yeah... it's been a while... and damn. another good article that's not getting the space the bomb them all articles are



Patriotism and the Appropriate Response

by Kevin Donegan


As an Irish person now living in the United States, the real atrocities in New
York and Washington compare with the worst nightmares I had growing up in a
country where bombings and killings were a regular occurrence. But the final
number of people killed in Tuesdays attack will probably even exceed the number
killed in thirty years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.


For people who see the United States as a country where individual liberties
and free speech among its greatest assets, the commentary in most of the media
this week has been grim and chilling. Common sense has very quickly given way
to anger and vengeance. Skillful manipulation of this mood by the government
and its public relations professionals in the media, the military, academia and
business is still unfolding.


This feels like a country preparing for war against an enemy as yet unknown.
All the cheerleaders have been granted television and radio pulpits to call for
more violence, using patriotism to stir up anger and hatred, especially towards
Arabs, who also bore the brunt of accusations following the Oklahoma City
bombing in 1995, even though the perpetrator later turned out to be a former
American soldier. We might recall that after the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor in 1941, Japanese-Americans were rounded up and imprisoned in
concentration camps. How will Arab-Americans fare, given the harsh racial
discrimination they already encounter daily?


Patriotism, said H.L. Mencken, updating Samuel Johnson, is the great nursery of
scoundrels, with an annual output probably greater than that of even religion.
Its chief glories are the demagogue, the military bully, and the spreaders of
libels and false history. Its philosophy rests firmly on the doctrine that the
end justifies the means--that any blow, whether above or below the belt, is
fair against dissenters from its wholesale denial of plain facts.


It would serve us well to reflect on some of these facts.


First, that thousands of innocent people, mostly secretaries, janitors and
other office workers who usually arrive to work before 9AM as well as public
emergency service employees were killed is consistent with other atrocities and
conflicts where the poor and innocent suffer the most. These are the working
people who bear the brunt of most oppression in this country and around the
world, be it economic, political, nationalist or patriarchal. They are akin to
those who have become victims on all sides in Northern Ireland, in the Middle
East and in other areas of conflict.


Second, that the United States has been a force for both good and bad in the
world should also be recognized. Despite what political leaders say, people in
the world who oppose America do so not because they are against the positive
things that the country stands for, such as democracy, civil liberties, and
free speech. Of course most people who are denied these rights in their own
countries support such goals; many activists are working to secure them, often
using the U.S. as a positive example. Those who oppose America take this
position because of the many detrimental actions that the U.S. takes around the
globe, such as providing political and military support to dictatorships and
autocratic regimes in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, in Central and South America and
elsewhere throughout the last century and continuing today, facts largely
unknown by (although available to) most Americans.


Since the end of the Cold War the same people have been particularly opposed to
U.S. economic power and pressure, particularly on Third World countries. This
newer form of colonialism, the drive towards Western economic hegemony, has
certainly been undertaken without the express consent of the American people.
People in countries where millions of children have starved to death or where
innocent civilians have been killed by American-supplied weaponry (much of it
U.S. taxpayer-funded) are understandably outraged.


Finally, its plain that commercial airline attacks on densely populated
buildings are not rational responses. Bertrand Russell once wrote that there is
no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by
adequate governmental action. This applies equally to the irrationality of
suicide bombers who killed thousands of innocent working people on Tuesday as
it does to the irrationality that their deaths can be avenged by launching a
military strike to kill many more people, most of whom are likely to be just as
innocent.


Thirty years of military response, repressive legislation and oppression of
innocent people in Northern Ireland has failed to quell the hatred and violence
that sectarianism engenders there. Similar patriotic responses by the U.S.
government should be resisted by Americans in this country. Instead, ordinary
Americans should pursue solidarity among working people around the world to
defeat economic, political, national and patriarchal oppressions, the true
sources of hatred and conflict.


Kevin Donegan is an Irish writer living in Berkeley, Calif. He has written for
the Belfast Telegraph, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Z Magazine and others.
posted by manda lo at 9:17 PM

prison bitch name generator. just call me the perv. and the boy wishes he is long dong kong. hehehe.
posted by manda lo at 11:40 PM

eep! heheh... dat pic is kinda sleezy and creepy and so familiar.... *sniffle*
posted by manda lo at 5:39 PM

i -know- it's been a while. suddup. they didn't have access on the ride, 'cept for one night oceano, where i jonesed at gary fisher, and he looked at me like i was the big freak in the room. so. no. pictures aren't developed yet, because i'm still a damned slacker.

and this is too good not to blog. check out my old hovel. damn.

oh yeah. the 77t broadway picture... i should snag that ad at some point. yeah. this weekend. or something.
posted by manda lo at 5:53 PM

ok. well. an explaination to the above.
i've met wonderful, idealistic people when training for the AIDSride. And I'll meet more wonderful idealistic people on the ride... but... let's get this straight.. it's not gonna change me into one of those wonderful idealistic people. why? because i'm a cynical fuckhead. that's why. and that's why ya love me.

cynical fuckheadism about the AIDSride (and i'm completely guilty of this..):
fundraising. it's what keeps friends in touch.

heh
</end evilpanda moment>
posted by manda lo at 3:04 PM

i am not the flakemaster!!!!! yay!

oh yeah. just wanted to say... that i actually got a funny chain email (which i didn't forward)... it threatened me with by causing my underwear to become carnivorous with teeth and stuff.

that threat i mock, for my bike shorts are already carnivorous! ha ha!

ok.
doing.
work.
now.
posted by manda lo at 3:01 PM

so i did my first 100 mile bike ride yesterday.... looking back on it.. physically it went well. umm. mentally, well, let's just say, around 75 miles (with a climb starting at the 70 mile mark and ending at about 77miles), i fully and completely lost my shit, and started screaming at the mountain to descend already. hehe. so yeah. i'm prepared the ride. hee hee.

things that probably could have prevented that from happening, a lightweight juke box attached to bike (yeah, as if), umm. knowing absolutely for sure that I was going the right way, because someone was in front of me, of which there was none. and a good topography map to tell me how long the hill was. umm. ok. so.. yeah. given 2 out of those 3 happening i have faith that i will be fine on the ride.

though it was a rude ride. i mean.. all the really fucking hard hills were at the end. i swear.

blah. and it was hot. only a few more days... no. more. hair.
posted by manda lo at 9:09 PM

woo. punk rawk!!! yay. anti flag, one man army, the unseen, and jersey. yay. i liken ze punk rock. hehe. the unseen had a shout out to this guy talon. me and rachoo turned around, and said.. hey... i knew a talon from boston. hehe.

worm sees doctor today. hopefully this time, the doc will not collapse and have to be taken to the hospital.. and they figure out what the hell is wrong with the poor boy...
*sigh* i want him to be ok.
posted by manda lo at 9:40 AM