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"Soliciting compassion and creating awareness for an arcane cause\nbenefiting people in a distant land becomes that much harder when\nsomething grievous hits home. China&amp;apos;s brutal oppression and murder\nof more than a million Tibetans over a fifty-year period registers\nat the top of the morbidity scale, but when a young woman gets\nstruck by lightning in the middle of an open-air concert in front\nof more than 60,000 witnesses, rubbernecking will tip the scale\nevery time.\n&amp;quot;Any sort of self-obsession kind of went out the window, because\nthere was a girl laying in the hospital with blood coming out of\nher mouth,&amp;quot; said Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis,\nreferring to Lysa S. Selfon, 25, who was struck by lightning\nSaturday afternoon during a severe thunderstorm at Washington,\nD.C.&amp;apos;s RFK Stadium at the third annual Tibetan Freedom Concert\n(Selfon&amp;apos;s condition has been upgraded to fair and she is no longer\nreliant on a ventilator). Her injury, along with several minor ones\nalso caused by lightning and the dangerous weather conditions, put\na premature end to day one of the event, staged to help end China&amp;apos;s\noccupation of Tibet. As word of the injuries quickly spread\nthroughout the stadium, rumors ran the gamut from several men\ngetting struck by lightning to a girl being hit with an explosive\ndevice. &amp;quot;When we were on the train [coming here], we&amp;apos;d heard that\ntwo people had died from lightning and then we got there and people\nhad spun it,&amp;quot; said Pulp guitarist Mark Webber. &amp;quot;It&amp;apos;s just a shame\n... bad karma.&amp;quot;\nConsequently, ticket holders for the first day didn&amp;apos;t see\nscheduled performances by Tracy Chapman, Sonic Youth, the Red Hot\nChili Peppers, R.E.M., Beck, Radiohead or Patti Smith, who was\nstuck in New York, where equally dangerous weather conditions\nclosed LaGuardia airport.\nOutside, fans were livid and many quite callous. &amp;quot;I feel sorry\n[for the girl struck by lightning], but if they wanna come to a\nconcert and stay out in the rain, that&amp;apos;s gonna happen,&amp;quot; said Erin,\n18, who drove down from New York to attend the show. &amp;quot;It could have\nhappened to me. I wouldn&amp;apos;t care.&amp;quot;\nAnother concert goer, Andy, 26, from New Haven, Conn., seemed\nmore concerned about his tall boys getting warm than the status of\nthe lightning victim. &amp;quot;We&amp;apos;re getting Jewed out of the rest of the\nshow,&amp;quot; he said, apparently unaware that this was a day of\ntolerance.\nMeanwhile, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe was being ushered from\nthe tunnel under the stadium. Flanked by his manager and surrounded\nby paparazzi, he walked to an unrestricted area at Gate C, where he\nwas mobbed by adoring fans. There, the equally-popular Blues\nTraveler frontman John Popper signed autographs, posed for pictures\nand refrained from eating.\nUnaware of the injuries inside the stadium, hip-hop scholar\nKRS-One playfully boasted that he got in his set before the rains\ncame. &amp;quot;When I got here, the sun came out,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;And then when\nI got off stage, the sun left. I know I&amp;apos;m guided by God -- or maybe\nthe Goddess. Somebody&amp;apos;s looking out for the whole event.&amp;quot;\nLive, another band that got in under the weather, unknowingly\nprovided the precursor to the day&amp;apos;s catastrophe, when they\nperformed &amp;quot;Lightning Crashes.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I didn&amp;apos;t [know that there was]\nspiritual significance to &amp;apos;Lightning Crashes,&amp;apos;&amp;quot; said Live guitarist\nChad Taylor after the set, as the dark n&amp;apos; nasty clouds began to\nroll in. &amp;quot;I just want everyone to know that Live brought out the\nsunshine.&amp;quot;\nFortunately for day two tickets holders, the Milarepa Fund, the\ncharityorganization that sponsored the event got Sonic Youth,\nRadiohead and surpriseshow-closers the Chili Peppers to return and\nmake Sunday live up to its hype.By then, the message of the\nfestival was clear as the skies. From the stage,Radiohead frontman\nThom Yorke summarized, &amp;quot;This is more like it. This is agood\nday.&amp;quot;\n\nWhether or not the majority of attendees understood the event&amp;apos;s\nmessage or even cared was of constant debate both on stage,\nbackstage and in the crowd. &amp;quot;I think people would have to be fairly\nswished off not to go away [from the event] with a message from\nthis weekend,&amp;quot; said Radiohead drummer Phil Selway. &amp;quot;I think you&amp;apos;d\nhave to go around and ask.&amp;quot;\nRachel, 18, from Newport, R.I., didn&amp;apos;t have an answer,\npressuring her friend to be her mouthpiece. &amp;quot;Ask her,&amp;quot; Rachel said.\n&amp;quot;She&amp;apos;s into this shit a lot.&amp;quot;\n&amp;quot;The Chinese are controlling [the Tibetans], and they can&amp;apos;t\npractice their own religion,&amp;quot; her friend said. &amp;quot;They&amp;apos;re not allowed\nto do, like, anything free.&amp;quot;\nLater, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder put his own derisively\nambivalent spin on the benefit concert. &amp;quot;I don&amp;apos;t give a fuck,&amp;quot; he\nsaid from the stage. &amp;quot;We have all your money.&amp;quot;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lighting-crashes-at-tibetan-freedom-fest-19980615>