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Jewish World Review
Sept. 11, 2006
/ 18 Elul, 5766
City to New Yorkers on 9/11: All You Need is Love
By
Oleg Atbashian
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Did you know that today at two o'clock sharp, on the fifth anniversary of
the 9/11 attacks, at ceremonies at Ground Zero and all over New York's five
boroughs, dozens of local bands will start playing the French national
anthem?
It's true. As the City is preparing for the 9/11 Anniversary Ceremonies,
Commissioner Kelly's wife Victoria Kelly, who is in charge of the musical
portion of the day, has picked a single song to be played by a number of
bands all around town simultaneously (courtesy of taxpayers). The most
appropriate song she could think of? All You Need is Love. A big Beatles fan
myself, I remember the tune too well not to notice that this hippie-dippie
anthem from the psychedelic "Yellow Submarine" cartoon (with its "Blue
Meanies") hardly fits the occasion — not only because of its utopian message,
but also because it begins with "La Marseillaise," the French national
anthem. Do we really need to honor France's official anti-Americanism on
this day at Ground Zero?
Even if Mrs. Kelly somehow qualifies as a musical expert, she must have
lived in a cave for the last five years not to be aware of the songs written
in response to 9/11 by American musicians (Let's Roll, Let Freedom Ring,
Have You Forgotten, etc.). The ex-Beatle Paul McCartney himself was in New
York that day, sitting on a plane at JFK as his flight was being canceled,
watching the smoke coming from the World Trade Center. Having learned of the
attacks, he canceled his tour and returned to the city so he could be with
New Yorkers in that time of tragedy. That's when he wrote a song called
Freedom as his contribution to the city's recovery effort, and performed it
at the Concert For New York, a benefit he organized for the 9/11 victims — to
an audience filled with firefighters, police, and rescue workers. Thus the
song too became part of New York's history.
It's a simple song, hardly his best one, but it came straight from the
heart — and his heart was obviously in the right place.
Freedom
This is my right
A right given by G-d
To live a free life
To live in freedom
Talking about freedom
I'm talking about freedom
I will fight for the right
To live in freedom
And do you want
To try to take it away
You will have to answer
Cause this is my right
Talking about freedom
I'm talking about freedom
I will fight for the right
To live in freedom
For writing this hardly political but rather morally upright song, McCartney
himself immediately became the object of attacks from the self-proclaimed
"peace" activists. He was maligned for wanting to "fight for the right to
live in freedom" as opposed to "negotiate for the right to live in freedom"
or "work together for the right to live in freedom." McCartney would perhaps
be their hero if he had responded to 9/11 by writing a song called American
Idiot. But he wrote a song called Freedom, and for that New York's own
public radio WNYC (an affiliate of the taxpayer-funded NPR) arrogantly
dismissed Sir Paul as a "pro-war Beatle." Given that the same people have
never denied the "right to fight" to any anti-American entity or ideology,
such hypocritical piousness exposed them for what they are — immoral
turncoats unworthy of the great culture of freedom that for two centuries
has been the beacon for all the genuine freedom-loving people in all corners
of the world (regardless of the turncoats' claim to the contrary).
The same turncoats will now say that playing the "controversial" Freedom at
the 9/11 Ceremony in New York may be "divisive." I say that playing All You
Need is Love will not only be divisive, but also cowardly and irrational.
Though both songs were written, or at least co-written, by the same man, the
difference is that All You Need is Love reflects certain sweet delusions of
the past, a well-meaning anomaly induced by a historically short-lived
period of untroubled prosperity, when freedom was taken for granted.
Originally performed in 1967 on "Our World," the first-ever live global
television link, it was a celebration of life and happiness. Playing it
today at Ground Zero would at best come off as bewailing the unfulfilled
promises of irresponsible, happy-go-lucky idealism of an era gone by. At
worst, it would come off as a grotesque clown show over a mass grave.
In contrast, Freedom (2001) reflects the awakening from a utopian dream to a
reality of the eternal human aspiration to be free — and to fight for this
freedom if necessary. In this sense, McCartney epitomizes the inevitable
transition of Western culture from the 20th century's utopian aberration to
the clear-headed stand on moral values — a significant "evolutionary jump"
triggered largely by the 9/11 attacks on America by hateful and irrational
Islamic fanatics. An unfortunate part of the equation is a large number of
Westerners who refuse to give up the mystical, muddled notion of All You
Need is Love for objective and rational Fight For The Right To Live In
Freedom. Many of them still find themselves far out in the dreamy utopian
haze of the past, afraid to wake up and hating anyone who attempts to awaken
them.
Thus McCartney's simple, morally upright tune has inadvertently become a
litmus test that continues to reveal two opposing mindsets in our society.
The dividing line between these mindsets is the same line that divides the
rational from the irrational, truth from fiction, reality from delusion,
integrity from corruption, courage from cowardice, and moral standards from
moral relativism. And in the heart of this division gapes a void that once
was the World Trade Center.
Which of the two mindsets will manifest itself to New Yorkers and to the
rest of the world when the band begins to play at Ground Zero? No wonder New
York liberals don't have the courage to confront the terror threat. Hell,
they don't even have the courage to confront Commissioner Kelly's wife. The
choice of music today represents all the small offenses that, little by
little, drop by drop, we have become accustomed to and desensitized from.
Perhaps they should scrap the plans for the 9/11 memorial and build a Yellow
Submarine instead.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Oleg Atbashian is a writer, artist, and proprietor of the satirical site ThePeoplesCube.com. He emigrated from the Ukraine in 1994 and currently lives in New York.
Comment by clicking here.
© 2006, Oleg Atbashian
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