The Night George Met Tina

By Keith Boykin, in politics
Friday, December 30 2005, 11:11AM

Ever since I was a young boy, I remember watching the Kennedy Center Honors on television. I had never seen a theatre quite so grand. Not even the famous Fox Theater in St. Louis seemed to compare to the beauty of the Kennedy Center. Dramatically lit at night along the banks of the Potomac River and seemingly covered in red velvet, the Kennedy Center was the epitome of elegance and class in my young midwestern mind. It was the place where presidents would go to respect and celebrate the arts, and it was named in honor of President John F. Kennedy, himself a defender and patron of the arts.

Years later, when I worked at the White House, I discovered one of the great perks of serving the president was the ability to sit in the presidential box at the Kennedy Center anytime when the boss was not there. I invited my mom and my friends and others for shows, dance performances and concerts and we sat in the box and sipped on the official champagne with the presidential seal stored in the refrigerator in the entry room.

Maybe it's because I have a personal connection to the Kennedy Center that I felt awkward watching George W. Bush and his wife Laura sitting alongside Tony Bennett, Suzanne Farrell, Julie Harris, Robert Redford and Tina Turner at this year's Kennedy Center Honors. Yet there he was sitting in the presidential box while watching, of all people, kd lang, Queen Latifah, Melissa Etheridge, Wynton Marsalis, John Legend and Beyonce Knowles perform on stage. There was even the awkward scene where Beyonce asked everyone to stand while she performed Tina Turner's signature piece, "Proud Mary," and Bush looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights with his hands clasped firmly together, not knowing what to do.

Bush watched as Oprah Winfrey stood on stage and delivered a beautiful feminist line about being a woman and labeled herself "Tina's biggest known groupie." He watched as two lesbians, kd lang and Melissa Etheridge, performed for him. And he watched as John Legend, a good friend to Kanye West, the man who blasted Bush for not caring about black people, performed as well.

And then there was the irony of Robert Redford, the man who became a legend in Washington for playing the role of Bob Woodward in the Watergate thriller All The President's Men, a film about two young newspaper reporters who help to bring down a secretive, corrupt president who cheats his way into the White House and lies about the war.

I couldn't help wondering a few things as I watched. Does Bush get it? Does he understand that the people on the stage represent a form of artistic freedom that the leaders of the right-wing want to repress? Does he understand that kd lang and Melissa Etheridge, for all their fame and fortune, don't have the right to marry the women they love. Does he understand that John Legend still faces racial discrimination as a black man? Does the president really understand the arts? I wish I knew the answer.

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