Suppose the Bush administration had posed to ordinary Americans the question: How should your government create a fitting tribute this Sept. 11, on the fourth anniversary of the murder of nearly 3,000 people in the worst terrorist attack on American soil?
Responses might have proposed candlelight vigils, moments of silence, prayers for peace. Perhaps the defiant dignity of Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising," or the haunting acoustic melody of Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah," as he sings "Love is not a victory march -- it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelu- jah ..."
But no. Instead, the Bush administration followed its own internal compass by planning an event that risks becoming a hoedown across the national psyche, a trespass on freshly hallowed ground.
<snip>
The crescendo will be a free concert by Grammy-winning country crooner Clint Black, whose most apropos recording has nothing to do with Sept. 11 but is rather the jingoistic "Iraq and Roll." Here are select excerpts from its lyrics:
"You can wave your signs in protest against American taking stands.
The stands America's taken are the reason that you can.
If everyone would go for peace there'd be no need for war,
But we can't ignore the devil -- he'll keep coming back for more ....
Now this terror isn't man-to-man, they can be no more than cowards.
If they won't show us their weapons we might have to show them ours,
Now it might be a smart bomb -- they find stupid people too,
And if you stand with the likes of Saddam one just might find you ....
I'm a high-tech G.I. Joe,
I've got infrared, I've got GPS and I've got that good old-fashioned lead.
There's no price too high for freedom, so be careful where you tread ....
Now you can come along or you can stay behind or you can get out of the way,
But our troops take out the garbage for the good old U.S.A."
The latest AP-Ipsos poll finds a record high 58 percent of Americans now consider the war a mistake, so it's little wonder that the "Freedom Walk" has begun to trigger some outrage. To critics, this is tackier than commemorating the attack on Pearl Harbor with a star-studded luau. They see it as the Bush administration's exploitation of a national day of mourning for the purpose of justifying an unwise and divisive military endeavor in Iraq.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/09/04/ING7OEGB901.DTL
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