A Great Adventure in Gratitude
Hannity’s Freedom Concerts.
By Kathryn Jean Lopez
Are the Hannity Freedom Concerts:
a) just another country-music event;
a Fox News commercial;
c) Sean Hannity living out his David Hasselhoffian dream (albeit, unlike Baywatch, with his shirt on)?
Although Hannity did sing “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” in the Atlanta Freedom Concert, the answer is not c.
The answer is: d) a miracle.
That’s how sisters Shannon and Corrine Snell explained it to me in an interview last month. The two recent college graduates are the daughters of Desert Shield/Desert Storm vet Marine MSgt. Joe Snell. He died after 21 years in the Marines when his helicopter crashed during a training mission.
The young women went to college courtesy of the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, which was set up during the first Gulf War.
I’ll admit I’m writing this piece in part because I’m jealous. To hear participants talk about the Hannity Freedom Concerts in vague terms, it sounds a bit like a religious experience. “Phenomenal,” Tom Kilgannon, president of Freedom Alliance (founded by Oliver North), tells me. The Freedom Concerts are “the best nights of my life,” Sean Hannity raves to his radio audience. An “extraordinarily happy and uplifting event,” Newt Gingrich said on Hannity’s radio show, en route to the fifth and last concert of the summer, at the Great Adventure theme park in Jackson, N.J. On the same show, Oscar-winner Jon Voight cried while thanking Hannity for the service he has done our nation, via these events.
You start to wonder whether they’re not passing out some Hannitization Kool-Aid at the concerts.
But dismissing the Hannity Freedom Concerts, now in their fifth year, as a right-wing event would be a mistake. And it would be to miss out on an opportunity to be a part of something great.
The concerts raise money for the Freedom Alliance Scholarships, which, according to the Freedom Alliance, “honor[ ] the bravery and dedication exhibited by Americans in our Armed Forces who have sacrificed life or limb defending our country by providing educational scholarships to their children. In the last 20 years, over 15,000 service members have given their lives defending our country. More than 3,400 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Guardsmen have been killed in the war in Iraq, leaving behind approximately 2,000 children.”
Voight’s emotional tribute was one Hannity very quickly, emphatically, and humbly dismissed. How — he must have been thinking — can someone accept thanks for serving America, while in the presence of such heroes and patriots? The concerts tend to be full of veterans, families of the fallen, and families of currently active servicemen. But in truth, Hannity is making a huge difference by lending his name, time, energy, and talents to the concert series. As Kilgannon tells National Review Online: “Sean is a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform. He is an extraordinary person who is using his God-given gifts to really help the families of those who serve.”
The Snell gals never really knew their dad, who died when they were both still young, but through the Freedom Alliance they not only have the sense that someone is “taking care of us,” but that they are part of something big and important and admirable. The four years of tuition paid were accompanied by letters, calls, follow-ups. “They made us feel like they love us,” Corrine tells me. “The Freedom Alliance has been a blessing.” The sisters say they will never forget their Freedom Alliance appearances: In San Diego, for example, Oliver North brought them on stage and the audience paid their dad back with a standing ovation for his daughters. Nor do the girls feel like a commercial; they tell me they want other children of the fallen to know there is this great resource out there for them in these Freedom Alliance scholarships, and — even more fundamentally — that they are not alone.
If there is one thing that bothers me about the Freedom Concerts, it’s that they weren’t the concert event of the summer. With 10-15,000 attending, according to Freedom Alliance’s count, they are no small thing — but next summer, I’d like them to get something like the same p.r. that Al Gore’s overhyped, underwatched Live Earth did.
So — since fairness is the buzzword when it comes to talk radio, and Sean Hannity is a radio talk-show host — I have a plea: Equal Time. If we had to endure Live Earth EVERYWHERE at the beginning of July, I want to see the Hannity Freedom Concerts EVERYWHERE next summer.
Although the concerts are not on every continent, they did make their way around the country this summer—first in Atlanta, then in San Diego, then in Cincinnati and Dallas, with the final concert in New Jersey on September 11.
A country-music concert on September 11? Yes, and appropriately so— considering that it’s purpose is to raise money for the Freedom Alliance Scholarships. Kilgannon describes the program as “a way for Americans to say, ‘we will not forget what so many of our fellow Americans are doing for our country.’”
Keep an eye out for next summer and, in the meantime, take a look at some of the young Americans who went to school courtesy of the Freedom Alliance and their generous donors. Here’s an overview:
$25,000 to the USS Cole Memorial Fund for the children of the 17 sailors who were killed in the terrorist attack against the USS Cole in October 2000.
$40,000 to the dependent children of the 21 soldiers and 33 sailors killed at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
55 individual student scholarships for the 2002-03 academic year.
73 individual student scholarships for the 2003-04 academic year.
80 individual student scholarships for the 2004-05 academic year.
95 individual student scholarships for the 2005-06 academic year.
105 individual student scholarships for the 2006-07 academic year.
According to Kilgannon, Freedom Alliance plans to extend its work well into the future. The young children of the fallen come to the concerts, and Freedom’s angels are determined to make sure the program is there for them. In addition to generosity coming in this summer via the concerts and associated donations, Freedom Alliance has established a trust fund with a little over $10 million and plan to extend the scholarship program to cover not just the families of the fallen, but children whose parent has been wounded in action.
You could do worse things with your money.
PETER WEHNER: Petraeus and Crocker have done what many thought was impossible. “Post-Publicity Surge” 09/12 6:30 AM