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Oh say can't you see ...

"I have to say that I too (an Aussie in New York), have heard the same insensitive garbage from family and friends back home. One relative said, "oh great, now America has got us into another war like Vietnam, our boys will be coming home in bodybags etc..." I got really upset about this & thought, 'do my family & friends not realise what happened here? And that it could happen to insular,smug little Australia?' I remember how my hometown was filled with an outpouring of sadness when 5 (5!?) CFA firefighters were killed in action. How bout 100's?"


Apart from the sad start to the week with the American Airlines crash in Queens where I happen to work, it has been a relatively quiet week in New York.

It has also been a quiet week for the "But-People" (the "World Trade Center events were terrible ... BUT US foreign policy...."). With the obvious relief of the Afghanis at the fleeing of the Taliban, it has been a confusing time for those who were on the attack against America's response to the murder of thousands of its citizens.

But life is not the same - will it ever be? War bonds are being introduced and patriotism abounds. The images on this page are what comes on one's drycleaning hangers post 9/11. Flags continue fly from buildings and hang out of apartment windows. Mementos of the Twin Towers are sold by sidewalk vendors, and it is almost de rigeur to wear an American flag on one's lapel.

I've never been much of a one for patriotism, or any show of adulation of leaders. I dislike, what seems to me, the mindless adulation of leaders, be they revolutionary or established. When demonstrating against the war in Vietnam, I never stooped to chant "Ho Ho Ho Chi Min". And later when I marched for a free Timor, I was embarrassed to see people who I'd thought of as enlightened, fawning over Gusomo, as if he were some sort of saint.

But apart from the really overt displays of patriotism in America, I have to say the current flag craze doesn't phase me. Perhaps I see it is as somewhat understandable.

Coming from a country where patriotism is definitely suspect in most circles, and being brought up to believe in a world without boundaries, the first thing I noticed when I came to the U.S., was the abundance of flags.

That was in Oklahoma, in 1993. I couldn't understand it. Someone tried to explain to me that it was a hang-over from the cold war, how close Cuba was, and how Americans had felt, rightly or wrongly, threatened. How people had lived in constant fear of a nuclear attack. It seemed laughable to me at the time and I brushed it off. I had never thought of America as vulnerable. Now, as a New Yorker in 2001 I have seen a different reality than the one I arrived with.

Which just goes to show - that you really have to live in a place to understand it.

Your Say

From A Pom

How do you feel about the Poms, I am a Pom and lived in Australia at different times for 15 yrs, we took some stick but what the heck it never really hurt us? For every Aussie that had a go at us there were 5 that we got along with very well, and I may not be the perfect human being but I'm OK, so I am capable of standing a bit of stick. I used to really respect the Aussies, when we first emigrated, People could have their rucks but still respect each other. Now everybody feels that they should be protected, feelings are hurt far to easily. I think what I am trying to get across is whether you are English, American, Or Australian, the occasional guy having a go at you should not be a problem, and maybe if you take the broader view you can learn from it I say this from the point of view of someone not directly involved in the twin tower atrocities, if you was a completely different point of view would be expected and understood.

Well, Peter, I am not sure where you are writing from. New York? I don't THINK so. Everyone in New York was somehow affected by the attacks - some more than others of course. People who were not directly involved, who only knew of people who died, are also affected. Many, myself included, have nightmares of another attack - as attack it was - and on OUR city.

I remember Londoners I met when living in the UK in the seventies, still talking about the Blitz. It was THEIR experience and not for the likes of me to tell them they were being a bit over the top and why not just shrug it off.

There's a lot of difference between someone calling an English person a "whinging Pom" in a pub in Australia, and someone talking to a New Yorker post September 2001 about the "reason" for the 5,000 plus dead, being their own fault.

Think about it. If a few loonies destroyed Buckingham Palace and murdered 5000 Londoners, would you think it fair game to respond by accusing them of being to blame because of what the British did in India?

Or is it a case of the proverbial stiff upper lip (or the trembling lower one).



Kate Juliff
New York