Words to Be Spoken at Ground Zero

American Digest ^ | 8/30/03 | Van der Leun

[vanderleun]

A great American president, invited to speak at the second anniversary of September 11 in New York City, might put it something like this:

Two years ago our enemies brought to us on this continent a new war, conceived in hatred and dedicated to the proposition that all Americans are to be slaughtered because they are Americans.

Now we are engaged in a great global war, testing whether this nation or any nation so attacked can long find the courage to endure the duties and sacrifices necessary for victory.

We are met on our first mass grave of that war. We have come to remember it as a final resting-place for those who here were murdered in our airplanes, at their desks, or trying to save others. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.

Our fellow citizens, living and dead, who struggled here and in the war since that day have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

The old world and those among us still weak and dedicated to appeasement will little note nor long remember what we say here, but we can never allow ourselves to forget what happened here.

It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the as yet unfinished war which by their deaths these victims and heroes have required of us.

It is rather for us to become more deeply dedicated to finishing the great task remaining before us--that from the ashes of our honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that all nations under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that governments of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

[southernnorthcarolina]

No, that's what Joe Biden might say. Ripping off an old speech doesn't take any talent.

[Valin]

We are met on our first mass grave of that war

Beirut 1983.

[mrustow]

I love it. I read it, hearing Fonda's voice in my mind. Unfortunately, today's politicians do not know how, or do not desire to play mystic chords of memory.

[mrustow]

No, that's what Joe Biden might say. Ripping off an old speech doesn't take any talent.

It's only a rip-off (plagiary) when you repeat words that you expect your audience not to be familiar with, and thus to believe to be your own. When you play a variation on one of the most famous of themes, however, you are engaging in allusion, which is clearly a way of honoring the original author.

[southernnorthcarolina]

It's only a rip-off (plagiary) when you repeat words that you expect your audience not to be familiar with, and thus to believe to be your own. When you play a variation on one of the most famous of themes, however, you are engaging in allusion, which is clearly a way of honoring the original author.

I'll buy that. "Ripping off" was overly harsh. Certainly I didn't mean to imply that any deceit was involved; anyone intending to plagiarize presumably wouldn't use one of the world's best-known speeches as a template. Still, it didn't work for me; such "tributes" are never as good as the original, and may come across as a bit cheesy -- rather like Elvis impersonators.

Far better was the same author's point-by-point response, on the same site, to Walter Cronkite's plan to "rescue" the Democratic Party. Good stuff.

[mrustow]

I just checked it out. I had read the original from Cronkite, and so I knew how little the man my family used to worship at 6:30 p.m. (or was it 7 p.m., in those days?)had to say. But seeing those pathetic platitudes a second time still managed to upset me. Talk about a fallen idol!

VDL's treatment is uneven. It was best at the beginning (retired pundits who won't retire/a hot, steaming cup of STFU ...). Note the sloppiness in the following passage.

Is an average salary of, say, $44,000 for seven months work really that terrible. Works out to a bit over 5K a month for time on the job. Plus benefits, plus a pension for life of about 80% of top money earned after 25 years. I know that even the kindergarten teachers "work ten house days," but who doesn't?

I prefer the Gettysburgesque piece at the top, but hey, that's what makes for horse races.

[mrustow]

I saw the brief essay referring to "Tet" at the web site. Note that it was Walter Cronkite who invented the "Tet defeat" lie.

[howieg2u2]

Time to Withdraw the US from the US
It's a great relief that the brilliant David Warren is back on the job at ESSAYS ON OUR TIMES - - Nation-building. Where else would we get a dose of common sense like this:

Should the Americans withdraw from Detroit? While they have been able to hold Detroit since General Harrison recaptured it after the Battle of Lake Erie (in 1813), hardly a day now goes by in which there is not an ambush or a killing. The rate has been rising through Detroit's notoriously long hot summer.

If the standard is one killing per day -- the current average in Iraq is a little less than that -- then the U.S. should also withdraw from Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. An analysis of the statistics, in proportional terms, suggests further quick withdrawals from Memphis, Dallas, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and of course, Washington, DC.

Pay no attention to the sycophantic supporters of the President, who argue that anything resembling a U.S. retreat will leave the world in chaos. These are the people who got the U.S. into the quagmire in the first place, by stepping aboard the Mayflower. They said the occupation of America would be a cakewalk. They said the Indians would dance in the streets when they arrived. Opinion is already shifting, and in New England, where people are much more angry with President Madison than with America's foreign enemies, opposition to the War of 1812 is running very high.




Posted by Vanderleun at 11:27 AM | Comments

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

If the standard is one killing per day -- the current average in Iraq is a little less than that -- then the U.S. should also withdraw from Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. An analysis of the statistics, in proportional terms, suggests further quick withdrawals from Memphis, Dallas, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and of course, Washington, DC.

Great lines! (Come to think of the color of those areas on the red/blue map, that's a pretty good plan!)