They're queuing up to dance on socialism's grave...
...how can something really be dead if it hasn't even happened?

"This Funeral Is for the Wrong Corpse"
Mekons

I stole the title of this piece from another line in that same Mekons song (which was recorded more than a decade ago, back when all the totalitarian eastern bloc states were collapsing). The point expressed over and over in that strident squall is that instead of actually challenging people to think, our elected leaders prefer to obfuscate and act like demagogues. This couldn't be truer in post-9/11 America.

It's about time a few objective facts were spoken. First, Osama bin Lauden and his al Qaeda buddies didn't use commercial airliners as deadly weapons because they hate freedom. bin Lauden is a terrorist because he's a power-hungry rich guy with feelings of inadequacy (once again, "South Park" political analysis trumps the pundits). His followers believe that their religious shrines are under American control, and since so many of us insist on calling the U.S. a Christian nation, that makes those shrines "occupied" by a power supposedly hostile to Islam. Our leaders (both Clinton and Bush) have supported both the Palestinian cause and the Israeli leadership. This is a nuanced position, however, and the reality of Israeli tanks rolling through Palestinian homes with tacit American support outrages most of the Arab world. And then there's the whole concept of ousting Saddam Hussein when we haven't bothered to remove such repressive leaders Vladimir Putin or Zhang Zemin, two guys who have declared war on Islamic minorities within their nations. In short, there are plenty of reasons for the average international Muslim to be mad at the U.S. besides a supposed "hatred of freedom."

Also, despite what the football coach who taught your social studies class said, we do not live in a democracy. There has never been a true democracy in the long history of the earth, and there probably never will be. Strictly speaking, a democracy is a government where all the people vote on all the issues. These days we're probably as close as it gets, what with voter initiatives and poll-driven policy making, but nonetheless our form of government is a republic. Some people like to fudge and all our system a "representative democracy," but of course that's just another phrase meaning "republic." As for those who like to claim that certain Greek city-states of ancient times were democracies, let's not forget that the only people who counted in those plebiscites were landed men. Women, slaves and men without property need not apply. I don't think I need to mention that our fine Constitution, as written by the founding fathers, excludes the very same groups of people from voting. We fixed that, of course, but only after some 175-plus years.

As for those who believe we are on a slippery slope toward totalitarianism on our shores, take a deep breath. After World War I, prominent communists like Eugene V. Debs spent long stretches in jail. A wide range of publications were banished from the mails because of their supposed radical content. And, of course, our isolationist Congress refused to join the League of Nations. Some 30 years later, after the second great war of the century, red-baiting and blacklisting re-appeared. As the true diminutive dimensions of the specter became clear, the public recovered its senses--with the help of the media and those fighting oppression. So by saying "This too shall pass," I am in no way telling the ACLU and many other worthy groups and individuals to halt their efforts to ensure freedom. I am merely pointing out that eventually a majority of the people in our country won't brand criticism of our leaders as "unamerican" and will support laws that strengthen freedom instead of weakening it.

So where are we one year after what is likely to be the defining historical event of our time? People like my brothers are detained for questioning at the airport merely because they have New Mexico drivers licenses. Our president wants to avenge his father's honor by knocking off some two-bit dictator. Bruce Springsteen finally recorded another album, even if it isn't nearly as biting or perceptive as the scathing (and dreadfully misunderstood) Born in the U.S.A. There are two Miss North Carolinas competing at the Miss America pageant.

In other words, not much has changed. Dumb things happen, sometimes art isn't as good as it should be and the truth is always stranger than fiction. Especially when the truth involves a brunette, a blonde and nudie pix.

God bless America.

Jon Worley's favorite rendition of the national anthem is by Whoopi Goldberg's character Fontaine: "Oh-oh say can you motherfuckin' see? By the dawn's early motherfuckin' light..."