When a U.S. citizen goes on record blaming the U.S. for 9/11 while exonerating the perpetrators of that heinous crime, I am outraged. However, we still have freedom of speech in this country; thus, I’ll defend anyone’s right to say whatever they want to say without fear of reprisals from the government, no matter how abhorrent the speech might be to me personally. That’s a fundamental cornerstone of our freedom.

On the other hand, when they start dicking around with football, I consider it sedition in the first degree. We’ve already lost many football Indian mascots due to political correctness, which is a crying shame. Now, a character named David Green, whose given title is “University Academic Professional”, has posited that chants of “U-S-A” during football games should be eliminated, as he claims that they are offensive to the rest of the world. What’s more American than American football, and where is a better place to be obnoxiously nationalistic than an American football stadium?

Well, Mr. Green (I’m assuming it’s not Dr. Green, or he might have called himself “Professor” or “Dean” or something other than “University Academic Professional”, which could be anything from an administrative assistant in the undergraduate studies office to a budget clerk in the finance office with such a nebulous title, for all we know—hell, everybody is some kind of “professional” these days even though many of them have no advanced degrees and no professional certification such as doctors, lawyers, CPAs, and dentists, but I digress)— anyhow, Mr. Green, your moral relativism and your castigation of the nationalistic revelry commemorating the 9th anniversary of 9/11 at a football game on your campus as expressed in DailyIllini.com, flat out pissed me off.

I believe that it is appropriate that I reproduce Mr. Green’s entire rant here. We ought to arrange for a game-long chant of “U-S-A!” during the homecoming game with Illinois on October 9, just to get under his skin. The letter to the editor was given the title “Block-I chant protrays ‘neither patriotism nor remembrance'”, presumably by the editorial staff of the Daily Illini, on September 15, 2010.

The vast majority of 9/11 observances in this country cannot be seen as politically neutral events. Implicit in their nature are the notions that lives lost at the World Trade Center are more valuable than lives lost in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and elsewhere; that the motives of the 9/11 attackers had nothing to do with genuine grievances in the Islamic world regarding American imperialism; and that the U.S. has been justified in the subsequent killing of hundreds of thousands in so-called retaliation.

The observance at Saturday’s football game was no different. A moment of silence was followed by a military airplane flyover; in between, Block-I students chanted “USA, USA.” This was neither patriotism nor remembrance in any justifiable sense, but politicization, militarism, propaganda and bellicosity. The University is a public institution that encompasses the political views of all, not just the most (falsely) “patriotic.” Athletic planners should cease such exploitation for political purposes. They might at least consider how most Muslim students, American or otherwise, would respond to this nativist display; or better, Muslims and others that live their lives under the threat of our planes, drones and soldiers.

The overwhelmingly white, privileged, Block-I students should be ashamed of their obnoxious, fake-macho, chicken-hawk chant, while poverty-drafted members of their cohort fight and die in illegal and immoral wars for the control of oil. University administrators need to eliminate from all events such “patriotic” observances, which in this country cannot be separated from implicit justifications for state-sponsored killing.

David Green,
University Academic Professional

Hmmm. We should hide our heads and cower in silence, or what? I believe that “Muslim students, American or otherwise” are either on one side or the other. Either they’re hostile, in which case I don’t mind offending them, or they’re grateful for the opportunity provided to them here, American or otherwise, in which case they ought to be happy to chant “USA!” along with everybody else—or at least respect others’ rights to do so.

Enter Mr. Green, and his unabashed shame over U.S. imperialism and wars of opportunity. Well, you’re entitled to your opinion, Mr. Green, and I’m entitled to mine. Here’s mine: No, the university administrations shouldn’t ban such displays of enthusiastic engagement in and for a country of which most of us are proud to be a part. Protest all you want and shame on the administrations if they cave in to the likes of you, Mr. Green.

I loved the comments about Mr. Green’s letter by Doug Powers on Michelle Malkin’s Facebook page:

Aside from the fact that this guy seems to think there’s still a military draft, he must be a ball of fun to go to a game with.

Heaven help whoever’s sitting next to him if somebody mentions throwing “the bomb” (war pig!), the “Hail Mary” (keep your Catholocism at home, pal, we don’t all worship your false god!), “offsides” (we shouldn’t be taking sides without knowing all the facts first, and probably not even then!) calling for “the blitz” (stop with your hateful mocking, Bavariaphobe — not all Germans tried to level London!), “weak side” (because a team is numerically disadvantaged due to various sociopolitical factors does not give you the right to exploit them) or a “hand-off” (lepers have feelings tooooo!).

For some reason, this quote comes to mind:

“If you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you’d have a diamond”
–Ferris Bueller

By the way, on September 11, 2010, Illinois beat Southern Illinois 35-3.

USA!

USA!