"Firm, united let us be,
Rallying round our liberty,
As a band of brothers joined,
Peace and safety we shall find."
(chorus from "Hail Columbia," written in 1789 for George Washington's inauguration)
Rallying round our liberty,
As a band of brothers joined,
Peace and safety we shall find."
(chorus from "Hail Columbia," written in 1789 for George Washington's inauguration)
With LIBERTY and JUSTICE for ALL!
God save the United States!
God save the United States!
I'm becoming more and more fond of both of these images as time goes by.
ReplyDeleteThe top one is from the days when we knew we had a revolution and were damn proud of it. Representing the rest of us, crowned by Liberty and stomping on Tyranny is not Hercules or Washington, but a sailor, an ordinary enlisted man. I've never seen anything quite like that in any other revolutionary imagery of the time, certainly not from the French Revolution.
The bottom photograph from the Selma to Montgomery march of 1965 embodies that chorus from "Hail Columbia" for me.
My loyalty is to the revolutionary state where The Little Guy threw rocks at the King's head and won.
As for America the Divinely Favored Empire with a Messianic mission to the world, Feh!
There's a long list of those that have come and gone in history starting with the Hittites.
Just to be clear, "Firm united shall we be, Rallying round our Liberty" together with our Sisters, true Peace and Safety shall we find.
ReplyDelete"With Liberty and Justice for All! God save the United States", shall we take this appart line by line or word by word? Liberty? Not if you are poor, or black or gay. Justice?? Again, ONLY iofyou have enough money and are the right religion, race and orientation!!
ReplyDeleteSince I don't belive in your "God" and since even when I did I did not agree that HE/SHE/IT was on the side of any one country over another. And Thinking that "God" is on your side as a country is supremely arrogent and prideful! I thought the Christian God was against BOTH those things?
America is better in many ways than most other countries (though Canada seems to be more civilized in many ways)and I am glad I was born here and not say Iraq! But loving ones country and blindly supporting it are two very diffrent things. If you realy love this country, work to change it to make Liberty and Justice for all the thruth and not just an empty slogan!
Do I love this country blindly? You should ask Kishnevi about that. Or better, maybe you should ask these folks:
ReplyDeletehttp://areluctantsinner.blogspot.com/2011/04/holy-week-and-easter-posts-on-queering.html
They might not agree.
We know no allegiance to any government either! Let me explain - we do NOT have to be Republican to be patriotic! Patriotism is neither Democrat nor Republican. We were established under the precepts of the faith of the time, but not under the rules and regulationsof that or any faith.
ReplyDeleteMy political resume:
ReplyDelete--I have a history of voting for Third Party or independent candidates until 2000. I voted for everyone from John Anderson to Jesse Jackson. I've voted for Green Party candidates for state wide office. Ralph Nader was the last third party candidate I voted for, and I've regretted it ever since.
--My involvement in gay politics is more in the areas of services and culture. I volunteered at the NYC Gay Lesbian Center for many years.
--I was involved in a successful effort to organize a Borders bookstore here in New York. I was on the contract negotiating committee and had a front row seat as the company creamed us. I was a member of the UFCW. I remain a member of one of those awful public sector unions that are Destroying Our Country, PSC/CUNY. I still take an active interest in labor issues.
--I'm a member, and served on the board, of an artists' organization for finding and creating affordable working space for artists in New York City.
--I marched in all of the antiwar marches here in New York before and just after the Iraq invasion. I signed all the petitions,and went to a big antiwar march in Washington DC.
I originally supported the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and now oppose any further involvement there.
--I was briefly involved with MOPIRG, an environmental group in Saint Louis.
--I'm not much for political science or philosophy, but some works that I've read that shaped my political thinking were Hannah Arendt, a lot of her work, especially "Origins of Totalitarianism." I read Thucydides which did affect the way I think of how politics and history work. I read Karl Marx. I still really enjoy reading "The Communist Manifesto," a brilliant and brilliantly written book. But, I am not a Marxist. The first socialist thinker that had a real impact on my political views that I read was Rheinhold Niebuhr over 25 years ago. I count Lincoln and both Roosevelts (everything except Teddy's imperialism) among my favorite presidents. I have a growing respect for John Adams' political thinking. Dr. Martin Luther King is a big influence, especially his thoughts on labor and economic democracy. I also admire such disparate figures as Sam Houston and Eugene V. Debs. On the gay political spectrum between the assimilationism of Andrew Sullivan and the separatism of Harry Hay, I incline closer to Harry Hay. I like the positive embrace of gay identity, but not the tribalism.
Lately, I've been drawn to very anti-systematic and anti-ideological political thinkers like Avashi Margalit.
--I've never run for any kind of elected office, and have no plans to ever do so.
--The first president I ever voted for was Gerald Ford in 1976.
--I was a Boy Scout from 1970 to 1973.
Draw your own conclusions.