A Question of National Etiquette

[NanceGreggs]

A Question of National Etiquette
By Nancy Greggs

Now that the administration has admitted to secret prisons and seeks sanctioning of their use of torture, we all have to face the fact that our nation is about to die.

The death can’t be called sudden or unexpected. Already weakened by a compromised election process and widespread government corruption, along with the emotional stress of dealing with overwhelming debt and the loss of our traditional friends worldwide, even a hint of compromise on the issue of torture will surely bring about the inevitable demise of what was once a great democracy.

It is time to prepare ourselves, as patriotic citizens, for the passing of our beloved U.S.A. And because we have never dealt with anything of this magnitude before, certain points of national etiquette should be defined now, before we are all too distraught to think in a rational manner.

When our nation passes, who should deliver the eulogy? Traditionally, the appropriate choice would be someone from government, a senator or congressman, perhaps someone who holds a cabinet position.

However, I think all will agree that this sad honor should not be given to anyone who actually contributed to the country’s death. Those who participated, directly or indirectly, in the theft of our once-inalienable rights should not be considered, nor anyone who supported the very policies that weakened the nation to a point of being unable to rally from its ill health.

Those who lied the nation into war, supported the Patriot Act and other laws that took away the freedoms granted by the Constitution, supported fiscal policies that plunged the nation into debt, denied affordable health care to their fellow citizens, sent our troops into harm’s way without proper equipment, and generally contributed to the decline of our democracy should not be put forward as suitable candidates.

That narrows the list of possible speakers considerably, but we will have to cull a few names from those who are untainted by the aforementioned in order to proceed with a fitting memorial.

What is an appropriate period of mourning? This is a tough one, because we’ve never actually had to face this eventuality before now.

How long should one grieve the loss of a nation that survived adversity, time and time again for over 200 years, only to be cut down in its prime by one inhumane, self-serving, money-hungry administration and its supporters?

To realize that we rose from the ashes of a Civil War, segregation, civil rights abuses, and two World Wars -- only to end like this -- will be truly disheartening for many. For millions of Americans, the mourning will truly never end.

Will American troops be brought home for the funeral services? Yes, all military personnel should be recalled from Iraq, Afghanistan, and all other points around the globe on a permanent basis. There will be no point in fighting to defend a country that no longer exists, or protecting freedoms that are no longer available. While these brave troops have been fighting ‘em over there, the real enemy was over here the whole time. That’s a reality we’re all going to have to live with.

Should flags be displayed at half-staff? In keeping with traditional treatment of our country’s flag, they are to be burned when they have touched the ground, i.e. been sullied or disrespected in some way. Ol’ Glory, who is meant to represent the concepts of freedom, democracy, compassion and justice, has been sullied and disrespected by those currently in power for years now. All citizens who have possession of such a symbol should act according to their own conscience.

What about a final resting place? Due to government-sanctioned corporate pollution, urban sprawl, strip-mining, and the for-profit sale and/or decimation of forests and parkland, it is proving impossible to find a burial spot that would afford views of purple mountains’ majesty or amber waves of grain.

However, the true resting place of our cherished America will be the hearts, minds and memories of those who once lived in her warm embrace, and those who took pride in her strength in times of adversity, her compassion for the poor, the sick, the homeless, her ability to lead by way of example, her grace, her goodness, and her once-unwavering sense of justice for all mankind.

The United States of America (a.k.a. Land of Liberty, Home of the Brave, Beacon of Democracy): Taken in her prime after a lengthy illness, survived by millions of grieving citizens. May God have mercy on those responsible for her untimely death.

[stillcool]

1. perfect analogy....

many need funerals to come to terms with death. The finality of it all makes it real. What we are viewing in our current events are just home movies.

[MadMaddie]

2. Nance...you have captured my mood once again....

Before we let America pass into the great beyond.....I propose all true Americans (not the neocon faux Americans) push for uber chemo therapy to eradicate and cleanse this nation of the cancerous lesions known as the neocons.....they should be shipped to some unknown destination so they can feast upon each other until none are left (that is what cancer does isn't it?)

Perhaps America will have a rebirth and move into and prosper as a great nation again....

Sigh....

[NanceGreggs]

3. There is always the chance ...

... that like the legendary Phoenix, we will rise from the ashes of the funeral pyre this administration has gleefully ignited.

[JeffR]

4. K & R

But I'm wondering if there'll at least be canapés?:9

[Auntie Bush]

5. Our politicians need to get this meme into the American psychic

before the election. Great comment!

