Song deeply biased

As someone who is regularly involved in public ritual, I am sensitive to the power of ritual not only to express, but also to form the feeling, thinking and experience of a community. So, when I saw Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld enthusiastically introduce Darryl Worley, the country singer at the recent Pentagon-sponsored celebration of our troops, my rhetorical senses sharpened. Worley performed his wildly popular song, “Have You Forgotten.”
Written after his return in December 2002 from being with our troops in Afghanistan, the song was taken up as a pro-war song criticizing Americans who needed to be reminded of the awful events of 9/ll because they failed to demonstrate sufficient enthusiasm for the war against Iraq. The Pentagon’s use of this song in a public ceremony is troubling. Official sponsorship of a song which chastises some Americans (the Department of Defense is for all Americans, isn’t it?) sends a chilling message, as does the sponsorship of certain celebrities while others are blacklisted because of their criticism of the war.
The official blessing of a song which blurs any distinction between the war against terrorism and the war against Iraq suggests approval of that move. Is this song, sung at this ceremony just an expression of the feelings, thinking, experience of our troops, or is it a very public and not so subtle way to form them in the people of this land, as if to say “This is what America thinks, feels and experiences; get with the program.”?

—Fred Lassen
Protestant Chaplain