by Jimmy Carter.

Years later, Kitt would recall her White House visit in an interview with Esquire magazine, saying "The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth -- in a country that says you're entitled to tell the truth -- you get your face slapped and you get put out of work."

It was a painful lesson.

But we remember Kitt today as one of those remarkable Americans who was patriotic enough to speak truth to power. And she spoke in such a remarkable voice that it will linger far longer in our memory than those of the foolish politicians and misguided media moguls who were wrong about Vietnam -- and wrong about Eartha Kitt.