"While these brave troops have been fighting ‘em over there, the real enemy was over here the whole time."

Also, how about we have a lowering of the flag as we loose our rights and freedoms...kind of like the doomsday clock? When the flag hits the dirt we're dead as a nation.

[JeffR]

6. That's a grim but apt idea

eom

[bvar22]

7. K&R

I love your stuff, and this piece once again hits the mark.

I DO have one small complaint (a personal pet peeve).
In the first sentence of the 6th paragraph, you used the phrase..."took away the freedoms granted by the Constitution...,

The Constitution does not grant rights to anyone.
Our forefathers were very clear that our RIGHTS are bestowed upon us by our Creator.
The Constitution places restrictions on Government.

[madrchsod]

8. "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"

once upon a time americans were afraid and a great man gave them hope for a better future.my mother and father`s generations were afraid and this man did not give them fear but hope, hope that tomorrow would be better than yesterday. he believed that our government, through the social contract with it`s people, had the responsibility to help all no matter their lot in life. my mother and father told me about those days when fear could have torn this country apart and i suppose i have my parents memories ingrained into my soul.
being 60 years old , i realize my time is very short on this earth and i refuse to be afraid. i refuse to believe that this great nation will die because it`s people are afraid. i refuse to dishonor those who lived and died during the war that let me be born in freedom. i refuse to let freedom die because i am afraid.

[struggle4progress]

9. Might we postpone funeral planning until Uncle Sam is deceased?

I've never been much of one for sitting around the sickbed speaking in hushed tones about what we'll do when the Dear has Departed -- and as a general (though not inviolate) rule I tend not to do funerals.

I do not question that Uncle Sam is gravely and mortally ill, sinking in the Sickness unto Death -- but it seems one of those strange wasting diseases of uncertain organic cause, as if it were not the Body but the Soul that were dying.

In such cases, the remedy may be counter-intuitive: one might need to shout loudly something like "Don't be a coward and die! Get up, you sonuvabitch!"

If we let this happen without trying some strong remedy, what will we say to those who came before? I can't list all their names. But what will we say to Frederick Douglass or Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, Jr? What will we say to Mother Jones or Big Jim Haywood or Eugene Debs or Sid Hatfield, the hero of Matewan? What will we say to Mark Twain and Upton Sinclair and Jack London and Howard Fast? And what will we say to those who come after us?

I once sat beside a stranger and gently probed his political beliefs. And he told me, perhaps the wisest thing I ever heard said on the subject: America is a work in progress -- meaning .. unfinished .. imperfect .. to be seen again later,

[JeffR]

10. Very well said!

:toast:

[tomreedtoon]

11. How about some entertainment at the funeral?

Like, how about the Democrats who claimed to be supporting principles of government, who claimed to support honest and fair elections and rights for all Americans, but caved in?

I don't want to wear out Bartcop's Pink Tutu Democrats picture here, and I won't this time. After all, for a funeral people like Lieberman, Biden and Kerry would be changing into black tutu's, and I don't have that picture.

I think they will also have a chorus of Democratic Republicans, Senators, Governors and local officials who have all supported Bush and the Neocons - either through direct support and praise, or through saying nothing as the power grab occurred. They can't dance as well as the prima ballerinas, but they can stand in the background and wave back and forth, like loosely-bound feathers, waving in the wind generated by Bush, Rush, Coulter and the others. A lovely tableau.

The sumnation of this nauseatingly-cute post: don't blame Republican actions alone for the death of democracy. A good share of blame goes to the silent, immobile, frightened Democrats for not stepping up to fight. To find the guilty party, instead of picking up a magnifying glass, maybe you should pick up a mirror.

[JeffR]

12. From my little vantage point so far out in left field you'd need

binoculars to see me, I like what you're saying. With one quibble. Lumping John Kerry in with Biden and Lieberman is wrong. The man has his faults, and as a campaigner, he had even more. He is emphatically not, however, cut from the same cloth as your other two examples. Not by a long shot.

[tomreedtoon]

14. Kerry cut from cloth? Naah, tissue paper.

Just now he's starting to demand proper accounting for the 2004 election. Something he refused to do in 2004. He's been saying a lot about his beliefs (in e-mails to people on his sucker list, the suckers like me who contributed to him last time) but he's done nothing that wasn't self-serving. A Presidential candidate should be made of sterner stuff.

