Bono is my friend!

It's true!

My decade-long obsession with the frontman of the greatest band to have ever walked the face of the earth has sent me - MOI!!! - an email, and in it, called me his FRIEND!

Bono has been the target of many of my restraining-order-worthy thoughts for over 10 years now, and luckily my husband doesn't mind too much! :) Last March, we flew out to Vancouver to catch their Vertigo tour (my 3rd time seeing them, Donovan's second...amateur!). While we, along with the millions of other fans, were pouring into the arena, we were stopped by an army of yellow-shirt-clad yuppies, handing us pamphlets to read and documents on clipboards to sign. This was, of course, in support of Bono's One campaign - "The Campaign To Make Poverty History".

Of course we signed our names to support the cause, and added our email addresses to be on the mailing list. Granted, I get "emails" all the time from "celebrities", thanking me for my support (it's not a financial contribution, but rather just an opportunity to voice my opinion and pen my name to petitions when requested), but no time have I received an email from someone on this campaign where I was called someone's "friend".

Let alone from the man I've been pining over for nearly half of my life.

This is the email I received from Bono. You will note in the very first line, BONO HIMSELF calls ME his FRIEND:

Dear Friend:
Thank you for starting a movement to save lives. Thank you for asking your friends and family to join ONE.org. Thank you for calling on the President, Congress and the heart of America to do more for the world's poor.

Thank you for being one of the first 2 million of us crazy enough to say America won't stand for global AIDS and stupid poverty. And thank you to the people who joined campaigns in other countries to make their governments come to the table and do more for the world's poor.

Thank you for the concrete results that came from calling on America to invest more in fighting poverty and disease in Africa and around the world. In July, the whole world heard you: the leaders of the 8 richest nations - the G8 - pledged an additional $50 billion annually to poor countries by 2010, half of it for Africa.

Already our money is getting results. Thank you America for putting over half a million people on life-saving AIDS medicines and leading an effort that has provided 8 million anti-malaria bednets and treated 1 million people with TB. And thank you for pushing our governments to use this money to provide AIDS drugs to everyone who needs them and basic schooling for every child.

Thank you for being part of a campaign that will cancel the crushing debts of up to 36 countries, and more to come.

Thank you to the people who called on government to act and thank you to the people in government, who started to listen and who will have to make sure we keep these historic promises and build upon them.

We must keep the positive pressure on our leaders if we want them to follow through. Americans must give these leaders permission to invest just a fraction more of the budget in what we know works, from $5 mosquito nets to drug treatments that cost pennies apiece.

If ONE thing is certain for 2006, this campaign will keep growing, your voice will grow louder, your compassion and thirst for justice will keep saving more lives. By 2008, ONE needs to have 5 million supporters, each of us doing what we can, learning more, telling friends, calling Congress.

Take one minute and ask three friends to join ONE and make the impossible possible with you in 2006.

Beating AIDS and extreme, stupid poverty, this is our moon shot. This is our generation's civil rights struggle, our anti-apartheid movement. This is what the history books will remember our generation for — or blame us for, if we fail. We can't afford to fail nor will we.

We've come a long way, and we've got a long way to go. Now let's really get started.
Thank you,
Bono

Does it get any more personal than that?! Ok, so it's a long shot, but y'know, the content of the generic email is very powerful and worth reading as it is.

But it certainly does help his cause and affect MY contributions by calling me his friend!

Ok, I'm over it now!

Currently listening to: my dryer running, probably shrinking all my clothes, that bastard!