Posted
by Josh Robbins
November 4, 2006 at 7:25 p.m.
"Let America be America again."
This was a painful week for you if, like me, you'd invested heart and energy and money into John Kerry as a presidential candidate. In hindsight, I see why I just couldn't help myself. I mean, the guy did take his campaign slogan from a Langston Hughes poem: "Let America be America again." I remember actually saying to someone during the last Presidential election, "Just vote for him, you'll see. He's not the next JFK! He's the reincarnation of F-D-fucking-R!!"Sigh....But alas, with his latest gaffe, one which was only all too easily exploited by the "in the last throes"-of-their-tenure Republicans (fingers crossed), what we've all known since the middle of his 2004 campaign was reconfirmed by this week's inane media blitz and its consumers' tit-for-tat responses of "John Kerry hates the troops," "He thinks our boys in uniform are stupid," and my favorite via Michelle Malkin, "The cravenness and condescension of John Kerry make me sick." John Kerry doesn't hate the troops. He's a decorated veteran for crying out loud. He's just not the leader we need right now.And yet, all is not lost. One good thing did come out of seeing Kerry in the news this week: I was reminded that this country is about so much more than the partisan gaming and electioneering, I was reminded that there are people out there who believe in the greatness of the people of this country, and there are people that want to do the hard work it will take to make America be America, to work for what it is we want. As Hughes writes, "Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed- / Let it be that great strong land of love / Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme."A little while ago I received a letter from some purported members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars who wrote to tell me that they disagree so strongly with my views expressed here and elsewhere that they'd given me an award for my "idiotic views." They'd taken it upon themselves to superimpose a picture of me on a urinal at their meeting place, and that although they "fought to protect good Americans freedoms [sic]," they now "wonder if in [my] case it may have been a mistake" because my "liberal views of the world and [my] idiotic statements about our President and Administration will never benefit the USA."Quite simply, this is exactly what's at stake in our country at this moment. Right now is the time we've got to come together and work as if we actually believe in America, as if we really believe we might live up to the standard of Langston Hughes when he writes,O, let America be America again- The land that never has been yet- And yet must be-the land where every man is free. The land that's mine-the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME- Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.If we don't, we'll instead be forced to suffer without complaint under the rule of those who believe in all that ails our country: those that want an America to benefit the OILigarchy and corporatocracy, those that line their coffers with war profits, who advocate and legislate torture and the suspension of habeas corpus, who exploit the very real specter of racism for personal, monetary, and electoral gain, who cram through omnibus bills with fiscal breaks that benefit only the very few while callously and scornfully exploiting the very many, those who are anti-science, anti-environment, anti-thought, anti-choice, anti-Christian, those who sacrifice the Bill of Rights upon the altar of insatiable greed and materialism.To those of you who wish me ill or those who agree with me but lack the means to communicate it, let me close with these lines from Hughes' poem:Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-- The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America!*** Acknowledgements:"Let America Be America Again" from Let America Be America Again and Other Poems by Langston Hughes. New York: Vintage Books, 2004.
Comments
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clayhill70 (anonymous) says…
Look at it this way Josh, you may improve their aim.
gutternoise (Josh Robbins) says…
Thanks, clayhill. It's hard when you shoot from the right. Er, poor word choice there...it's difficult when you're shooting from the right. Anymore though, doesn't it seem like they don't even have a target? That their just pissing on the world? And don't tell me it's raining!
thetomdotdot (anonymous) says…
"If we don't, we'll instead be forced to suffer without complaint under the rule of those who believe in all that ails our country..."
And that leaves people who use words like OILigarchy and corporatocracy which, mark my words, little man, I'm not looking forward to.
gutternoise (Josh Robbins) says…
thetom -- What would you rather have? People who can put the language to meaningful employ because it arises out of thoughtful plans and insightful policies, or, would your rather have slogans like: "Stay the course," "Mission Accomplished," "Ownership Society," "compassionate conservatism," "up and down vote," "No Child Left Behind," "with us or against us," and "Bring it On!"