[JeffR]

17. I don't disagree

As I cast my vote for Kerry, a little voice in the back of my mind was whispering about other candidates and other campaigns that I cringe to think back on. But notwithstanding, this is a man with some fine achievements. That he wasn't the candidate he could have or should have been I lay at the feet of his DLC-spawned campagin staff, and of course at Kerry's feet for having listened to them.

But he still won.:)

[tomreedtoon]

29. The point is, responsibility rolls uphill, even for Kerry.

It wasn't Lyndee England (or however she spelled her name) who was ultimately responsible for the torturing in Abu Gareb; it was her boss. And even though Bush may be a puppet, he is the man who claims to be the President and who must take responsibility for it.

And in the same way, if Kerry's staff screwed up, it was because Kerry was the person who chose those people and gave them their marching orders. I'm certain that there are many Kerry supporters who will say "it was the DLC who called the shots on the Kerry campaign, who was hired and what was done." To me, that's as pointless as absolving Bush from the hideous messes he has made.

I might feel sorry for the dry-drunk fratboy for being a fool for the Neocons, sorry for him as an individual. But it was his choice to do this, his choice to wear the Presidential mantle. Kerry took on the mantle of all the people who wanted something better, and cheated us. And while I might feel some sympathy for him someday (I don't now) I sure wouldn't trust him for a second run.

If Kerry would like a second run, let him do what Al Gore did. Let him go into the wilderness, in one of those cabins in the woods (you know all those rich guys have them) and find his soul for about a year. Then let him spend two years working for a cause - not, say, global warming, but maybe rebuilding the American labor movement or breaking up the media monopolies. If he expiates his sins that way, then he's worthy of consideration for a Presidential run.

[struggle4progress]

13. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it

Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it ... Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?"
Abraham Lincoln
First Inaugural Address
Monday, March 4, 1861
http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres31.html

[NanceGreggs]

19. I must have missed it ...

"... don't blame Republican actions alone for the death of democracy."

I did not mention Democrats nor Republicans anywhere. The guilty are the guilty, regardless of party affiliation.

The fact that you assumed I was pointing this only at Republicans perhaps speaks for itself.

[NanceGreggs]

15. If you've read my previous articles ...

... you know that I am invariably optimistic, even in the worst of times. And to some degree, I still am.

We all have our hot-button issues here -- for some, it's election fraud, censorship, illegal immigration, etc. For me, it has always been the concept of even DISCUSSING the condoning of torture.

I ask your indulgence tonight, and those of my fellow DUers. The idea that things like 'compromise', or 'a redefining' of our traditional position on this subject has plunged me into the depths of despair.

I grew up believing that my country JUST DIDN'T GO THERE, that no matter what else happened, THIS option was just not on the table -- EVER, under ANY circumstances. We were better than this, morally above this; these were things barbarians did, but not US.

Why did I grow up believing that? Because I was brought up in America, that's why.

I'm having a little difficulty keeping my balance tonight -- because the rug of everything I grew up believing about my country is being tugged on by the very people I should be able to trust, and I'm truly frightened that it is about to be yanked out from under my feet.

THIS, for me, is not a deficit that can be reversed, an economic slump that can be undone with time. Once we go down this path as a nation, there is no coming back.

God help us all.

[Sad4world]

21. "my country JUST DIDN'T GO THERE"

Oh yes they have

Indeed "God help us all"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8272096722231303649

[cornermouse]

23. Me too.

An America that tortures is incomprehensible but fact. I blame Bush.

[patricia92243]

26. True. I thought for us torture was and always would be as taboo as canibi

cannibalism, incest, etc.

I think when we, as a nation, accept torture, we have stepped over some kind of horrible line.

[struggle4progress]

34. Philosophically, we may not be far apart. But the cryptofascist crowd ..

.. isn't saying anything about torture that they weren't saying fifteen or twenty years ago or even before that. And the fact that Administration officials supported torture and were willing to have people tortured was clear long ago: it was clear from the pro-torture media blitz the cryptofascists launched immediately after 9/11, it was clear from the detentions without transparency that the Administration inaugurated, and it was clear from a number of early stories, such as Maher Arar's tale.

Accepting torture and other assaults on human dignity is, of course, a slippery slope straight down to hell. But fighting back effectively means being lucid and alert. The optimism/pessimism roller-coaster ride is an emotion luxury I can no longer afford ...

