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Don Phillips' comment in OCT Trains
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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by rripperger</i> <br /><br />While reading the latest issue of <i>Trains</i> on Saturday, I came across the following remark in Don Phillips' column: <br /> <br /> [quote]QUOTE: ....the people of the District [of Columbia] are far more important than any other Americans. Right? They certainly seem to feel that way......Perhaps the truth is that the people of Chicago and New York are less fearful than the people of Washington. I said "less fearful," not "brave." The bravery title goes to the people of London, Madrid, Baghdad, and other cities that face attacks with far more bravery than this generation of Americans.[/quote] <br /> <br />This struck me as offensive at two levels: first, it's a pretty nasty slur on the courage of the people of DC (set aside the non sequitur of the distinction between "less fearful" and "not brave", an attempted distinction that was probably intended to dodge criticism like the kind I'm writing), but more even than that, it's a slam at 'this generation of Americans.' It's particularly ironic that he's publishing remarks of this kind in a magazine whose last editor is working to restore the railways of the Republic of Iraq. <br /> <br /> <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />I normally like Don Phillips' monthly installments, very much. For some reason, he just tends to look at issues the way I tend to do. So, for better or worse, it is usually "fun" for me to read him... <br /> <br />That said, I wasn't particularly impressed with his article in the oct issue, it left me feeling like it was "filler" that he nay have lashed down for lack of anything else better to talk about. <br /> <br />I do think there was some validity to his argument, however. We Americans are, as a bunch, pretty dog gone ethnocentric. The hardship we suffer is always more important than equivalent suffering abroad (in our minds, anyway) the causes we champion more noble, our ambitions more justified, etc etc...And we can be supporting the most scandalous and corrupt regeims on the face of the planet, and insist what we are doing is the right thing to do because we are americans, we are the good guys, we wear white hats and the villain never wears the white hat...etc etc. <br /> <br />So, what i think Phillips was getting at, is if a situation similar to the london subway broke out here , we'ed be too hung up on the significance of it all, to take it in stride, as the british have seemed to do. <br /> <br />And, I took Phillips' comments pertaining to our insistance of seeing ourselves in the elite perspective, and the Washington bureaucracy's special talent for that kind of thinking, to be prettyt accurate. <br /> <br />Afterall, look at those big evacuation bunkers built at the greenbriar resort in West Virgina just incase WW III breaks out. <br /> <br />They never built anything like that for us here in indiana. We'll just have to melt with the fish if someone nukes us. <br /> <br />So yeah, I think their is a great deal of elitism among the ranks of the Washington "leadership"..they see themselves as being of pre-eminant priority. comepared to the rest of us dumb clod hoppers, anyway.
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