If the Democrats take back the House, here's a slogan I'd like to see: "Impeach the President!"
thetomdotdot (anonymous) says…
I would love to have people who can put the language to meaningful employ because it arises out of thoughtful plans and insightful policies. If that sentence is a proffered example, I'll venture a guess as to what it means, and ask that you let me know when you hear tell of some such people. Sloganeering would be all right twernt for all the goddamn slogans; my favorite of which in the history of civilization:
"I did not have sex with that woman".
Impeach the president? For which? Iraq? OK, if we impeach W, I say lets also hold every senator and congressman who voted in favor of the various bills that enabled the invasion responsible for war crimes. Get that through either a democratic or republican house, and I'll start using oiligarchy. Daily.
godjilla (Jill Ensley) says…
thetom, apparently you prefer people who use the term "cravenness"? Which, by the way, sounds like a horrible Vampire the Gathering pseudonym. Maybe.....Cravenness DarkHeart should be my alias.
And p.s. "little man"? Only tools say things like that. :)
Nice one, Josh. Funny that they still have a problem when your blogs are insanely more positive than mine. I thought I could hear the national anthem being played about halfway through....and I mean that in a good way.
gutternoise (Josh Robbins) says…
Angst, anxiety, dread, nausea?
If you're feeling any of these, it's probably because it's November 7 and in just a few hours the talking heads will inundate our living rooms with words like "red state," "values voter," and "Presidential mandate."
For months I've crossed my fingers that all three will be setup by the words "As of right now, the following no longer exists:...."
The Writer's Almanac today says today is the birthday of Albert Camus, author of The Stranger--one of W's favorite books from his summer list. He also "read two Shakespeares."
Remember Tony Snow's line when asked by the press about W's reading habits: "I don't want to go too deep into it, but we discussed the origins of existentialism."
Of course Bush IS Meursault...
And, oh, what I wouldn't give to be in on that conversation at the W Ranch during their discussion group and read aloud the following:
"And I can say that at the end of the eleven months that this investigation lasted, I was almost surprised that I had ever enjoyed anything other than those rare moments when the judge would lead me to the door of his office, slap me on the shoulder, and say to me cordially, 'That's all for today, Monsieur Antichrist.' I would then be handed back over to the police."
Happy voting!
Oh, by the way, remember this from high school English?
http://barthost.net/tjnr/stranger_cov...
Oh how its strangeness taketh me...
thetomdotdot (anonymous) says…
Jill:
Cravenness? You give me too much credit. I use the term "chickenshit". Applied liberally. And talking about "them" like "they" are not even there is the pinnacle of toolocitishness, so your compliment is embraced warmly. Whether or not my assumptions are correct, I was just seeking an analogue to "princess".
Josh:
I shan't waste too much of our time. Being as smort as you are, you may have to lean down a bit to hear me. It's been a long long time since high school Anglish, and, for me, there's been wave after wave of arrogant little dickheads in the mean time. But here goes. The chickenshit core of the present administration angers me about half as much as the democrats for offering no better alternative than a wall of idiocy.
The key to this is encoded in the premise that underlies (for instance) questioning the White House Press Boy about the president's reading habits in the first place. Maybe I'm the only one that recognizes the kinship to special blow job prosecutions. If so, never mind.
This day will not go well.
And I blame you.
thetomdotdot (anonymous) says…
"Behind Blue Eyes" - The Who
Shelby (anonymous) says…
Thetom: you're not alone.
We're criticizing someone for saying that he "read two shakespeares"? Next are you going to ridicule the fact that he eats colby-jack rather than camembert?
It's great that such rational, thoughtful frames-of-mind are achieved, apparently, merely through the employment of big words. All I gotta do is take english 101.
Anyway, off-topic: why are there two spellings for Mersault/Meursault? Didn't Camus spell it one way and not t'other?