[civildisoBDence]

33. Rumors of his death have been greatly exaggerated

He does have one helluva hemorrhoid, however.

Newsprism

[jeffcraft]

16. Time to stand up

When I started hearing about the torture debate in the congress,and the secret prisons, I was struck with the idea that I am as guilty for this as anybody. I know that it's wrong and I am saying nothing. Sure I have a blog that nobody reads under a pseudonym that hides my true identity, but that isn't really standing up to anybody. Safely anonymous, I stand up to power.
Not today. Today I stand up and use my own name, and I want the world to know that this is not being done in my name, It is being done over my objections.

Heres something I am trying to do - I want to put newspaper ads in daily papers around the country that will help shape the debate about torture and secret prisons. Please check out my site at jeffcraft.us and let me know what you think, and if you think its a good idea, add your name to the ad.

I know I'm not alone, Help me remind America what it means to be

American.

Lets be a shining hope to mankind again

[ninkasi]

28. Welcome to DU, jeffcraft

We need every person who loves America, and does not want a great country to die a shameful death. With enough of us, working together, and working as if the soul of America were at stake, which it is, perhaps we can pull through.

I hope that these last few years will serve to inoculate Americans just as a vaccine does, and enable us to fight off the next time the rapacious right tries to strangle us. We welcome you to the fight.

Thank you, Nance, you hit the nail on the head again, and you never miss!




Edited to add thanks to Nance, who is a treasure at DU

[newyawker99]

31. Hi jeffcraft!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[gumby]

18. Here are my answers:

When our nation passes, who should deliver the eulogy?
No one because no one will admit to its passing. Clearly the media would Never countenance such a thing, so no one will really notice.

What is an appropriate period of mourning?
None. Because the death of our Beloved nation will never be recognized, there will be no mourning. Go shopping!!!!!

Will American troops be brought home for the funeral services?
Never! Troops overseas are the illusion. Having troops overseas proves this Nation is not dead and should not be mourned. Go shopping!

Should flags be displayed at half-staff?
With "Our Troops" fighting over-there, there is no reason to display Old Glory at anything other than at high mast. Get some magnetic stickers for your car! Go shopping!

What about a final resting place?
Of course it is the Shopping Mall. Go Shopping!!!!

[truedelphi]

20. Is this not a logical outcome of a country that brought about Wounded Kn

There have always been two Americas - the United States that
fought against the British for self-determination, and the
United States that wanted the lands that the Native Americans
occupied and felt the British were in the way

The land of the Southern Plantations and the slave labor they depended
on, and the the land where Abolitionists orated on the grave injustices

A land where people were free to discuss anything they wanted, and to go
to any church they cared to go, to work and worship
and to know they were secure in their homes

Unless of course they were involved in the HayMarket Rallies in Chicago

Or unless they were involved with the WObblies

A country who did not see fit to give its women the vote, or its black
citizens, and some heads were smashed in along the way.

This country has always been a dual nation.

What would be my recommendation.

Well for starters we need to take back the media - but then hey, when
we post here, we are doing that aren't we?

[gumby]

22. A "dual nation"

Where many, many thousands (if not millions) have been 'discarded' at best.

There have been many that have stood up for Democracy. They've had their heads bashed in, have been used and sold as property and have been sent to 'reservations.' Those are the ones we can look to for sustenance now.

[democrank]

24. Just goes to show you

what can happen when budding fascists are met with passivity.

[gademocrat7]

25. Thank you.

Articulate and painfully accurate.

[reichstag911]

27. "May God have mercy on those responsible...?"

Quite the opposite, I think. May God dispense some serious Old Testament wrath on all their asses!

[DWilliamsamh]

30. I can't STAND how right you are.

We are at the tipping point. THIS is the moment in history when the men and women of this nation who remember the ideal of AMERICA (not the perversion that is birthing from her dying body and consuming her as it comes) must stand and fight for her.

WE ARE THE CURE for what ails this nation. Our voices MUST be heard. We must not shrink from our duty in this the final hours of our Constitutional democracy. THAT is what this bastard Administration is proposing when they say the Geneva Conventions (the SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND) should in effect have a retroactive Presidential Signing Statement attached. We must not allow our belove home to die this horrible death.

Thank you Nancy.




Edited by DWilliamsamh to remove HTML Tag from Subject line.

[cassiepriam]

32. Thomas Jefferson. George Washington. Benjamin Franklin:

We ruined the country you fought so hard to create.
I only wish we had men of your caliber today.