More Thoughts on Divine Wind Video

[John A. Swartz]

Well, I never imagined my public service message regarding the Divine
Wind video would cause such controversy.  Oh well, at the risk of being
off-topic (and offending anyone that doesn't want to hear about anything
political on this forum), I feel that I should at least express how that
video comes across to ME, since I posted it.

Before I start this ramble, I want to point out 3 things:

1. No offense is intended, although obviously only a few individuals
posted
some responses to my original submission - my responses are meant not as
an attack on any of them personally, but a disagreement with some of the
ideas they presented.

2. I should point out, since I get the impression that a few may have
thought otherwise, that BOC had NOTHING to do with the creation of this
video - well, o.k. they did record the audio portion, but the "video"
itself was not done by BOC, and while it has been provided on
www.blueoystercult.com, it is NOT an official band video - it was done
strictly by a fan (although Sandy Roeser has gone on record as saying
she
liked it - Buck may have as well, I'm not sure).

3. I realize that this is all treading into the Off-topic realm - I will
cease to engage in any long-running dialog on this topic in the future
here
on BOC-L, but since I'm the one who posted the original post about this
video, I want to (try to) explain further my feelings on it, as I did
not
realize it would be seen as controversial as some have seen it.

O.K., enough of THAT rambling, now it's time to really ramble...


As an American, I find the video has reflected many of my emotions and
thoughts over what has happened since September 11th.  Not only the
horror and anger over what the terrorists did, but the feeling of
patriotism and pride in my country, its people, and yes its power.  I
don't care about any other point of view in terms of what the U.S.
should
do in response - no one will convince me that we have done anything that
warrants what happened on September 11th - am I angry?  You bet - I knew
one of the passengers on the second plane to hit the towers - I have
therefore witnessed his death on TV dozens of times.  So, if the video
at
times seems a violent reaction, I say damn right!

As for it being "racist", I dismiss the notion that this video, or the
actions that the U.S. and its allies are taking in this "war on
terrorism" as being racist.  I harbor no ill feelings toward Arabs,
Muslims, Middle-Easterns people in general - I don't believe that they
are "evil".  However, the facts are pretty clear that the people that
committed the crimes ARE these people.  So, to show images of
non-Middle-Eastern people that are against America seems to miss the
boat, in my opinion.  These terrorists that we are dealing with are
predominantly from the Middle Eastern - it doesn't make all of the
people
from the Middle East evil, and people shouldn't draw such from the
video.
 Hey, how come no-one ever says that being against the Ku Klux Klan is
racist?  Aren't most of the KKK predominantly white?  There certainly
aren't a lot of Blacks in the KKK.  So, if the KKK is predominatly
white,
isn't speaking out against them "racist"?  No, I don't think so either.
Similarly, speaking or acting out against Osama bin Laden (or, as a
local
radio host likes to call him, "His Mama bin Layin'") and his followers
isn't racist either.

What really strikes me the most about this video, however, isn't the
images of terrorists, military might, or anti-Americanism - what really
gets me is the "pro-American" imagery toward the end of the video - the
firefighters helping victims, the football player with a tear running
down his face, the little girl waving the flag, and images of candles
being lit with the Statue of Liberty as the backdrop.  The message to me
of a strong, proud nation that will pick itself back up after these acts
of terror is what is most clear to me.

Oh, and as for that "one disturbing image" near the end - I of course
assume you refer to the nuclear explosion?  Funny, that image might be
the one thing from a BOC video - looks like it might have been lifted
from the "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" vid.  Anyway, I don't think it
necessarily implies that nuclear power will or should be used.  I looked
at it more as an image of "hell" (the key word that Eric is singing at
that precise moment).  On the other hand, I realize that it could be
taken as a message that such destruction is not out of the question -
but, as with the Cold War, the threat is/was always there.  I think that
the fact that the image of the bomb blast is so brief implies that we
are
not looking to drop a nuke anywhere - and of course, the image preceding
it was of bin Laden - therefore I simply take the sequence of images to
be a visual description of the lyric, "then let's send him to hell".
Again, it doen't mean send all from the Middle East, or even
Afghanistan,
to hell - this message is directed to the terrorists.

Sorry for my ramblings on - I have been affected greatly by the events
of
September 11th, and make no apologies for my feelings.  And that video
IMHO is fantastic.

John