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Below I append some rambling thoughts in response to a section that always steams me in the morning when I read it, NYTimes Opinion. The op ed, opposed to "faith-based" politics, expressed dislike for the
song "God Bless America" (RIP and pace 1950s iconic singer who never took a lesson in her life, Kate Smith):
"The patriotic song that irks me is Bruce Springsteen's favorite, "This land is your land." We're on occupied territory, face it, Bruce. I'm sure that the Native Americans are included, but do they sing it proudly or with deep indignation? This is a hymn to Manifest Destiny. I don't know what to do with it as the daughter of refugees allowed in among the huddled masses because they had sponsors. Re the mixture of religion and politics, isn't that something the Fathers warned against, something Bush II ushered in? The term "faith-based" first entered the vernacular with him, but what a shelf it brought along. "God Bless America' and "one nation under God" indeed. Wasn't the U.S. born during the age of reason? Will it die in an eddy of right to life and creationism and climate denial? We all will, at a time while we're sunbathing in Antarctica. Another thought that is tangential and may go better with an other op-ed, I have for years pictured the U.S., if it lasts for another 100 or so years, as a nation of light brown mestizos of every nation in the world. Perhaps that will happen in Europe too. And with that, European exclusivism will die, white chauvinism, and racism. I still won't know what to do with the burgeoning plutocracy, however. That is a fairly inclusive force."