Rod Stewart Makes Up For 'Downtown Train,' Sends Disabled Kids To DC

No one can really explain the music of my youth

Popular crooner Rod Stewart, star of Victrolas and the wireless, did a solid for a group of kids with disabilities and their parents who traveled from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Washington DC so they could lobby Congress to please not cut Medicaid. After seeing a TV story about how the group needed $30,000 for the trip, but had only raised $7,000, Sir Rod picked up the tab.

The rock icon was at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, on July 10 when he watched CNN's story about the families on "Erin Burnett OutFront."

The story didn't have a happy ending. Despite their best efforts, the families did not meet with their elected officials or anyone from the Republican National Committee.

After seeing the story, Stewart got in touch with his manager by email and wrote,

I've just seen something on CNN that's heartbreaking. It was a group of families with severely disabled children who are driving to Washington to confront about health care cuts. See if you can find out who they are [...] I'd like to help in some way.

Stewart's people made some calls, found out the group was called "Trach Mommas of Louisiana" (for tracheotomies, which the kids need for the breathing machines that keep them alive, and REPUBLICANS WANT TO CUT THEIR MEDICAID SO THEY'LL MAKE MORE RESPONSIBLE DECISIONS GODDAMNIT -- ah, but we're focusing on the nice time. The founders of the group, Angela Lorio and her friend Jessica Michot, got a nice big check that covered their unpaid expenses.

Lorio kept a video diary as she deposited "the biggest check of her life" Monday afternoon.

"This is amazing!" she said. "We love you, Rod -- thank you so, so much!"

And Stewart closed out a concert Tuesday in New Jersey with a video praising the kids, their parents, and their trip to Washington to not see a single one of their gutless chickenshit elected representatives, although we're certain he didn't editorialize like we just did.

"Some of you may know that I live in America and pay my taxes here," the British singer said. "I'm neither a Democrat nor a Republican, but I am a father."

Lorio said that after the Trach Mommas protested in Baton Rouge, she still didn't feel she'd gotten their representatives' attention, so her husband, Neal, said maybe they should take a trip to Washington. She laughed that off as silly, but then the next day she and Ms. Michot attended the funeral for the 2-year-old daughter of another woman in the group, and, she says, she heard "that little voice of God" telling her it would be a good idea. We think it was a great idea, since God wasn't telling some rightwing nut to run for office for a change.

And while we don't share Lorio's belief that a deity intervened to pay for that trip, we'd agree with her that Rod Stewart is a pretty great guy. We're here to take care of each other, and if believing in God pushes us to take care of others, then that's a fine belief to have. It's enough to sing about, or at least chant:

It's your open thread. Now who's chopping onions in here?

[ CNN ]