Bhutto and Redding

Last night, In the cold, rainy night of Post-Christmas, I watched a documentary about Stax Records on PBS. It was fascinating to learn about a part of US history that was, until last night, unknown to me: the origins of a record label based in Memphis, TN that propelled the soul music industry from its roots into international acclaim. Otis Redding, in his prime, was highlighted as Stax's rising star...until his fatal plane crash at the age of 27.

Then this morning, I learned Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan. The news was of course very sad. I had been following her story for some time, interested yet keenly aware that I was very much in the dark about her position, relying solely on the international media as my source material.

But I have been inspired by her dedication, the fact that she is a woman, and by her resolve for change in her country.

I think it's fitting to join Otis Redding and Benazir Bhutto today.


Benazir Bhutto, 54, Lived in Eye of Pakistan Storm



Charismatic, striking and a canny political operator, Benazir Bhutto, 54, was reared in the violent and turbulent world of Pakistani politics and became the country’s and the Muslim world’s first female prime leader.

A deeply polarizing figure, the “daughter of Pakistan” was twice elected prime minister and twice expelled from office in a swirl of corruption charges that propelled her into self-imposed exile in London for much of the past decade. She returned home this fall, billing herself as a bulwark against Islamic extremism and a tribune of democracy.

She was killed on Thursday in a combined shooting and bombing attack at a rally in Rawalpindi, one of a series of open events she attended in spite of a failed assassination attempt the day she returned to Pakistan in October and of repeated warnings.

A woman of grand ambitions with a taste for complex political maneuvering, Ms. Bhutto was first elected prime minister in 1988 at the age of 35. The daughter of one of Pakistan’s most flamboyant and democratically inclined prime ministers, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, she inherited from him the mantle of the populist People’s Party, which she came to personify.

Even from exile, her leadership was virtually unchallenged. She staged a high-profile return to her home city of Karachi, drawing hundreds of thousands of supporters to an 11-hour rally and leading a series of political demonstrations in opposition to the country’s military leader, President Pervez Musharraf.

Ms. Bhutto often spoke of how her father encouraged her to study the lives of legendary female leaders ranging from Indira Gandhi to Joan of Arc and, as a young woman, closely observed his political maneuvering.