My apologies if this was discussed already...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030328/COATWOOD//

A letter to America

You're the 21st-century Romans. Your admiring friends used to know you well: land of the brave, home of the free. Now, as you obsess over the omens of war, we wonder if you know yourself, muses MARGARET ATWOOD

By MARGARET ATWOOD
Friday, March 28, 2003 - Page A17

Dear America: This is a difficult letter to write, because I'm no longer sure who you are.

Some of you may be having the same trouble. I thought I knew you: We'd become well acquainted over the past 55 years. You were the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck comic books I read in the late 1940s. You were the radio shows -- Jack Benny, Our Miss Brooks. You were the music I sang and danced to: the Andrews Sisters, Ella Fitzgerald, the Platters, Elvis. You were a ton of fun.

You wrote some of my favourite books. You created Huckleberry Finn, and Hawkeye, and Beth and Jo in Little Women, courageous in their different ways. Later, you were my beloved Thoreau, father of environmentalism, witness to individual conscience; and Walt Whitman, singer of the great Republic; and Emily Dickinson, keeper of the private soul. You were Hammett and Chandler, heroic walkers of mean streets; even later, you were the amazing trio, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner, who traced the dark labyrinths of your hidden heart. You were Sinclair Lewis and Arthur Miller, who, with their own American idealism, went after the sham in you, because they thought you could do better.

You were Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront, you were Humphrey Bogart in Key Largo, you were Lillian Gish in Night of the Hunter. You stood up for freedom, honesty and justice; you protected the innocent. I believed most of that. I think you did, too. It seemed true at the time.

You put God on the money, though, even then. You had a way of thinking that the things of Caesar were the same as the things of God: that gave you self-confidence. You have always wanted to be a city upon a hill, a light to all nations, and for a while you were. Give me your tired, your poor, you sang, and for a while you meant it.

We've always been close, you and us. History, that old entangler, has twisted us together since the early 17th century. Some of us used to be you; some of us want to be you; some of you used to be us. You are not only our neighbours: In many cases -- mine, for instance -- you are also our blood relations, our colleagues, and our personal friends. But although we've had a ringside seat, we've never understood you completely, up here north of the 49th parallel.

We're like Romanized Gauls -- look like Romans, dress like Romans, but aren't Romans -- peering over the wall at the real Romans. What are they doing? Why? What are they doing now? Why is the haruspex eyeballing the sheep's liver? Why is the soothsayer wholesaling the Bewares?

Perhaps that's been my difficulty in writing you this letter: I'm not sure I know what's really going on. Anyway, you have a huge posse of experienced entrail-sifters who do nothing but analyze your every vein and lobe. What can I tell you about yourself that you don't already know?

This might be the reason for my hesitation: embarrassment, brought on by a becoming modesty. But it is more likely to be embarrassment of another sort. When my grandmother -- from a New England background -- was confronted with an unsavoury topic, she would change the subject and gaze out the window. And that is my own inclination: Mind your own business.

But I'll take the plunge, because your business is no longer merely your business. To paraphrase Marley's Ghost, who figured it out too late, mankind is your business. And vice versa: When the Jolly Green Giant goes on the rampage, many lesser plants and animals get trampled underfoot. As for us, you're our biggest trading partner: We know perfectly well that if you go down the plug-hole, we're going with you. We have every reason to wish you well.

I won't go into the reasons why I think your recent Iraqi adventures have been -- taking the long view -- an ill-advised tactical error. By the time you read this, Baghdad may or may not look like the craters of the Moon, and many more sheep entrails will have been examined. Let's talk, then, not about what you're doing to other people, but about what you're doing to yourselves.

You're gutting the Constitution. Already your home can be entered without your knowledge or permission, you can be snatched away and incarcerated without cause, your mail can be spied on, your private records searched. Why isn't this a recipe for widespread business theft, political intimidation, and fraud? I know you've been told all this is for your own safety and protection, but think about it for a minute. Anyway, when did you get so scared? You didn't used to be easily frightened.

