Start with a Norman Thomas quote that I had originally cited when I discussed the question of the meaning of millions of Americans showing the flag, and why I had not refused my daughters' request to put one up, and pretend that it was somehow opposed to what I had said. Ignore everything that Max and I have said about the struggle to determine that the military action which is directed against terrorist/state/military targets, and not at innocent people, and suggest that we are calling for a blank cheque for Bush to do what we want. Distort and misrepresent what is said, and then claim the reasonable position all for yourself.
My original post [http://nuance.dhs.org/lbo-talk/current/1412.html]:
>When I see American flags everywhere these past few days, and when my own
>girls decide that they want to put them up in our windows, I remember the
>wise words of Norman Thomas at the height of the anti-Vietnam War
>movement: the appropriate gesture, he said then, was to wash, not to burn,
>the American flag. I think of it because, in many ways, I have never been
>prouder of being an American from New York City. The incredible
>selflessness, the efforts to help, even at the risk of one's own life, the
>insistence that we are a diverse people, and that we will not scapegoat
>Arab and Moslem New Yorkers: I can think of no other city in which I would
>rather be a citizen.
Further on flags
[http://www.topica.com/lists/asdnet@igc.topica.com/read/message.html?mid=1708268236&sort=d&start=6429]:
>The American flag is more of a "floating signifier" than we often
>understand. So many of us came out of the anti-war movement, and saw it as
>a sign of war. But it has also been a sign of the North and the fight
>against slavery.
>It has also been a sign of the anti-Nazi war. It was a sign of the civil
>rights movement, as the Jim Crow South embraced the Confederate flag. We
>need to understand that.
>
>For my girls, and for a lot of people, now it is a sign of identification
>with the community of all Americans. It is a sign of identification with
>thousands of people who are now dead for no other reason than that they
>were Americans. When Le Monde says, "We are all Americans" it is like the
>wearing of the 'yellow Star of David.' We should not be afraid of that.
Justin:
>Norman Thomas used to say, wash the flag, don't burn it. We all mourn
>those who were murdered in this appalling and awful act. However, that
>doesn't mean we should let the cynical creeps who ruke us use our shock
>and dismsay
>as an opportunity to rush through a long-wished for program of repression
>and war. Nothing Leo says surprises me any more, butI am really amazed at
>Max, saying that we should give thae authorities the benefit of the doubt
>because this is a crisis. Why should we trust the people who screwed up
>this bad, and who have never given us the slightest reason to think that
>they could be trusted with managing a rural fire department, much less a
>superpower, the benefit of any doubt? I do not think that, if we are
>respectful, a certain degree of skepticism will marginalize the lefta ny
>more than it is already marginalized. I am actually moderately encouraged;
>I think that people want to get the terrorists, but not kill a lot of
>innocents. --jks
Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 212-98-6869
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --
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