Tuesday, May 04, 2004
(5:02 PM) | Anonymous:
America's Good Name
or, It’s not tarnished, tarnished to the core so that all of the silver has been chemically altered into tarnish and it’s just one big piece of tarnish—it’s just got a softly glowing patina.
I just got an email from MoveOn.org asking me to call for “independent, impartial and public investigation into all allegations of [U.S. soldiers’] torture [of Iraqi prisoners].”
Absolutely. This needs to be done. And MoveOn is a great organization, and I appreciate it. It helps me do good things. It may even be having an impact.
But what does MoveOn cite as our motivation to sign an electronic petition?
Ahem—“To restore America’s good name.”
Aww, hell, we left that coughin’ and sputterin’ in the dust eons ago.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve become less hypocritical over the past 2 ½ years about bashing… though it’s still hard for me to say… “my country.” After rejoicing (let me make this very clear: with the HUGE EXCEPTION of mourning the loss of lives!) over what I fantasized could bring down the U.S. economic empire (I mean, listen to that name: the “WORLD TRADE CENTER” had gone down!) (though, at the same time, of course dreading the inevitable wars and justification of so much heinousness), I decided I needed, for fairness, to examine my wholesale disowning of the behemoth called “America.”
I’m no longer a through-and-through ex-pat wannabe. I’ve had to acknowledge some genuine, desirable benefits of being a U.S. citizen—benefits of which I take advantage.
That’s enough on how the U.S. is not pure evil and why I should be glad to be an American.
Now, back to my point: No way an independent, impartial, and public investigation into even ALL allegations of U.S.-on-Iraqi torture’s gonna restore America’s—cough—gag—“good name.”
