Posted by long non-rant post on September 27, 2002 at 01:59:42:
In Reply to: Re: Now, that's sad... posted by what's so sad? on September 26, 2002 at 10:46:56:
I am very sorry for this being such a loooong post. It just ended up that way.
If you don’t want to get a lecture on politics and patriotic music then go ahead and skip this post. You will end up happier for it, I am sure. But if you disagree with the previous poster then read on, if for no other reason than to get a laugh at my expense.
Here we go...
While I am not what one would normally consider a "rabid" patriot, I would like to point out some things to you about the attitude evinced in your post. I hope that you will be open-minded to my post, as I have taken a good part of my evening to think it through, type it up carefully, and be as precise as possible. Please take the time to fully read and digest my words prior to responding to them. Thanks for your time regarding this thread. If anyone here feels compelled to flame me, well, so be it. While these are my opinions, they are all based on facts and experience.
I feel that your post was tossed out to the board without being fully considered; thoughtless. In it, you state:
It's good to see such agreement that the goal of a band is to propagandize on behalf of the gov't and military, to reinforce support for the military by playing marches and patriotic music.
In this country, you have many more rights than in any other nation either now or in recorded history. “Rights” are determined by us in this country through suffrage and other political action. A Republic is not a new idea; however, our version of it is fairly unique to us.
The “right” we all enjoy the most in this country is to determine what we want to do with ourselves as adults: Where will we live? Where will we work? What will we do on Friday night? Where will we go to church? Do we even want to go to church? Self-determination is what that right is called.
The Declaration of Independence proclaims that when some tyrant makes life horrible for us, then we should have the right to get rid of the bum and replace him (or the whole governmental system, if need be). King George, quite correctly in his role as our Monarch at the time, thought that this was a pretty bad idea. If he had just been better in his job, his family might still hold the throne instead of the Windsors, and we might still be “England West.” But I digress...
George was truly a tyrannical leader who thought that God had put all of us on Earth for his personal enrichment and entertainment. And since we were so far away, had so many guns, and had so many experienced veterans from the French and Indian War, we looked around and realized that we could take an active role in our collective future if we dared. We could agitate, politic, complain, or do whatever was needed in order to get George to listen to our needs. And, as good Subjects of the Crown we tried to do just that.
Of course, this failed to work, and we chose to rebel against the Crown’s authority. And after a number of terrible and costly years, the Crown gave up on us. We defeated his tool of authority, the source of his real power: his military machine.
By that action, we secured for our citizenry the one right that allows all others to follow. And that is the right to choose the means and rules by which we shall govern ourselves.
Our own Declaration of Independence even implies that if our chosen system of self-governance becomes so perverted as to resemble a dictatorship or monarchy that we have the responsibility to overthrow it and start from scratch. (Kinda cool...)
To be a patriot is simply to be in agreement with those reasons that caused us to rebel and establish self-rule. It has absolutely nothing to do with being a member of this Party or voting for that candidate. And it has little to do with the policies of whomever is in office in Washington DC at the moment.
For us to gain the opportunity to govern ourselves, it was required of us to label the British military as an unfriendly force of occupation. Then we had to get rid of it, doing so in a manner that ensured that it would probably stay gone in the end. This required the raising, equipping, and training of a local fighting force, as well as seeking political recognition of our legitimacy by a major foreign power. The accomplishment of the former, combined with mature political maneuvers by Franklin, helped to ensure the latter.
The point of having a military is that sometimes folks that run nations decide that they want whatever it is that you have, and that they are going to take it from you. In many of those cases, if they are bigger than you, then negotiating with them will in no way do you any good, save to forestall the inevitable invasion. (Google for “appeasement” and “blitzkrieg” to see what I am talking about.)
A military force is designed to defend the borders from invasion if you are a “good guy” or to invade and conquer if you are a “bad guy”. In addition, it is supposed to help keep things from getting out of hand in moments of national crisis. If it is loyal to the sitting rulers, it puts down rebellions, and if not, it assists in them.
In clearly defined conflicts, the correctness of volunteering your life “for the cause” is easy to see and buy into. Such was the case in WWII. Sometimes, however, the goal is not clear at all, such as in the Gulf, where many still debate the stated goals of the Administration versus the whole “blood for oil” thing. (PLEASE!! I am not voicing my opinion here, I am merely pointing out the fact that debate exists as to what our administration’s goals were...no flames on this one, okay?)
Serving in our military requires one to take an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States...” Again, we strive to support the ideas that form the underpinning of our chosen system of self-governance and not the individuals governing us at that moment. The SS were required to take an oath of allegiance to Hitler personally, and not to a group of ideas drawn up by the German People regarding their desired system of governance by their own consent.
(Please stay with me - I am slowly getting to my point.)
By our choosing to have a military that is led by one person (by law a civilian) while being funded by a large body of other persons (also civilians), we have ensured that no sitting President can form a personality cult powerful enough to become a dictator - because our military is loyal to the Constitution and not an individual!
