next to of course god america i
last night i squeezed into the savvis center with 22,000 others to watch the mizzou/illinois basketball game. what a sight it was. white former fratboys in all their post-college glory, cellphones and stacks of 24oz beer cups galore. screaming at coaches and players who could not hear them, spilling half of their 7th beer while bellowing. eddie bauer hipsters in black leather jackets (did a “everybody in black leather” commercial come out recently?), some with their tommy boy crews and some with their trophy gfriends or maybe even wives. and beads - and should anyone be allowed to wear beads except on the actual mardi gras day? i think not.
at one point, the announcer introduced 3 distinguished guests - john ashcroft, jim talent and kit bond. what’s was funny is there was a mixed reaction of a little applause and low rumbling of dissent. bond looked like he needed another cocktail, which apparently he is want to do. talent looked about as out of place as if the “queer eye” guys where there themselves. he was probably wondering when the 3rd period began…
a decent game too. mizzou almost came back from being down 21 points. maybe if mizzou had a coach, er i mean one who actually coached, they might have won. but quinn seems to prefer to let them run wild and watching illinois who has a “coach” and played as a team win didn’t seem so bad…
“next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims’ and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn’s early my
country ’tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?”
He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water”
– ee cummings