Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton

 

The grand old rag

Yankee Doodle Dandy.  [added 2004-05-06-14:38]  Last night, I saw a performance of "Yankee Doodle Dandy," the musical.  It was difficult to be with the literal flag waving that occured on the stage.  In the build-up to the flagstraveganza at the end of Act One, I though I heard the actor speak of "the grand old rag" that had flown at the battle of Gettysburg.  We lofted from there into "You're a Grand Old Flag," and I suppose its true.

More difficult was the Act Two opener, "Over There."  What a contrast between the optimism of yesteryear and the reality of today.  Now, how proudly does it wave?  I feel ashamed.

Amnesty International - Library - Usa.  There is a "No Torture" icon that David Weinberger posted and that links to Amnesty International.  I want a more specific statement for myself, and the red-white-and-blue to go with it.  This is something I captured while looking for a way to express that.  The point for me is that the Rule of Law should prevail above all else where the Star Spangled Banner stands.  We have nothing as a democracy if we don't have trusting each other to govern ourselves and to abide by the rule of law, freely accepted.  That we think there is any place off the battlefield where that does not hold strikes me as ethically unsupportable and morally repugnant.
posted by Dennis at 5/5/2004 03:30:15 PM