Working with friends in the folk music scene, Max Ochs co-founded a summer concert series at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis eight years ago. He has played host ever since, volunteering his Saturdays to introduce bands, strum a guitar and read poetry during intermission to an audience of hundreds.
But after Ochs made what Anne Arundel County officials say were intemperate remarks about President Bush at a concert July 12, the county told the 62-year-old former civil rights activist his services were no longer needed.
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The remarks that led to his fall came after his reading of the Emily Dickinson poem "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" during intermission at the evening concert.
About 800 people were spread out in folding chairs and blankets in front of the outdoor concert pavilion.
In a signature stream-of-consciousness style that reminds some fans of Garrison Keillor, Ochs segued from the poem into a meditation on the reading habits of Americans. By all accounts, Ochs told the audience that "our leader" was one of the few Americans who dislike reading. He wondered aloud whether the pauses in Bush's speeches reflected an inability to follow words on the TelePrompTer.
He then read from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and sang a number by bluesman Mississippi John Hurt before welcoming back the night's swing band, the Zim Zemarel Orchestra.
A few days later, County Executive Janet S. Owens received a letter from a county woman whom officials would not identify.
"The one sour note of these concerts ... continues to be the 'host,'" the woman wrote. "My question: What would it take to eliminate his participation from the program?"
In addition to his comments about Bush, the writer said that Ochs groused at an earlier concert about displays of patriotism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. At another point, she said, Ochs sang a final verse to "This Land is Your Land" that she said was "full of vitriol against people who own property."
Ochs was adamant yesterday that he made no such comments after the Sept. 11 attacks. And he said the verse in question was one of folk singer Woody Guthrie's originals.
Owens forwarded the letter to her recreation and parks director, Dennis Callahan, who said he resolved at once to ask Ochs to step down.
Callahan said yesterday that he had overlooked a half-dozen complaints about Ochs' style over the past two years but felt he had to act this time. "This was an easy decision to make," said Callahan, whose office voice mail message plays Lee Greenwood's patriotic anthem, "God Bless the U.S.A."
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/annearundel/bal-ar.fired23jul23,0,4678653.story?coll=bal-pe-arundelWhat makes this story even worse is how the victim lives down to the liberal reputation of rolling over and taking it up the ass without a goddamn fight.
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