You're running up a record level of debt. Keep spending at this rate and pretty soon you won't be able to afford any big military adventures. Either that or you'll go the way of the USSR: lots of tanks, but no air conditioning. That will make folks very cross. They'll be even crosser when they can't take a shower because your short-sighted bulldozing of environmental protections has dirtied most of the water and dried up the rest. Then things will get hot and dirty indeed.

You're torching the American economy. How soon before the answer to that will be, not to produce anything yourselves, but to grab stuff other people produce, at gunboat-diplomacy prices? Is the world going to consist of a few megarich King Midases, with the rest being serfs, both inside and outside your country? Will the biggest business sector in the United States be the prison system? Let's hope not.

If you proceed much further down the slippery slope, people around the world will stop admiring the good things about you. They'll decide that your city upon the hill is a slum and your democracy is a sham, and therefore you have no business trying to impose your sullied vision on them. They'll think you've abandoned the rule of law. They'll think you've fouled your own nest.

The British used to have a myth about King Arthur. He wasn't dead, but sleeping in a cave, it was said; in the country's hour of greatest peril, he would return. You, too, have great spirits of the past you may call upon: men and women of courage, of conscience, of prescience. Summon them now, to stand with you, to inspire you, to defend the best in you. You need them.

-----------
Margaret Atwood studied American literature -- among other things -- at Radcliffe and Harvard in the 1960s. She is the author of 10 novels. Her 11th, Oryx and Crake, will be published in May. This essay also appears in The Nation.

But the Romans did it because they wanted to.

"Margaret Atwood studied American literature -- among other things -- at Radcliffe and Harvard in the 1960s. She is the author of 10 novels. Her 11th, Oryx and Crake, will be published in May. This essay also appears in The Nation." Woop-de-doo, anybody read that rag other than the "elite and effete?

Well good for ol Margie, maybe she can renounce her bank account along with her country and go and live in Nigeria or someplace else nice. I hope her knickers stay in a knot until she assumes room temperature.

LOL! Gosh, it sure sounds like you wouldn't give her all the barbed wire she could eat either. :)

Is this supposed to have some deep meaning? She disagrees with our position on Iraq, so do many. So what? We, as a sovereign nation, do what we believe is in our best interests and that of our friends. Sorry we didn't bother consulting her first.

Take it to mean whatever you want. Besides, it wouldn't matter if you consulted anyone else anyway. You, as a nation, would go ahead and do whatever you wanted, regardless. Even if public opinion was very much in opposition,

It is not only that she disagrees with the IRAQ issue, but she also brings up the monetary issues. I feel that this is extremely important. I think she has a valid point about looking within.

But... what do I know... I'm only Canadian...

Well, I wasn't gonna be the first to say it, but since you brought it up... :+

Another over educated do goody that wouldn't be able to shoot a housebreaker climbing into her bedroom window for fear of denying his human rights........

I wouldn't either, dude...

... I don't keep a gun in my bedroom. All of mine are in the living room. Or did I put them in my garage? Maybe they are in the refrigerator. God, where did I put those guns...........

How nice for you Kevin........

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate your reply.........

Margie, baby,

So good to hear from you although I could never understand what point you where trying to make. Perhaps you have forgotten the small historical event known as WWII and the bombing of England.

In any case, please write again, but wait until your medication kicks in.

Yours Truly,
Kilroy

LOL :)

Who in the heck is Margaret Atwood?

One of Canada's most prolific writers but a little bit of, as my Grandmother would say, a fuddy duddy. (also see my post above) :)

Thanks for the info. JD

Post here...
Get smeared...

All I was doing was posting someone's point of view. Someone who had the guts to say what she thought... perhaps you don't agree with her, but...

... sarcasm

... name calling

Grow up y'all...

oh, lighten up ;)

I've read many of Margaret Atwood's books and she is a wonderful writer; I prefer Pierre Berton though.

