|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
||
|
Politics Resource Center |
 |
|
||
|
|
||||
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
November 1, 2001
by Eugene Narrett, Ph.D.
It's World Series Time. The Yankees are playing the Diamondbacks, and the festivities are grand. Tuesday evening in the Bronx, the President was on hand to throw out the first ball, an unprecedented convergence of the greatest moment in sport and the world's pre-eminent elective office. Mr. Bush (former General Manager of the Texas Rangers) looked snappy in his windbreaker and it's a delight to have a President who's comfortable on a ball field. He toed the rubber in fine fashion and threw a strike, a nifty circle change. After a strenuous, off key anthem, a bald eagle swooped in from center field to its handler on the mound. A magnificent creature and a beautiful touch featured this post-season in every game in NYC. Heaven-shaking chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A" erupted. Even if the Yankees don't win this year, they play and plan like Champions, the way Americans are meant to do. Many Americans believe, and President Bush has said that part of what we're fighting "terrorism" for is to protect our way of life, our freedoms and pleasures. Surely, baseball is chief among them. I felt this very strongly five-six weeks ago. Now, watching the parade of new sitcoms and made-for-TV dramas, I'm less sure. I marvel at the lavish if not profligate expense of capital, labor and time invested in even a single pro football game, the stadiums, the roads, thephysical preparation (and salaries), the concessions and attention in the media, the vast emotional investment. And there are thousands of College football and Basketball games every week with similar investment. Some say sports is our religion, rather as it became for the Athenians in the age of Pericles, when Greece tore itself to ruins in a long civil war. "Our love of what is beautiful does not lead us to extravagance," he said, for all his wisdom blind to coming cultural changes of the Hellenistic age, its inward-turning so like our own. But in the classical era, "our adventurous spirit has forced an entry into every sea and every land. Good things from all over the world flow to us. Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now." Half a world away, are a billion people that hate America and Americans, the people with whose tactics (terror) if not their States we are said to be at war, sort of. President Bush has aligned himself with State Department policy to create a "Palestinian" State within Israel, so one notes the sermon of a high PLO official from the mosque atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. (Our Executive Branch does not recognize Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem and the Israelis, duly intimidated, allow Muslims to control the Mount, site of the Temples of David and Solomon, Nehemiah and Haggai). "The attack on our Islamic allies [al Qaeda] by the heretic nations is like their First World War attack on Germany," preached Yusuf abu Snena with a characteristic blend of rage and odd reinterpretation of history. "These dogs are again attacking us, seeking to destroy Islam -- The issue today is not only Afghanistan, but also points to Europe, and those who support Europe. This is an attempt to return to the Crusades" (10-26-01). "We must give praise to Allah," he summarized and 'giving praise to Allah, as Al Muhajiroun explained, "means using military force, where diplomacy fails, to remove obstacles to carrying Islamic ideology to all mankind. A true Muslim will not distance himself from Jihad" (10-26-01). The next day, Yasir Arafat gathered the chiefs of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and his own Fatah-Tanzim militia to Gaza and announced he would take a State with their help. "Anyone who doesn't like it, can drink sea water," he boasted, adding that it was he, not Bin Laden who was the leader of Islamic forces. Three days later, Edward Walker, State Department Chief in Syrian-occupied Beirut, told a Press Conference that his Bureau remains committed to a Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital (10-30-01 wafa.pna.net/Eng). The games, all the beautiful, expensive, terrible games play on. America commits a tiny fraction of its immense wealth to the War on Terror; the Afghanis, Saddam Hussein and Arafat give it nearly everything they've got. Since September 09, British intelligence officers have been stationed at European border crossings, checking for Iraqis carrying anthrax. Rolf Ekeus, former head of UNSCOM and colleague of Maj. Scott Ritter, details Saddam's long term involvement in chemical warfare and terrorism (Milan, Il Sole 24 Ore, 10-26-01). "With every passing day he becomes more popular on the Arab Street," states Ekeus. "While the world is busy thinking about Bin Laden, Saddam is busy thinking about how to control the world. He who controls the [Persian] Gulf controls the oil, and he who controls the oil becomes a world power. Non-conventional weapons are a necessity for him." At the Donut Cafe, II, attention rests elsewhere. They're talking about flu shots, the local election and Molly who used to work the counter. A man with a Texas drawl discusses hymnals with the lady at my right. Though the light is bad the coffee's hot, as is the toast. The old people eat muffins. A five-year old makes a mess while his mother baby talks him. The clock hands crawl across lunch hour. Up June Street at Bagel's & Friends there's a strange mix of women who seem awfully friendly. A sullen, dread-locked black woman drapes a proprietary arm around the shoulders of an off duty waitress as she engorges a plate of potatoes and eggs. An extremely fat blond gal gets up to hug a pretty thing who wants to talk about her visit to a dentist. The image of the Attorney General flickers on a small TV set high in the wall facing the counter. Beige paint peels above the kitchen ventilator. The coffee's hot, and outside, rust-colored leaves swirl through the hilly old industrial city. It's gray and cold. Far above the noise, a red-tailed hawk is hunting. The CIA is sharing intelligence information with Syria, Sudan and Libya. Even the State Department terms them terrorist nations, but now they're going "to help us investigate and defeat Osama bin Laden's network" (New York Times, 10-30-01). "They're going to help us in ways they don't need to acknowledge" says one official, mysteriously. Trust us. My car-flags came last Monday. They work great. The President says Islam is not the enemy; it's a religion of peace. Witches hang from trees and rooftops. The neighborhood's filled with be-hatted burlap sacks and pillowcases with painted on faces and stuffed with straw. The kids are tick or treating, adorable groups of make-believe evil doers. There's a knock at the door. Thirty years before the end, Pericles said, "we are free and tolerant in our private lives, but in public affairs we keep to the law" (The Peloponnesian Wars, Bk. II, 37). That's never been an easy balance. "We rely not on secret weapons, but on our own real courage and loyalty." To what are we loyal? Will the Yankees stage a great comeback? Like Pericles we once believed, "our system of government does not copy the institutions of our neighbors; but we are a model to others." Do the forms remain after the soul expires? Dr. Eugene Narrett is a writer and teacher in Massachusetts and is the author of Gathered Against Jerusalem: Essays on a False Peace (Dec. 2000). His new book, Israel Awakened: A Chronicle of the Oslo War, is currently available at www.1stbooks.com/bookview/7421.
Enrich your political & social life with a politics or news magazine... |
|
Politics Resource Center Main Page |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
[Homepage] [Newsletter] [Search] [Support the Academy] [Link to Us] [Contact the Academy] [Citing Articles from Our Website] [Privacy Policy & Disclaimer]
Copyright 1998-99, 2000-01, & 2002-03 by The Radical Academy. All Rights Reserved.