Voices: Free to Be You and Me
There's no price too high for freedom, so be careful where you tread. - Clint Black's "I Raq and Roll."
It's been two weeks since Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announced that the Department of Defense would organize the first ever "America Supports You Freedom Walk."
Yet, other than the bewildered response of a handful of journalists and bloggers, very little has been said about the government's foray into a realm previously inhabited only by nonprofit fundraisers and protesting activists.
The purpose of the September 11 event is confusingly threefold. One - it aims to honor the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Two - it is a tribute to America's military personnel. Third - it is a celebration of freedom. The 2-mile walk will begin at the Pentagon, traverse Arlington Cemetery and the Potomac River and end at the National Mall where country star Clint Black will give a free concert.
Most seem to agree that the Pentagon has every right to commemorate 9/11 - it was one of the attacked sites, after all. But even families of the victims have accused the administration of shamelessly exploiting the day's horror and loss to bolster support for its increasingly unpopular war in Iraq. Rumsfeld's Freedom Walk announcement came only three days after Cindy Sheehan showed up in Crawford, TX and the mainstream media decided that perhaps the tide had changed. Supposedly realizing too late that the Freedom Walk was to be a support the troops rally as well as a memorial, The Washington Post yanked its sponsorship of the event (other sponsors include Lockheed Martin and Subway) and cited potential political controversy because it appeared the Bush administration was again trying to link 9/11 and Iraq. Other critics pointed with revulsion to Clint Black's jingoistic "I Raq and Roll," and the fact that AmericaSupportsYou.com violated civil liberties by requiring walkers to register their personal information via an online form no later than two days before the so-called Freedom Walk.
Personally, I'm just sick and tired of the administration's abuse of the word "freedom."
It's become the quack cure-all of political rhetoric and perhaps the most abused word of the 21st Century. Operation Enduring Freedom was followed by Operation Iraqi Freedom. In his second inaugural address, Bush used the words "free," "freedom" and "liberty" almost 50 times in 20 minutes. And it's not just the Bush administration anymore - I've recently heard two different local news anchors segue into a story about the region's active military personnel using the phrase "the fight for freedom." As in, "the soldiers are taking a short break in the "fight for freedom." Thanks guys - I hadn't realized that's how journalists were supposed to refer to the war now.
The best guess I can make for why the speechwriters haven't been sent to fetch a thesaurus is that the charm of the word freedom is conveniently open to interpretation. It means something different to everyone and yet remains unthreatening. Freeing the people of Iraq while simultaneously protecting the freedom of Americans -- that's the kind of double entendre dreams are made of. Do you think Bush has pondered the irony that "free" is a synonym for "liberal" as in his liberal enemies, who ironically are his enemies because they'd like more restrictions placed on corporate rights and would prefer fewer restrictions placed on individual freedoms? Yeah, he probably counts "freedoms" jumping the fence in order to fall asleep at night.
Because of the freedom that our soldiers are sacrificing their lives to protect, Bush implied earlier this week, it's Cindy Sheehan's right to protest. Not that having the right makes her right. In fact, according to Bush, she couldn't be more wrong. Ignoring the finding of the latest Gallup poll that 54 percent of the country thinks the war in Iraq was a mistake, he's taken the liberty of conducting his own research. The families of military personnel he's spoken to (everywhere, we can suppose, but at a funeral for one of the fallen) don't agree with Sheehan. OK, sure. Let's just hope the Defense Department's Freedom Walk doesn't become a freedom of speech exercise between mourning military families as pissed off as Sheehan about the freedom the Bush administration has taken in justifying the war, and those who plan to walk the two miles chanting the lyrics to "I Raq and Roll" in unison.
-- alicia grega-pikul, 25 August 2005
Send email to:apikul@timesshamrock.com.
