Gilda

I don't mind using patriotic imagery, but the repetition of "fight for freedom/in a job that must be done" tends to grate on my nerves, because it seems an endorsement of the reasoning for being in the war rather than support for the troops. There is, in my mind, a clear distinction between being sympathetic to and supporting the people involved and endorsing the misguided ideals that have the US and its allies there in the first place. Conflating those who make policy with the people sent to enforce it is a mistake made on both sides of the political fence at times, and is something that the current administration plays up hard and heavy at every opportunity.

I like that she looked at the soldiers (diggers) involved, but the repeated endorsement of the policy that has them there in the first place leaves me a little cold.

I've always liked the song Lucy Kaplansky wrote in response to the 9/11 attacks and what followed. Kaplansky is a New York folk singer who witnessed the 9/11 attacks first hand from her home and put her thoughts about into this song, which does utilize some patriotic imagery, but in a manner that isn't jingoistic like the nauseating "Have You Forgotten?"

Late afternoon back in new york town
Waking up as the wheels touch down
Pick up my guitar and walk away
Wish I was going home to stay

Line of taxis, I wait my turn
Tar and asphalt, exhaust and fumes
Beside the road on a patch of ground
Taxi drivers are kneeling down

Beneath the concrete sky I watch them pray
While the people of the world hurry on their way
I think they're praying for us all today
And the stories that fell from the sky that day

Chorus:
This is the land of the living
This is the land that's mine
She still watches over manhattan
She's still holding onto that torch for life

Back home fire's still burning, I can see it in the air
Pictures of faces posted everywhere
They say "hazel eyes, chestnut hair
Mother of two missing down there"

I pass the firemen on duty tonight
Carpets of flowers in candlelight
And thank you in a child's scrawl
Taped to the third street firehouse wall

There's shadows of the lost on the faces I see
Brothers and strangers on this island of grief
There's death in the air but there's life on this street
There's life on this street

Chorus
This is the land of the living
This is the land that's mine
She still watches over manhattan
She's still holding onto that torch for life

Then I got in a taxi, said "hudson street please"
He started the meter and he looked at me
I glanced at his name on the back of his seat
And I looked out the window at the ghost filled streets

I noticed cuts on his hand and his face
And I said "you're bleeding, are you okay?"
He said "I'm not so good, got beat up today
And I'm not one of them no matter what they say

I'm just worried about my family
My wife's in the house and she's scared to leave"
And I didn't know what to say
I didn't know what to say
But I said a prayer for him anyway

Chorus
This is the land of the living
This is the land that's mine
She still watches over manhattan
She's still holding onto that torch for life

"Land of the Living" by Lucy Kaplansky and Richard Litvin

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert