Unit 6 Flagfever.docx

1、Unit 6 FlagfeverUnit 6 Text A Flag-Fever: the Paradox of PatriotismBy Blaine HardenThis passage is taken from the New York Times by Blaine Harden. It reveals the true nature of the patriotism in the U.S.A after September 18 terrorist attack.Understanding text organizationRead the passage through and

2、 then decide where the following sentences should goa) “Yet, from the moment suicide tourists steered airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the invidious paradox of American patriotism came back into play.”b) “the country is suddenly thick with self-appointed censors.”c) “In 1918,

3、a Montana court sentenced E.V. Starr to 20 years in prison for refusing to kiss a flag.”d) A contentious and still unresolved struggle over what the flag should symbolize has been going on since at least 1863, when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.e) “Patriotism seems particula

4、rly potent and purely felt among the tens of millions of Americans who came of age after the 1960s and early 70s.”Extracting main ideasRead the passage again and then choose the best summary.a) Intense nervous excitement in waving flagsb) The national experience in the event of September 11c) Contra

5、dictory national loyaltyUNTIL it was uncorked by acts of war on Sept. 11, generations of Americans had never found a compelling reason to take a stiff drink of patriotism or take comfort in its unifying high.5With an ennobling wallop, patriotism has since inspired a deeply felt and classless sense o

6、f community. Charitable gifts have skyrocketed, as have sales of flags and stocks of donated blood. Firemen and police officers, who define themselves by sacrifice and service rather than by status and stock options, have become objects of mass adulation. According to some reports, irony has died.10

7、New York City, the erstwhile epicenter of selfishness and sin, has been judged in its time of trial and found good by more than 8 out of 10 Americans. Perhaps boundaries were melting between the Red Zone, the conservative heartland that voted for the Republican president, and the Blue Zone, where co

8、astal liberals had clung to doubts about President Bushs work ethic, his judgment and his intelligence.3530252015(1)_. Constitutional rights which supposedly form the core of patriotisms appeal, suddenly lost ground to fear. As it has during every major military conflict since World War I, a nationa

9、list undertow that is culturally conformist, ethnically exclusive and belligerently militaristic began to silence dissent, spread fear among immigrants and lock up people without explanation.The White House press secretary. Ari Fleischer, warned reporters that in times like these people have to watc

10、h what they say and watch what they do. In lock step with times like these, loose lips have been slapped shut. As an Oregon columnist, a University of New Mexico professor and a late-night talk show host all discovered last week, 2_ They are firing, disciplining and pulling advertising from those wh

11、ose commentary or jokes sound insufficiently loyal.Patriotisms extraordinary power to expand and constrain the American spirit is hardly new. But it seems novel now because so many people, including many among that huge bulge of the population that came of age during and after the Vietnam War, have

12、never lived it themselves.A heartfelt and reinvigorating love of country has not been universally experienced in the United States since the Kennedy assassination, said Gary Gerstle, a professor of history at the University of Maryland and author of “American Crucible; Race and Nation in the Twentie

13、th Century” (Princeton University Press, 2001).” After the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam, there was a sustained cultural crisis,” he said “Many Americans did not waver, but a lot did. They asked, Who are we? Are we good? What is emerging now is something completely different. Its a br

14、oadly based consensus on the value of America.”3_ Unlike many of their parents, they can wave the flag without the mixed feelings of a generation that did its darndest to dodge military service in an unpopular war and, in more than a few cases, burned flags rather than waved them. Unburdened by such

15、 memoriesthe wars of the 90s were all too short and decisive to stir such passionsAmericans under 40 suddenly have a chance to reimagine themselves, to participate selflessly in a world-rousing conflict that might define them as something other than Generation X, Y or Z.For all its ennobling kick, h

16、istorians agree that patriotism has almost always been at odds with itself. It reinforces a sense of community by erecting strong walls to comfort those on the inside. But outside those exclusive walls, it has a history of denying equal protection under the law and making life seem scary.65605550454

17、0The flag, as much as any symbol, embodies the paradox. As surprisingly reassuring as it has been to many baby boomers who had never before viewed themselves as flag_ wavers, it has been unnerving for Arab-Americans and other immigrant groups, like Sikhs.” I see flags everywhere, yet my first instin

18、ct is apprehension,” said Nabeel Abraham, an American-born anthropologist of Palestinian descent who is a co-author of “Arab Detroit” (Wayne State University Press, 2000), and examination of the countrys oldest and largest Arab-American community. He said most Arab-Americans and many Asians who coul

19、d be mistaken for Arabs are staying home as much as possible and keeping quiet.” We dont know what to expect,” he said. “We expect the worst.”For other Americans, not just those whose ethnicity make them feel coerced by patriotism, the proliferation of flags and “God Bless America” signage can seem

20、a bit too simplistic, a feel-good distraction from trying to understand a monstrously precise act of simultaneous suicide.4_ Since then, according to Cecilia Elizabeth OLeary, a history professor at California State University in Monterey Bay, there have been Americans who define the flag as primari

21、ly a symbol of equal rights and social justice under the law. It was not until World War I, she said, when federal and state governments joined forces with right-wing organizations and vigilantes, that the flags egalitarian resonance was drowned out by jingoism.5_ As Professor OLeary noted in “To Di

22、e For: The Paradox of American Patriotism” (Princeton University Press, 1999), an appeals judge reluctantly decided he could not reverse the sentence. But he did condemn the way that patriotism, with the approval of government authorities, had devolved into a kind of “fanaticism.”Since then, the str

23、ength of exclusionary patriotism has waxed and waned, usually as a corollary of fear, with abuses most widespread when the federal government plays a supporting role. In the frenzy that followed World War I, the Palmer raids, led by an attorney general whose house had been bombed, included the deten

24、tion, beatings and deportations of thousands of people, most of them immigrants. Each successive war featured its own shameful excess. World War II had the internment of 110,000 Japanese, the Korean War coincided with McCarthyism, and during the Vietnam conflict the F.B.I. infiltrated antiwar groups

25、.100959085807570Less than three weeks into Americas latest flush of flag-waving fervor, its too early to know if patriotisms undertow will cause systemic abuses of civil liberties. The signals, so far, are mixed.The Bush administrations request for authority to detain suspected terrorists indefinite

26、ly has run into opposition from senior Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Even harsh critics of the administration, like Michael Maggio, an immigration expert, say the White House seems to be able to sense when it has gone too far.“I have been impressed by the administrations willingness to back

27、 away from some of its most outlandish proposals,” he said, referring to an earlier plan, now discarded, to deport foreign-born legal residents suspected of terrorist involvement.Perhaps most reassuring, for Americans who thirst for a brand of patriotism that elevates their spirits and protects mino

28、rities, are President Bushs repeated calls for ethnic and religious tolerance, along with his highly publicized meetings with Arab, Muslim and Sikh leaders.“As long as this continues, it bodes well for inclusion and tolerance,” said Professor Gerstle, at the University of Maryland.” But this is a ve

29、ry fluid moment. What happens if another airliner hits a building? Many people are going to be out for revenge if American boys get killed.”The worst abuses against immigrant Americans occurred not at the beginning of World War I, but at the end, when the federal government lost touch with Constitut

30、ional protections and briefly joined forces with the mob.105President Bush and his senior advisers have warned Americans to expect a war that is long, murky and unsatisfying. As months stretch into years, it is likely to be a conflict that periodically screams for the clarifying blood of a scapegoat

31、. If the president is going to continue to insist on an inclusive kind of patriotism, home-front defense of tolerance could prove as formidable as the war itself.Notes to the text1. The civil rights movement: The basis for civil rights in the US is the Constitution and its first 10 amendments, the B

32、ILL OF RIGHT. This deals, for example, with freedom of speech, press, religion and assembly, freedom from unreasonable seizure and searches, right to a speedy public trial; and prohibition of double jeopardy and self-incrimination.2. Palmer raids After World War One and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, fear of communism was escalating in America. Everybody seemed to fear the so-called “Red Menace”, a term introduced by Edgar J. Hoo