Rite on bro. - a Commentary on Divine Wind Video (imo)

[f. rat]

refer yr original paper (messrs ship & 'john')
news:FDEBKJHEJHMFLHFOAGAHCECGCKAA.mr_ship at bellsouth.net

Hey John,

The really scary thought that I had watching that part was that, if Bin
Laden has a nuke, "he(?)'d be the first to use it" and then the USA
would have
the second nation to have a hostile nuclear device detonated on its'
soil.
(And, yeah, I think that we were right to use the bombs on Japan; to all
of (like, what planet are you from?)
you naysayers, go read your history and see how we saved countless
Allied
and Japanese lives by doing so. I recommend Charles Sweeney's "War's
End";
he was the only person to fly in both nuke strikes. Analyze it with your
mind, not your "feelings".) I don't advocate the use of nukes and I
cannot
see how we could use them in this case, since we have planes returning
with
conventional ordinance that they could not find a target to drop it on.
But,
we gotta do what we gotta do...

Thanks for the heads-up to the video, bud (lateral or prone? - it gets
better, I promise)!

Regards,

Craig Shipley
mr_ship at bellsouth.net (home)
cshipley at veritas.com (work)


> -----Original Message-----
> From: BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List [mailto:BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU]On
> Behalf Of John A. Swartz
> Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 8:51 AM
> To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU
> Subject: More Thoughts on Divine Wind Video
>
>
> 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 (obviously, you are innocent), 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 (no mentions of white racism or a balanced argument then?).
>
> 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 (sht) (although Sandy Roeser has gone on record as saying
> she
> liked it - Buck may have as well, I'm not sure). (KTD - I'm 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 (or PE?), but since I'm the one who posted the original post about this
> video, I want to (try to) [sic] 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 (racism??).  These terrorists that we are dealing with are
> predominantly from the Middle Eastern (obvio7usly my frianerd) - it doesn't (where is this NOT?) make all of the
> people
> from the Middle East evil (glad you think so, mate!), 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'" - hmmmmmmmm) 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" (bible? 7 deadly ones? to who?) nation that will pick itself back up (will no-one else?) after these acts
> of terror (hmmmmmm) 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 [sic] be used.  I looked
> at it more as an image of "hell" (the key word that Eric is singing at
> that precise moment - like "shit!?").  On the other hand, I realize that it could be
> taken as a message that such destruction is not out of the question - so glad you said that! -
> but, as with the Cold War, the threat is/was always there - i remember and campaigning with the public consciousness to tremove it then.  I think that
> the fact that the image of the bomb blast is so brief (oh well, that's okay then) implies that we
> are
> not looking to drop a nuke anywhere (in particular?) - and of course, the image preceding
> it was of bin Laden (y'know over here in my little patch of heaven, they can't spell my name right - love your attention to detail)- therefore I simply take the sequence of images to
> be a visual description of the lyric, "then let's send them to hell". (gas too expensive at the moment? need to queue do we?)
> Again, it doen't mean send all from the Middle East, or even
> Afghanistan,
> to hell - this message is directed to the terrorists (define "terrorist").
>
> 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
> IMH?O is fantastic.
>
> John
>