[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > The full text of The Battle Hymn of the Republic was sung in full at the > Memorial Service in the National Cathedral today. Very few people are > familiar with the full text. I call your attention in particular to the > third verse. I should also note that the _first_ sermon delivered at that > service was by a Muslim cleric. I was at the Harvard memorial service > today - sermons were delivered by Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Islamic, > Hindu, Buddhist, and Jewish clerics. That is how _we_ live up to our > ideals in a crisis. What, no wiccans? Seriously, though, as someone who's not a member of any of the religions you listed, I'm pretty well used to being ignored, but in a ceremony very carefully orchestrated and choreographed (who ISN'T surprised they had the Muslim cleric's service first?) I can't help but feel cynicism about the whole thing - plastic packaged redemption and healing, mass-marketed and targeted at the correct demographic. -j- Discount 95% of what I'm saying. I'm tired, cranky, and cynical over the warmongering, the jingoistic press, the mosques being vandalized/marched on, the fact that the US government is using the fear in the air to grab at power...
