Sinister: Bouncing Brits and High Ranking Yanks

[Oscar Vivanco]

Warning.  I have nothing to say about B&S today.  I didn't even get to
listen to a single song.  I got shut out of CD rotation at work and I'm
listening to my new not so good cd's right now.  But I was a the record
store looking for the Waking Up on vinyl since mine is now Mysteriously
missing.  I didn't find it, but I pondered buying Billy Bragg's new one
since I loved Mermaid Ave I, but not II.  Partially because of Wilco maybe,
dunno.  But then I got to thinking about patriotism and Brits and Yankees
and got this.  So you've been Warned.


I AM LOOKING FOR A TERM
-----------------------

Acceptable patriotism?
Perhaps that¹s what we do?

Billy Bragg puts out a record
Half England/Half English
and its acceptable to me
insomuch that England
doesn¹t belong/speak/mean shit to me
but I¹ll wear a Union Jack shirt
or buy this album.

But God/Allah forbid I buy/wear
ANYTHING
titled America/US/United States.
These labels are unacceptable connotations
of patriotism to me.
It is 
all the wrongs
all the fashion faux-pas
all the bad musicians

rolled up Larry Flynt-style
fat and sweaty with beady/wild eyes
in an American flag.

What the hell is it?
I¹m not anti-US entirely.

Is it the unevenness of the flag
or the sick Christian majority
or the dull white men who rule us
or is patriotism
a vehicle for media ratings?

I am looking for a term
that describes not knowing your place
not knowing the country that defends you
from evils and axis of evil
that don¹t involve you
in anyway EXCEPT through the rich white men
who rule you 
who also happen to own the land/economy/people
BUT who still cannot
with no amount of money
buy the spirit away from those people.

I am looking for a term
to celebrate my land
while still cheering the defeated.

I am looking for a term
to make my misaligned patriotism
a guided/educated/wholly heartfelt love.

I don¹t know that term
I don¹t think it exists
I think changes must happen
changes must happen.

America belongs to me.
Organically.
Spiritually.

What is that term?
  



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