Word: kumbayah
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Generals are asking for changes in a TV show, and war critics are on their side: How's that for a Kumbayah moment? But then, media crusading is a political bizarro world, uniting social-issue conservatives with social-engineer progressives. And the year before a presidential election, "protecting the children" has bipartisan appeal (2004 gave us Janet; 2000, Eminem; 1996, Ice-T). Both parties' 2008 fields include candidates who have advocated government steps against TV, music and video games, including Senators McCain, Hillary Clinton and Sam Brownback...
...with that in mind, here's one idea that sounds one campfire short of singing Kumbayah: a group called Let's Talk America, which trains people to hold bipartisan meetings in which they can exchange ideas in a benevolent environment, has decided to focus on cleaning up after this election. It plans to place Op-Ed pieces and radio commentaries encouraging citizens with diverse views to hold monthly Let's Talk America days in their living rooms and town halls. The move may come off as earnest now, but it may simply look sensible if Americans end up feeling bruised...
...Belize also says, "I hate America," so we're not exactly joining hands and singing Kumbayah here. But Angels is nonetheless a deeply American play (and movie and TV show) because it captures how Americans--be it in the 1600s, in the 1980s or today--perpetually believe themselves to be on the cusp of great change, even apocalypse. This is true now for obvious reasons. As Kushner notes, "Today, you can say we're approaching the end of things without sounding like a nut ... Those towers collapsing--it looked like something from a tarot deck." But even before 9/11, millennialism...
Like any boy who has felt the furnace of a June afternoon in the South, 16-year-old James Gordon knows the pleasures of stripping nude for a swim. But a couple of weeks ago at his summer camp, Gordon was nude just about 24/7. He sang Kumbayah around the campfire naked, gave a speech to the entire camp naked and played the violin in a talent show naked. Which is what's expected when your camp is organized by the American Association for Nude Recreation (A.A.N.R.). Gordon was one of two dozen young people, ages...
...weekend's most non-violent confrontation is along the access road. The cops stop for a minute at the end of the storage area, long enough that people have time to sit down. You're sitting in a small circle, 20 people arms around each other, singing. "Kumbayah," and "This Land is Your Land," and if there ever was a clearer picture of whistling in the dark you haven't seen it, but it helps. Too soon, the cops are coming again, but you don't get up, you just sit there. They reach the edge of the circle...
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