Commentary:
CINCINNATI: George Bush does a pep rally (I swear it looked like a football pre-game show) in front of a cheering Airborne Division, we head into stage 2 (or is it three) of the War On Terrorism. Never has so much spit been flying as during this exercise in belligerence and hubris. Nothing, that's nothing, is so all-powerful, so all-righteous, so all-Divinely Inspired as the American "liberation " of Afghanistan. Bush even sent his wife, that paragon of domestic Texas virtue, to speak about the way women are treated by the Taliban. While she's at it she rings in El Qaeda, whose approach to women has never been expressed - until now that is. The First Lady picked it up where the cattleman-oilman, scion of wealth and influence, left off.
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"Melting pot" is PR that Americans have swallowed |
Frankly folks, (notice how Bush always refers to people as "folks" even if they are World Trade Centre bombers) Rumsfield picks it up talking about more folks. He is echoed by that total nut bar from Missouri, the guy they made Attorney General - the guy who now is giving credibility to the preposterous propaganda that The Mossad were behind the Trade Centre bombing. (See at least one letter on SG last week.)
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Our success has been to exalt our differences and make it quintessentially Canadian |
And in SG, another letter (in a democracy every screw-loose gets five minutes of fame and a platform) suggests that we Canadians should be more patriotic and that we are watered down by multiculturalism and everyone stays within their own culture and we need to be like the melting pot in the U.S. .blah blah.
"Melting pot" is PR that Americans have swallowed. They are the most segmented people in the world. They are proud of Italian-American African-American, Swedish-American etc. ad nausea. Our success has been to exalt our differences and make it quintessentially Canadian. But don't get me started on that one.
Then there was Rumsfield trumpeting about Kunduz, where the Northern Alliance (the suddenly-we-are-friends reactionaries who are the alternative to The Taliban, have locked in several thousand Taliban fanatics, most of whom are not Afghans. Rumsfield speaks only a little English (American is his first language) so he fulminates about the Kunduz blockade with "there's (sic) Chinese in there, there's (sic) Chechens in there, there's (sic) Arabs in there, there's (he got it right!) Al Qaeda in there." Even in a time of crisis one should know that a singular verb does not go with a plural object. There ARE not there IS.
On another sidebar story about empty airports and jammed train stations - I wrote to The New York Times (they often print what I write) suggesting that airlines looking to survive should diversify. What a great chance for them to use their people-moving technology to partner with government in new high-speed rail travel. This time The Times didn't print it. My hubris went down a quart. Thanksgiving weekend, the American beginning for the Christmas season, is a traditional time to travel and airports are clogged with home folks. Not this time. They're as empty as a bishop's bedroom while rail and bus travel is packed. The "peace dividend" here could be a rejuvenation of interest in high-speed rail travel. One guy shown on U.S. said: "they can't hijack a train. It's on the ground." Dumb dumb dumb but dumber things have led to great change. Look at what the Montgolfier brothers started by simply rising in the air.
And a commentator on PBS remarked wryly that "patriotic" Americans were still driving road behemoths at six miles per gallon adorned with an American flag. On one hand the trade deficit (due to oil imports) rises while patriotism boils. Does any of this make sense to you? If you know write. Phone. Wire. E-Mail.
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Posted: December 04, 2001
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