So, our military, in upholding the idea of “rights” to which we felt entitled when we constituted our government, is actually upholding your right to criticize them. You have the legal right to call them baby killers or heros as you see fit. The military ensures that you can say what you want, work where you can find it, vote your conscience, harass your “lazy congressman” or just sit around on you ass bitching about how playing patriotic music is an evil thing and actually supports individuals in government that you might not like.
And many, many thousands have died over the last couple of centuries in order to ensure that you personally have those rights.
Have individuals in the past misused our military? Maybe. But that sword cuts both ways, you know. Vietnam and the Gulf are considered by many to be abuses of Presidential power. So are many of our humanitarian missions with United Nations forces.
Which side are you on? I do not care.
And me? None of your business.
If you don’t like the way things are: vote. If you are still not satisfied, then become involved in the process at a higher level. Your military will continue to support your right to bitch (and even your right to try to change things for the better, whatever your idea of “better” might be.
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THEREFORE (finally -whew!)
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You feel that too much emphasis has been placed on patriotic music of late; that “real” music has been done some sort of disservice by this practice. This opinion is clearly voiced in your ill-considered remark. (“It's good to see such agreement that the goal of a band is to propagandize on behalf of the gov't and military, to reinforce support for the military by playing marches and patriotic music.”) If you had meant to be literal in this, had really supported this opinion, then I doubt that you would have chosen to use the word “propagandize” in the way that you did. Obviously you are utilizing sarcasm and irony. (Wow, even I got that one...)
Do you not realize that our military employs (I am guessing, but probably low in this case) fifteen to twenty percent of our nations full-time woodwind, brass, and percussion performers? And the military is a pretty decent (albeit musically clueless) employer.
Patriotic music serves our desire to hear an expression of our belief in the ideals and rights that we hold dear. It pats veterans on the head and says “thank you” for the job they did in aiding the overall goal of ensuring your personal right to lionize them, demonize them, or maybe even join them. They do this fully aware that they are supporting your right to dislike them.
When playing my tuba with my Army Band, we were pelted with eggs and rocks several times by anti-nuclear/anti-military protesters in New York City. Why do that to a bunch of musicians? Why make me have to get a bunch of stitches? We were part of the effort to defend their very right to throw those damn rocks and eggs at us.
If they had really wanted to be effective, why not go to Albany or Washington to do that? Any fool knows that to be “heard” you have to raise some hell with the politicians in Washington. You don’t do it by hitting a tuba player in the mouth with a piece of granite.
If they really hated the military, then why didn’t they go throw their rocks and eggs at the headstones of Arlington National Cemetery?
And why don’t you (whoever you are) take a trip to Arlington National Cemetery and explain to the thousands of “permanent residents” how playing patriotic music is such a damn waste of time for a high school kid? Tell them how that is such a misuse of funds and time.
Sorry, but there are things far more important in life (or even in music at times) than Mahler symphonies, York copies, or high school Concert and Sightreading Contest. Try to be less myopic and notice that the patriotic “crap” that most of us (myself included) perform less-than-willingly at times means a great deal to the members of your audience.
As purveyors of music, it sometimes falls to us to perform stuff that we may personally consider to be a waste of our time and talent.
Too bad.
Sometimes (like now, while we continue to recover from the deaths of roughly 3,000 of our neighbors in three different states) patriotic music is just a needed thing, maybe needed a whole lot.
The spread of communism to Cuba, Korea and Vietnam demonstrated the all-too-real goal of the erstwhile Communist Party of the Soviet Union to bring about World Socialism. Remember World Socialism? That was where, as a musician, you played patriotic stuff (or whatever else you were directed to play) because you feared what might happen to you or your family if you refused. It was where the government directly controlled the media, and where you could hardly leave the country without risking your life. They told composers how to write, authors what to write. And they told millions how to think.
Our government tried to keep that type of repressive thinking from spreading out of control and from getting a foothold over here - those bits about the redistribution of wealth was a really great sham to recruit an army. In reality, all of the wealth was redistributed to the members of the Party elite.
Is our system any better? That is not my call to make. But we are still up and running, if you will notice.
Please try to remember this - all of that patriotic schlock you are so tired of, that military machine that you seem to revile: these things help to support your right to think that people who are happy to live here, people that enjoy hearing a group of high schoolers play Carmen Dragon are boorish, or dorks, or whatever it is that you think.
Patriotic music is not propaganda, per se. And having to play it (or conduct it) might get tedious for many of us, but it makes most lay people proud and happy when they hear it. Is that such a bad thing...really?
Of course, unlike some other countries, in ours you do have the right go live elsewhere (if you don’t mind losing some of your other rights when you leave.)
I hope that I was able to make my point without coming off as some sort of wacko or ass. And no offense was intended by me. I just felt that these were points that all musicians should ponder.
Wade