And as for her having the guts to.... so what. She, and every other writer or Hollywood star, should keep her nose out of the political ring. I could care less about her political views. But if she'd like to write another book, I'd gladly read it.

... right on...

Damn Rocketman you are one bitter mofo, I thought I was bad! Why should anyone, most of all an artist who writes about the human condition, keep thier mouth shut regarding any issue?

Thomas Paine was a writer who in 1775 denounced the practice of slavery as inhumane, he then advocated revolution against taxation without representation and outlined his belief in American independence in his famous "Common Sense". Are you suggesting that this writer and publisher should have stayed out of politics too?

ps I think it's Berton.

Thomas Paine is also the member of the French Assembly that Robespierre had jailed because he wouldn't vote for beheading the King of France.

Seems that Tom Paine did a bit more than just write...

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out where the strong man stumbled, or where a doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, and who comes up short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause. The man who at best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, fails while daring greatly, so that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who never knew victory or defeat."
---Teddy Roosevelt

I don't see what Paine's time in France after he left America has to do with anything, his greatest contribution to the American cause was his writing. As for Roosevelt's quote, I agree, forge your way through life with passion and courage.

Read the newspapers of the era. You might just learn something.

Everyone, but everyone, has their right to participate in the political ring. It's called democracy, and I was under the impression it's what we're trying to install in Iraq.

---

Paul D

I agree. I would hope that everyone did, as well.

Evening...

I don't agree with her point of view but she has a right to state it and anyone has a right to refer to it here.

I just hope Margaret Atwood would have thought differently if the 9/11 towers hit by the planes were in Toronto instead of Manhattan. Canada has managed to steer clear of world terrorism so far. The USA is fighting to make sure that position is maintained.

Kevin R, thank you for having the guts to say what I've been thinking since I started reading the replys. What on earth is the matter with everyone?? I am 100% against this war, but I am not running around throwing insults at anyone who disagrees with me. Does this mean that anyone who is anti-war is a lunatic, or 'a few sandwiches short of a picnic'? Oh, and anyone who says the military is just 'following orders' needs to remember that the Nuremburg Trials were about military personnel who were just 'following orders', and if I recall correctly, the USA didn't think that was a good enough excuse.:o

Thanks Jenn !

You know, your just like those reporters that are driving Rumsfeld crazy. You read something and you put your own spin on it or put words in other peoples mouths. Nothing I wrote above said that she was a lunatic because she disagreed with the war. If you could read properly you would have noticed that I had met Margaret Atwood and found her to be a very "unique individual" She was a few sandwiches short of a picnic long before she wrote this letter. But what you read was "oh my God, they're attacking this lady because she spoke her mind". Get over it. God, you'd swear I insulted your Mom.

"She, and every other writer or Hollywood star, should keep her nose out of the political ring."

The above quote says otherwise.

---

Paul D

Which quote is that?

Casca, you do have a way with words! Love it!

Copper

Isn't he amazing !

Funny letter. They weren't serious, were they????????
BTW, what was the meaning?
I gotta letter for her right ova hiah.....

Why did you bother to post this?

May I ask what you mean when you ask why I bothered to post this?

I thought it was relevant and others would want to know.

If I am supposed to post only pro-US, pro-War, pro-"experts" propaganda here, then please let me know and I will go elsewhere. I was under the impression that this was an "open" forum.

I admit, Marti, that I am not the most informed person vis-a-vis war and foreign policy affairs. But I have a desire to learn. If I am wrong about something, I admit it. If I am unsure about a topic, I sit back and listen here and educate myself about it elsewhere.

Unfortunately, I have had the same experience, here, as "Jenn" in her comment above. Some of the comments here are informative (taken with a grain of salt) but many are simply sarcasm and said out of fear and a lack of understanding and compassion.

My opinion... take it or leave it...

Simply put, we, the Good 'Ol U.S. of A, have a responsibility.
Oh, BTW, when there is a somebody in need of $$$$$ or food, who are the first ones there???
The Americans, why of course. ;)