That on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Governor Brad Henry will sign an Executive Order naming "Do You Realize??" by the Flaming Lips the official Oklahoma Rock Song? Look here for the details, folks.
Keep on rockin', just about a week away from the opening!
1 comment:
Kudos to Governor Henry for approving the song anyway.
11,000 Oklahomans chose the song, and they should not have been punished because one perpetual adolescent (in this case, one of the band members) wore a symbol of horrific genocide and systemic destruction on his T-shirt as an ironically-hip fashion statement.
I’d also like to bring some clear-eyed rationality to the discussion.
I’m from Oklahoma, and I’d just ask a fairly simple question: Can we agree that it’s high time to stop treating communist symbols as cute? Can we knock it off with the “communism chic” schtick?
The hammer and sickle represents a boot stomping on collective humanity’s face. It represents Pitesti Prison, the disappearance of tank man in Tiananmen Square, the gulag archipelago, the torture of innocent Buddhist monks and nuns in Tibet, those summarily executed by Che Guevera in Cuba, the “Cultural Revolution” in China, the killing fields in Cambodia … and on and on and on.
Tens of millions of innocents died at the hand of dehumanizing communist regimes (interestingly, the 20th century’s decades of mayhem were predicted by the syphilitic Nietzsche, who wrote of “brotherhoods with the aim of the robbery and exploitation of the non-brothers” that would follow his vision of the future).
The hammer and sickle is a hateful symbol, and it should have stopped being "cool" to wear it around the time the KGB's formerly secret records detailing crimes against humanity started being released.
How do we think victims of communist regimes feel when they see this symbol?
Let’s have the moral courage to call this symbol what it is. It should be every bit as repulsive to Americans as as a Confederate flag … or a Nazi swastika.
That said, I’m glad the Lips’ song is the new official state rock song of Oklahoma! It’s a great song!
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