From: "Margaret Trawick" <trawick-AT-clear.net.nz> Subject: dumb query Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 21:18:47 +1200 Post-thises and thatses are into interrogations of this or that text. So I am just wondering, has anybody interrogated the last sentence of our national anthem, which is in itself a kind of interrogation, viz: "O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" ? No doubt the flag still flies. But does it fly over the land of the free and the home of the brave? Or more specifically, are the people who live under the dominion of that flag both free and brave? My concern is that the free are not brave and the brave are not free. This is perhaps the weakness, the "center of gravity," that the Vietnamese discovered in the Americans, and that the new "Enemy" is now exploiting. This is not an indictment of the United States, or of its culture. People who have grown up free, who have a lot to lose in dying, will understandably not want to risk their lives for some ill-defined, or even well-defined, cause. People whose lives have been reduced to rubble will be more willing to give up those lives for something they perceive as more important than their own individual survival. Or so I imagine. Does this make sense? If the "Enemy" understands this weakness, which I expect "he" (or she) does, then the coming war, if there is one, will be one in which the Enemy takes as many American lives as possible. Killing the erstwhile President will not do it, as the US can easily deal with that. So we are looking at the possibility of many secure Americans becoming less secure in their lives. Somehow I feel that NYC dwellers can deal with this. Not so sure about the rest. imho, the best (most prudent, intelligent, and humane) thing that anybody can do at this time is to provide heaps of humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan, with no strings attached. Waiting (not so) bravely, in flame-resistant suit, MT --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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