Letters to the Editor
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My Country, Right or Retarded
Well the phrase actually went "My country, right or wrong", and Mark Twain wrote an entire tirade against it in an excerpt from his suppressed "Glances at History." It was a long time ago, and of course everyone respects and loves Mark Twain -- except that no one ever reads any of his once-suppressed works,like "Glances at History" or "The War Prayer." Highly recommended for the "Last refuge" pseudo-patriots who have brought the chickens home to roost and will continue to keep us covered with chicken shit for decades to come if they possibly can.
Kamiya, this is perhaps the most brave, clear-minded and important thing you have ever written for Salon. It will no doubt result in something like throwing water on a grease fire, but that doesn't matter. If you can take it, there are those of us who will stand alongside you -- quite literally if necessary -- and who will continue to criticize our country because that's precisely what it was designed for.
I have found myself in agreement with most of what the Rev. Wright said in his blasphemous, anti-American sermon. I feel that way most every day. Much of it comes from having been exposed far too long and too often to mindless American "patriots" who guage us all by their own self-ignorance. While I might not have put things in quite the same words as Rev. Wright, since I am not the same person I most certainly have preached many of the same "shocking" and unpalatable truths to anyone who would listen and I will continue to do so.
That being said, I am neither perfect nor running for President. I have maintained many less-than-savory associations over my life time, most especially those related to me who are nearer the Ku Klux Klan than to God when it comes down to it -- because they are my blood and they are, like all people, a combination of good and bad traits. On balance I would say they are good people. On balance I would say Rev. Wright is a very good man. But this isn't about them or him or me. It isn't about Barack Obama, but it is about people who would make it about Barack Obama, who would put him in the impossible position of one who is asked "Are you still beating your wife?" It is manipulation of the uncritical by the hyper-cynical. It is the stupid being played by the intellectually evil and morally challenged among us. And it proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that on balance Rev. Wright is Right and our country, given what it imagines itself to be, is wrong.
Until the day arrives when we can live up to our own ideals and stop lying about our feelings and look our own ignorance in the face, the Right is beyond wrong; it is irredeemably wrong, and will continue to have to pay, along with innocents standing too near the "X."
From Twain's "Glances at History", a snippet to make Rev. Wright look like a choirboy:
"This Republic's life is not in peril. The nation has sold its honor for a phrase. It has swung itself loose from its safe anchorage and is drifting, its helm in pirate hands."
...But it was impossible to save The Great Republic. She was rotten to the heart. Lust of conquest had long ago done its work; trampling upon the helpless abroad had brought her, by a natural process, to endure with apathy the like at home; multitudes who had applauded the crushing of other peoples' liberties, lived to suffer for their mistake in their own persons."
The failure to live up to our own standards and values is the most damning error of our ways. Gary Kamiya, by offering up this sterling piece of wordcraft, has demonstrated the finest sort of patriotism. Let the stoning begin.