In that same Phil-Lit Digest where the Bobkes def was stored, I found an
old discussion about Bush's Loyalty Day (May 1st) proclamation in
2003. Does this continue to be celebrated? How? With enthusiasm?
Or did it fall by the wayside except for flags on government buildings?
Here is a short reprise of a response by Stephen Straker to Lawrence
helm....
Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 23:30:27 -0700
From: Stephen Straker <straker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:straker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Subject: Re: May 1st is now... Loyalty Day?
Lawrence Helm wrote: ... I take your [Andreas's] current posting to mean that you think Loyalty to America a bad thing, or as the Leftists (which you say you aren't) are wont to say, scary...
... I have difficulty imagining how a society of any size could survive without loyalty being considered a virtue ...
... I argued that when a nation couldn't count on its young men to fight its wars, it couldn't count on surviving...
... Loyalty to America, according to my healthy soul, is something I delight in.
Would you care, then, to comment on the service record - and thus the loyalty - of the man who, now as President, has proclaimed Loyalty Day?
I am made uneasy by people who wrap themselves in the flag. It suggests to me they are small people, bullies, who, lacking virtue, seek to use the symbols of virtue to intimidate those they would subdue. Loyalty Day seems to me Orwellian - and smacks of McCarthyism, Un-American Activities committees, loyalty oaths ...
Here's another example - in this case, palpable disloyalty to the office of president:
"There was a time when patriotic Americans from both parties would have denounced any president who tried to take political advantage of his role as commander in chief. But that, it seems, was another country."
see: "Man on Horseback," The New York Times (6 May 2003) by Paul Krugman http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/06/opinion/06KRUG.html
Can you set aside Krugman's point simply on the grounds that he is a left-wing columnist writing in a left-wing rag? (The *Times* supported the Iraq invasion but found much wanting in the President's conduct in the months preceding.)
Stephen Straker <straker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:straker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> Vancouver, B.C.
Ursula curious in North Bay ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
